Criminal Justice Administration Q&A
High Desert State Prison (HDSP),
475-750 Rice Canyon Rd., Susanville, CA 96127
1. A. Who (name and title- often Director or Warden) is the C.E.O.?
B. Is he/she elected or appointed? If appointed, by who and for how long?
If elected, how long is the term?
1. A. Warden M. Eliot Spearman is the C.E.O. of the HDSP.
B. He was appointed by the Governor in January 2016 for a three-year term (CDCR, 2017a).
2. A. Discuss the main function/responsibility of the correctional department or facility?
B. Describe the population’s “classifications” of the inmates. Hint: Is it pre-sentence, post-sentence, or both? Male, Female, Juvenile or a combination, if so list percentages.
C. Describe and discuss the security classifications (maximum, medium minimum, etc).
2. A. The main functions of the correctional facility are deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation and retribution of inmates (Stop the Crime, 2009).
B. The facility is a post-sentence prison with a male population which houses mostly level IV inmates (SB601 Statistical Report, 2017).
C. HDSP is a maximum security correctional facility.
3. What is the Mission Statement?
3. “High Desert State Prison protects the public by providing humane and safe supervision of offenders. We give offenders quality health care through meaningful encounters with licensed medical, dental, and mental health professionals, and aspire to improve patient satisfaction. We offer our offender’s tools to effect a change of culture, and inspire them to self-rehabilitate by facilitating educational opportunities, re-entry services, recreational activities, and leisure time activity group programs to reduce recidivism” (CDCR, 2017a).
4. What is correctional accreditation?
4. Correctional accreditation is provided by American Correctional Association (ACA) in order to improve operations of facilities through adherence to clear standards in the areas of security, safety, inmate care, order, justice, programs, and administration (ACA, 2017).
5. B. Is the agency accredited? If yes, what is the title of the accreditation and since when?
5. HDSP received the ACA accreditation in 2013, with the rate of compliance evaluated as 99 percent (Correctional News, 2013).
6. List the number (how many) of sworn personnel and the number of civilian personnel.
6. HDSP employs approximately 1,200 persons, nearly 750 of them are sworn personnel and others are civilian (SB601 Statistical Report, 2017; Association of State Correctional Administrators, 2016).
7. A. Staff Personnel Diversity - What percent of the personnel in the agency are minorities, give breakdown, if it’s readily available (website)?
B. Inmate Population Diversity - Advise on the inmate populations (percentage or actual numbers) information: Male/Female, Adult/Juvenile, Race, and Ethnicity.
7. A. Staff Personnel Diversity – Only nearly 24 percent of HDSP employees are minorities (Ortiz, 2015).
B. Inmate Population Diversity – On December 2016 HDSP housed 3,712 inmates, and all of them were adult males (SB601 Statistical Report, 2017). Hispanics constitute 40.3 percent of the population, Blacks – 29 percent, and White inmates constitute 24.5 percent (CDCR, 2010).
8. Inmate housing classification. How are they segregated: Is it by offense type, age, sex, and medical, all of the aforementioned? Explain.
8. …
