Prison is a place where a convict is physically confined and denied fundamental freedoms they are entitled to.
In USA, there are national, federal prisons and the state owned, state prisons (Diiulio, J.J., 2002). While state prisons host dangerous criminals like rapist and murders, the federal prisons house those convicted of violating federal laws: large scale drug peddlers and robbers of federal chattered banks.
Whereas the federal prisons are categorized into minimum; low; close; high; maximum and super max security levels, the state prisons are only categorized into minimum; maximum and medium levels.
Both the state prisons use security level classification system in which the prisoners are vetted at the reception centers to determine the next step to take. It’s at this stage where they get their security classifications that determine the type of prison they will be transferred to depending on their history and security concerns. However, the federal prisons which don’t have state owned reception centers (Diiulio, J.J., 2002).
In the prisons, these inmates are further classified based on the feedback got from the psychological and educational tests given at the reception. This is done in both the federal and state prisons.
However, it’s only at the state prisons where the objective classification is conducted. This is done by retrieving the history of the offender, their family and the level of education attained.
Actually, classification is very important in the following ways:
i) Helps to predict the possibility of violence in the prisons
ii) Helps to ascertain the chances of escaping from the prison
iii) Determines what level and type of prison one is to be transferred to
iv) It gives important information on what type of job assignments and corrective programs a prisoner should be enlisted for.
Work cited
Diiulio, J.J. (2002) Governing Prisons: A Comparative Study of Correctional Management, Simon and Schuster,
