Facility Spotlight – “Leavenworth”
on Oct 28, 2009Wow, has really been this long since my last blog entry?!  I guess that's what happens when you turn a year older and Altoona sees a few inches of snow in early October. Anyways, I'm back with another "Facility Spotlight" segment. This time, I m...

It's What's For Dinner
on Sep 16, 2009In my ongoing quest to bring the good news of self sufficiency, I found an article the other day about 1,150 acre farm in Tulare County, California that is able to feed all 1,700 inmates housed in the county. According to the article, over 3,500 pou...

A Sobering Reality
on Aug 17, 2009Earlier this month, on the night of August 9th, the Reception Center West at the California Institution for Men in Chino, CA erupted into chaos and mayhem. Reports estimate a total of nearly 250 injured prisoners with 55 requiring hospitalization. Fo...

Can you really do more with less? Or even the same with less?
on Aug 3, 2009It's the time of the year again where two sides square off and theatrically dance around until both sides come to agreement.  No, it's not a revival of "West Side Story", it's the arrival of the budgetary blues.  Yep, your elected represent...

A Cell in a Cell
on Jul 17, 2009Over the past few years, cellular phones have slowly been finding their way into prisons and jails. In hindsight, we all should have seen this coming. Inmate telephone technology is better each day and more conversations are being recorded and archi...

Big Screen Heroes
on Jul 13, 2009    It seems that Hollywood brushes a large stroke over its portrayal of law enforcement on TV and in movies. We've all seen the whole range of characters- from the archetypical "stand tall and don't take crap from no one" character to the...

Facility Spotlight - “The Alcatraz of the Rockies”
on Jun 26, 2009Every industry has its own "famous" quirks. For example, architects have their Guggenheim and Fallingwater; doctors have their Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinics. The corrections industry has its own famous facilities. On occasion (read: when I can't th...

Unique Products for a Unique Job
on Jun 18, 2009They say that no two snowflakes are alike and the same can be said about correctional facilities.  As a result, many of the products geared to corrections vary widely.  If you have ever been to a conference or training event and seen the ve...

Life Skills for Inmates
on Jun 16, 2009When a thoroughbred horse is retired from racing, they're typically put "out to stud". (I think we can skip the details here.) Unfortunately racehorses, like their human counterparts, are prone to injuries.  This usually means that the horse fi...

User Group - The Sum of All Solutions
on Jun 12, 2009Imagine if you will (cue fuzzy vertical lines from a sappy 90's sitcom)...you walk into Big Box Retailer (BBR) wanting to buy a computer for your home. The pimple-faced teenager who's been helping you explains all the widgets and whizbangs of the Spa...