Corrections is a fast-growing field which requires, and will continue to require, staff to fill entry-level and management positions. As society continues to call for longer and stricter sentences for offenders. IDOC will continue to have the need to staff its facilities with well-trained staff. In addition to staff or IDOC correctional facilities, probation and parole officers will be needed to deal with convicted offenders. In order to advance from lower paying entry-level positions (e.g., clerical staff and custody officers) to middle-management positions, college coursework or degrees are often required by state-mandated minimum job qualifications. Because prisons are, by necessity, 24-hour per day, seven-day per week operations, staff are often constrained from taking available "on-site" college offerings. Use of videotaped presentations would enable staff at correctional facilities to "attend class" (i.e., view tapes) at times that would comport with their unusual work schedules. The amount requested from the IHETS Course Development Grant Program is $6250.00.
3. Narrative
Corrections is a fast-growing field which requires, and will continue to require, staff to fill entry-level and management positions.
Presently, the Indiana Department of Correction ("IDOC") employs staff of 7,708 and houses 16,946 offenders in 24 adult and 9 juvenile facilities. The IDOC is currently constructing a 2,000 bed medium-security facility in Peru County and a male juvenile facility in Madison County. The IDOC is seeking funding for two more medium-security facilities to keep up with projected offender populations. IDOC has over 1,400 offenders committed by courts to the Department for whom no beds are presently available.
While overall adult crime statistics appear to be leveling off, the number of juvenile offenses (especially those involving violence) is on the rise. As society continues to call for longer and stricter sentences for offenders, IDOC will continue to have the need to staff its facilities with well-trained staff. In addition to staff for IDOC correctional facilities, probation and parole officers will be needed to deal with convicted offenders.
In order to advance from lower paying entry-level positions (e.g., clerical staff and custody officers) to middle-management positions, college coursework or degrees are often required by state-mandated minimum job qualifications. (See attached list of such positions). Even in positions where state qualifications do not require college coursework or degrees, competition for such positions often means that those with advanced education will "get the nod" in hiring decisions by facility Superintendents.
Because prisons are, by necessity, 24-hour per day, seven-day per week operations, staff are often constrained from taking available "on-site" college offerings. Staff working 3:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. shifts and those working 11:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. shifts find times of offerings to not be convenient. Adding to the problem of access to college courses is that custody staff generally work a six days on, two days off schedule, meaning that "weekends" for staff occur during weekdays more often than not. Inasmuch as classes are scheduled through the week, staff may be required to travel to the worksite on their two days off in order to attend class.
Use of videotaped presentation of class sessions would enable staff at correctional facilities to "attend class" (i.e., view tapes) at times that would comport with their unusual work schedules. This increased access to college courses would be expected to make it more likely that staff would avail themselves of this sort of a flexible arrangement as opposed to the more traditional extension courses with fixed days and times.
Areas with which students are expected to familiarize themselves with in order to successfully complete "Legal Trends in Corrections" are as follows:
1) Overview of the U.S. Court System
2) Types of Lawsuits Inmates File
3) How inmates Obtain Access to the Courts
4) How Courts Balance Inmate Rights vs. Institutional Interests
5) 14th Amendment -- Due Process and Equal Protection
6) Ist Amendment -- Religion, Mail, Publications, Visiting, and Expression
7) 4th Amendment -- Searches and Seizures
8) 8th Amendment -- Cruel and Unusual Punishment
9) Inmate Suicide and Liability
10) Use of Force
11) Correctional Employees and Litigation: How a Lawsuit Works
12) Correctional Officers" Rights
13) AIDS, Medical Treatment and Liability Issues
14) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Its Impact on Corrections
Obviously, given the nature of the subject matter for this course, students will be expected to read a variety of assigned materials in preparation for viewing videotaped presentations on a given subject. Videotaped presentations would include a minimal traditional lecture format. Most of the presentations would involve interviews with corrections and legal professionals such as federal and state court judges, attorneys familiar with correctional/legal issues. IDOC Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners and IDOC Division Directors. IDOC Divisions that would be relevant to class subject matters would include those dealing with religious services, medical services, educational services, emergency response operations, and facility managers. The participation of these corrections and legal professionals in interview formats with the instructor, panel discussions involving issues to be covered in the course, and the like would allow students to compare the information they obtained through the assigned reading with the information contained on the videotaped presentations emphasizing the "real world" experience of professionals in the field.
The University will also seek that local and federal courts allow unobtrusive videotaping of court proceedings involving offender litigation. This videotaping could be accomplished through live (albeit unobtrusive) taping proceedings and/or through videotaping of proceedings held via video conferencing capability presently available in an IDOC pilot project.
Student feedback would be obtained through papers written after viewing videotape presentations (papers would vary in length anywhere from one page to 500 words), quizzes and tests requiring students to synthesize material from the assigned reading and material obtained through viewing videotaped presentations.
Formative evaluation of this course will utilize student feedback provided while the course is on-going and a formal "student evaluation of instruction" provided to all students at the conclusion of the course. The student evaluation of instruction will consist of specific questions concerning delivery method, interaction activities, course content, and student attitudes; as well as the opportunity for student comments.
The Corrections Program at Vincennes University already has articulation agreements in place with Indiana State University and Ball State University. We would be agreeable to offering this course for peer review.
Project Schedule
Instructional design/scripting of this project would begin during the Spring ‘98 semester with video taping occurring the summer. Post production would begin during the summer and probably continue into the Fall ‘98 semester with first offering Spring semester ‘99.
Key Course Development Personnel:
The lead instructor for Legal Trends in Corrections will be Lee J. Hoefling. Assistance in instructional design and video producer will Thomas A. Young, Coordinator-Distance Education.
Lee J. Hoefling has taught the Vincennes University course entitled "Legal Trends in Corrections" for the past four years as an adjunct Instructor in the Corrections Department.
Hoefling is a 1976 graduate of Indiana University at Bloomington, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Political Science. He is also a graduate of the University of Louisville, having graduated with a Juris Doctor degree in 1979.
He has served as the Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility near Carlisle, Indiana since 1992. Wabash Valley, Indiana’s newest and most state-of-the-art correctional facility houses 2,200 offenders in four separate security levels and employs staff of 900. His principal duties involve dealing with the 200-300 civil rights lawsuits pending at any given time which are filed by offenders at the facility against the staff. Hoefling works in conjunction with the Office of the Indiana Attorney General in providing a defense to staff involved in such litigation. he also represents the facility in administrative proceedings before state and federal agencies.
Prior to his employment with the IDOC, Hoefling served as Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Know County, and prior to that, as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Daviess County. While in Daviess County, he also maintained a private law practice, representing a variety of clients in judicial and administrative proceedings.
In addition to his experience teaching "Legal Trends in Corrections," Hoefling has served as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Indiana State University in the Criminology Department. He has also taught "Introduction to Corrections," "Juvenile Delinquency," "Report Writing" and "Probation and Parole" for Vincennes University.
He has served the Staff Development Division of the IDOC as an Instructor in courses entitled "The adult Disciplinary Policy," "Video conference Hearings Before Indiana Courts," "Staff Civil and Criminal Liability," "Code of Conduct for Departmental Staff," "Affirmative Action" and "Americans with Disabilities Act."
