Carroll Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility welcomed three auditors to their facility on Nov. 3 from the American Correctional Association.
The site visit began the reaccreditation process that they undergo every three years.
Norma Gillom of Arkansas thanked the staff and administration for their efftorts.
“I looked at administration and programs. The administration from the day the audit was assigned have been 100% cooperative with us. Anything we asked – we got. Anything they anticipated that we wanted – we got it. Cooperation and hospitality was way up there – You don’t get that everywhere. Kindness – you don’t get that every place, but it was here. Nobody ever said, ‘that’s not my job or I don’t know how to do that,” said Gillom. “There’s not a person on this staff that I believe (after this audit) would not be able to work in an emergency situation any place in this building. That’s good administration. What you said you did was proven by your files.”
Gillom was joined by Chairperson Amy Fairbanks of Michigan and Anita Carnell of Oxford.
According to their website, www.aca.org, the Standards and Accreditation Department is dedicated to the field of corrections. The standards created and refined by the American Correctional Association represent fundamental correctional practices that ensure staff and inmate safety and security, enhance staff morale, improve record maintenance and data management capabilities, assist in protecting the agency against litigation, and improve the function of the facility or agency at all levels.
At the close of the three-day audit, Warden Brandon Smith, Sheriff Clint Walker, and CMRCF staff welcomed MDOC officials, Ron King, Director of Regionals; JoAnn Shivers, Assistant Director of Regionals; Vivian Frazer, Compliance Monitor, and Trendia Hudson, Compliance Monitor to a meeting to receive the results of the audit.
Fairbanks, explained some of the audit process to the crowd and said that the facility met 54 mandatory standards with 100 percent compliance, and also 424 non-mandatory standards with 100 percent compliance.
“This is my first Mississippi audit. I have been auditing since 2005 outside my state,” said Fairbanks. “ I’m amazed it took me this long to get here and I’m ecstatic that I got to come to this place.”
“I could watch and see how well you guys communicated with each other and take care of business.”
In January, Warden Smith will travel to Orlando Florida to stand before a four-person panel to answer questions in order to finalize the multi-process re-accreditation.
