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    Where Are the Keepers?: Incentive Program That Addressed the Highest Absentee Rate of Any Municipal Agency in New York
    Where Are the Keepers?: Incentive Program That Addressed the Highest Absentee Rate of Any Municipal Agency in New York
    Where Are the Keepers?: Incentive Program That Addressed the Highest Absentee Rate of Any Municipal Agency in New York
    Ebook126 pages1 hour

    Where Are the Keepers?: Incentive Program That Addressed the Highest Absentee Rate of Any Municipal Agency in New York

    By D. P. Lyons

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    This is a management project (change project) in response to local New York City newspapers who reported in 1987, that the New York City Department of Correction had the highest absentee rate of any municipal agency. This resulted in the highest overtime budget. The change project assisted in saving New York City millions of dollars annually in the reduction of staff overtime, increasing staff morale and promoting unity and team work.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateJun 22, 2011
    ISBN9781456763145
    Where Are the Keepers?: Incentive Program That Addressed the Highest Absentee Rate of Any Municipal Agency in New York
    Author

    D. P. Lyons

    D. P. Lyons is a retired warden having worked in large detention centers and state prisons. He retired from the New York City, Department of Correction at Rikers Island in 1993. After retirement, he served as warden of the US Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Center (Wackenhut Corrections Corporation) in Aurora, Colorado, consultant to the Minister of Justice, Antilles, the Netherlands, and warden of the Eddy County Adult and Juvenile Detention Centers in Carlsbad, New Mexico. After his second retirement from correctional management, he served as adjunct professor of criminal justice, Rust College, Holly Springs, Mississippi, specializing in criminal investigations and management of correctional institutions. Lyons has undergraduate degrees in business administration and correction administration from the City University of New York and a master of human services degree from Lincoln University, Oxford, Pennsylvania. Lyons also served as principal instructor administrative investigations, correctional supervision and management at the New York City Correction Academy. He coauthored the New York City Department of Correction’s first facility internal investigations training manual. The author is published by the American Correctional Association (ACA) on facility internal investigations and formerly served as a reviewer of new manuscripts for publication by the ACA and the International Association of Correctional Officers on correctional operations. The author’s first book, published in 2011, entitled Where Are the Keepers, was an investigation into a major New York newspaper report that the NYC Department of Correction had the highest financial expenditure on employee overtime than any other city agency. The investigation resulted in implementation strategies designed by Lyons to assist in the reduction of employee absenteeism and resultant overtime expenditures by ten million dollars in one fiscal year. Lyons has served as special guest lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York, in the criminal investigation course for New York City Transit Police Detectives. He also served as special guest lecturer on correctional operations at the New Mexico State University at Carlsbad. The author has approximately thirty years of experience conducting and reviewing supervisory internal investigations.

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      Book preview

      Where Are the Keepers? - D. P. Lyons

      Contents

      Chapter I. The Problem & Its History

      Description of Study’s Target Population

      History of the Problem

      A Perceived Need

      Chapter II. Review of the Literature

      General Field of Study

      Specific Problem Area

      Case Illustration of Model

      Chapter III. Needs Assessment and Program Planning

      Methodology

      Findings

      Analysis And Interpretation

      Program Options and Recommendations

      Chapter IV. Project Planning and Implementation

      Implementation Plan Summary

      Action Plan and Description of the Project

      Chapter V. Program Evaluation

      Evaluation Questions

      Methodology

      Findings

      Interpretation of Findings

      Chapter VI. Values and Ethics of the Program

      Chapter VII. Self and Others Perspective

      Chapter VIII. Strategic Systems Analysis

      Chapter IX. Summary, Conclusions & Recommendations

      Although the study was conducted in 1987, I was encouraged to write this book by wardens, superintendents, and academicians. Wardens and superintendents have asked this writer over the years to share the results of the study with them so that they can decrease absenteeism and overtime budgets during contemporary austere times. They also report that they are being faced with the same problems in year 2011 that the New York City, Department of Correction faced in 1986 and they believe that this book offers solution by similarity. The author intentionally went all the way back to the 1940s to then present time to compare and contrast strategies to reduce and/or eliminate excess absence. I found that the adage, there is nothing new under the sun to be true when it comes to employee absenteeism.

      Acknowledgements

      I am grateful to those who lent me their patience when my own was dangerously low. Because they all stood by me no matter what, I wish to openly acknowledge:

      To My Wife, Elena Lyons, the most beautiful women in the universe, her support and rich insights stretched and stimulated my intellect.

      Doctors Nancy Bancroft, Linda Stine, Mapule Ramashala, James Maxey III, and John Thomas (Lincoln University Masters Program of Human Services) whose standards of academic excellence served as an inspirational beacon. It was truly an honor to be a student under their guidance.

      To William Cogdell, deputy warden outstanding administrator. The work may not have been completed without his support and encouragement.

      Clayton Jemmot, deputy warden and my consultant on the book’s pilot program, Marron Hopkins, warden of the New York City House of Detention for Men. They lent technical support in personnel administration, provided access to necessary data, and provided authorization through the office of the chief of operations and the commissioner.

      The New York City Department of Correction deserves a special thanks for authorization to pursue the project and working towards decreasing job dissatisfaction, rewarding employees with good and/or perfect attendance and motivating staff to attend work.

      Jess Maghan, Ph.D., Deputy Commissioner, for answering my S.O.S. with inspiration, information and encouragement.

      Definition of Key Terms

      State Sentenced Institutions:

      State-run institutions such as state prisons, work camps, and so on where convicted offenders are sent to serve time as sentenced by the courts.

      Sample Population:

      The selection of a group of individuals from the total population to be studied also referred to as a probability sample.

      Custodial Convenience:

      Agency jargon for the proposition that rank and file employees in correctional institutions may only make minimal effort in the performance of their duties under conditions of involuntary overtime and low morale.

      Fixed-Alternative:

      In a questionnaire or in an interview, a question in which the responses are limited to given alternatives.

      Open-ended:

      In a questionnaire or interview, a type of question that does not limit the respondent’s responses to any pre-selected alternative.

      Central Punitive Segregation:

      In the New York City Department of Correction, an area within the New York City House of Detention for Men where offenders sentenced to 30 days or more for infractions of detention center rules are confined after a disciplinary and classification hearing and possible appeal. They are denied various privileges that they would have received in the general inmate population. The offenders are locked in their cells 23 hours per day, seven days per week.

      Punitive Segregation:

      Area where offenders sentenced to less than 30 days for infractions of rules are confined and denied various privileges. They are locked in cells 23 hours per day, seven days a week. Punitive segregation differs from central punitive segregation in that the environment in central punitive segregation requires extremely close supervision by staff due to the nature of the various offenses, for example, escape risks, extremely violent offenders, offenders charged with the murder of law enforcement officers, and so on.

      Chapter I

      The Problem & Its History

      The Pen, as the New York City, House of Detention for Men (HDM) is called by staff and offenders (clients), is located on Rikers Island in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York. The HDM was built in 1933, the oldest correctional complex in the department of correction contains eight housing units (cell blocks) numbered one through eight. The cell block contains 240 individual cells which consist of twelve sections of 20 cells arranged in a series of rows placed one above another called tiers.

      As a detention facility (city jail), the HDM incarcerates pretrial detainees (accused defendants awaiting trial) and convicted offenders (serving short sentences usually one year or less). HDM has a maximum detention capacity of 2,000 offenders; however, federal guidelines prohibit the detention of no more than 1200 in the facility. In addition to protecting society, HDM delivers essential services to offenders as resident consumers of services including but not limited to housing, food, medical, mental health, legal and education. Courts mandate that offenders be kept safe, delivered to courts when designated, detained for transport to state prisons and/or confined for short durations.

      Though HDM, an agency within the department of correction, had an unusually high absence rate in 1986, it was, nonetheless, about average for the department as a whole.

      Description of Study’s Target Population

      An ethnic mixture (African-Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians) of male and female HDM correction officers comprised the target population for a study on the environment and causes of excessive absenteeism. The 300 officers in the group had one to 15 years of agency service and lived in the boroughs of New York City, Up-State New York and Long Island.

      History of the Problem

      Melia (1986), a staff writer of the New York City Daily News reported that the New York City, Department of Correction had the highest absence rate of any municipal agency. The Chief: Civil Service Leader, (August 1986) a biweekly newspaper of N.Y.C. civil service, reported as follows:

      Low morale, has contributed to the

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