In this assignment, the criminal justice agency that I have chosen to discuss is that of Louis Deberry Special Needs Facility where I was employed at for nine years, up until I left in March of this year. I am a current volunteer at the prison in the training and education department. The prisons command of the staff is built on a paramilitary structure that is hierarchical from bottle level staff working its way up to the administration top level of the structure with the warden at the top. This paramilitary structure is one that can be found in almost every United States law enforcement department that requires the absolute obedience of those that are in the low ranks of the structure (Hill & Beger, 2009).
As a person that has worked at this prison, and under this paramilitary, I have seen the advantages and disadvantages of this system of command that operates this prison. The advantage of the paramilitary structure in the prison setting is that it attempts to ensure that the directives of the top level of the organization are put into place and followed by all members of the team (Cronkhite, 2013). The disadvantage of the paramilitary structure is that the bottom of the structure ability and job effectiveness is based on capacity and effectiveness of
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We see that with the large number of law enforcement departments across the United States unitizing the same paramilitary structure that there is little ability for those that are in the lower brackets of the structure to make changes or even at time use their own judgements when challenging events take place (Hill & Beger, 2009). There is a requirement for the upper levels of these brackets to be fair, ethical, and educated to make the correct judgment calls for those that are in the lower brackets of the