ACA Accreditation Awarded

Commissioner : Gregory C. Dozier

Director of Public Affairs : Joan Heath

First Facilities to Obtain Designation

FORSYTH, Ga. – Commissioner Gregory C. Dozier announced the official accreditation designation of two   Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) facilities by the American Correctional Association (ACA).  Leadership of Emanuel Women’s Facility (WF) and Montgomery State Prison (SP) presented before the accreditation panel at the 2018 ACA Summer Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota last week, where the designation was announced.

After two mock audits conducted at each of the two facilities in May, Emanuel WF was granted initial accreditation with a score of 98 percent and Montgomery SP was granted initial accreditation with a score of 98.5 percent. Each facility was evaluated on 525 standards in the Fourth Edition of the Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions.

“We are proud of the hard work and dedication displayed by the staff at these facilities, as they have helped to set the standard for other facilities to follow as we move forward with the accreditation process,” said Commissioner Dozier.

The accreditation process provides the opportunity to evaluate operations against national standards, remedy deficiencies, and upgrade the quality of correctional programs and services. The recognized benefits include improved management, a defense against lawsuits through documentation and the demonstration of a “good faith” effort to improve conditions of confinement, increased accountability and enhanced public credibility for administrative and line staff, a safer and more humane environment for personnel and offenders, and the establishment of measurable criteria for upgrading programs and personnel on a continual basis.

As part of the initial accreditation for the Central Office and the Central Training Academy of the GDC obtained in January of this year, Emanuel Women’s Facility and Montgomery SP were the first to apply for facility accreditation. They will be audited every three years going forward, to ensure consistency of standards. The goal of the GDC is to complete the accreditation for all state prisons by July 1, 2020, and ultimately obtain accreditation for all facilities operated by the GDC.

About the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC)

The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) has one of the largest prison systems in the U.S. and is responsible for supervising nearly 52,000 state prisoners. It is the largest law enforcement agency in the state with approximately 10,500 employees. For more information on the GDC, call 478-992-5247 or visit https://gdc.georgia.gov.