(BOP) - The Bureau of Prisons is the third correctional system to earn the prestigious Lucy Webb Hayes Award given by the American Correctional Association (ACA) for agency-wide compliance with ACA accreditation standards and federal Prison Rape Elimination Act standards.
The ACA national accreditation process seeks to ensure a correctional environment that safeguards the life, health, and safety of the public, staff and offenders while at the same time providing the necessary education, work, religious, and rehabilitative opportunities that enable an offender to prepare for successful reintegration into the community. Assessments were performed in a range of areas including administration and management, institutional operations, staff training, medical services, programs and other services.
The Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Mark S. Inch, accepted the award on behalf of the agency stating "It is an honor to receive the Lucy Webb Hayes Award on behalf of the dedicated and committed corrections professionals that make up the Bureau of Prisons. This honor represents the Bureau's strong commitment to excellence in all areas of operations and corrections standards, as well as efforts to protect public safety and successfully prepare inmates for reentry into society."
The Bureau of Prisons received the Lucy Webb Hayes Award from the ACA Commission on Accreditation for Corrections during the 148th Congress of Correction conference last week. The Lucy Webb Hayes Award is named for the wife of ACA founding president, and 19th President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes. In order for the agency to earn this award, each of the 122 federal prisons complied with more than 500 ACA accreditation standards and more than 40 standards of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.