The ACA Student Affairs Committee has been exploring the possibility
of involving the ACA-SAC students with the Correctional Accreditation 
Managers Association,  CAMA, as a way to provide students with
a background on the history of accreditation and the reasons for
and practices of implementing prison standards.

The ACA promotes effective, humane, and safe programs and services in
facilities through its accreditation policies. To do this, the ACA conducts 
and facilitates audits (inspections) of agencies that seek accreditation 
status.  CAMA is an affiliate of ACA "committed to developing a better 
understanding of the accreditation process by promoting correctional 
standards, and providing training as an avenue for communication and 
problem solving." 

An understanding of why we need high uniform standards, what standards
we need, and how these standards evolve is crucial not only for those
who audit facilities and agencies, but also for all criminal justice
professionals, students considering criminal justice as a career, and even 
the public. As a consequence, accreditation standards are NOT a narrow 
sub-field of corrections relevant only to a small group of professionals 
who do the auditing.  Standards are a direct window into social, culture, 
historical, philosophical, legislative, and policy changes in dealing with 
crime and offenders. For this reason, it could be said that understanding 
accreditation standards is the first step in everybody's understanding 
corrections. 

CAMA recognizes that students, as future professionals, would benefit from 
an awareness of standards and the accreditation process.  At the ACA 
conference in Nashville in August, 2009, members of the ACA-SAC met with 
CAMA officials to explore some of the ways this could be done. ACA-SAC 
members were invited to participate in the CAMA conference in Columbus, 
Ohio from May 2-4, 2010.  The invitation included the offer for students to 
present in a workshop as a way of linking students' interests to an 
educational CAMA experience.  CAMA will offer a student rate of $50 
(instead of the normal $125), and ACA-SAC can likely obtain modest funding 
to reduce it more. The conference is at the Doubletree Hotel in Columbus. 
Rates are $105 a night, and half (or a third) of that if doubling/tripling. 
In addition to learning more about the history and processes of 
accreditation, the conference includes guest speaker Jack Hanna (of the 
Columbus Zoo who appears frequently on television). Details of the CAMA 
conference will be coming soon.

WHY FORGE A CAMA/ACA-SAC PARTNERSHIP?


Involving ACA-SAC students with CAMA offers advantages to both groups:

1) It helps educate future correctional professionals into the complexity 
of corrections, familiarizing them with standards in prisons, jails,
juvenile facilities, and community corrections.

2) It provides students with an understanding that criminal justice
operations are based on values, ethics, cultural expectations, and
legal responsibilities that are often overlooked in classes, internships,
or tours. 

3) It provides a cross-pollination of ideas between professionals and
students that students take back to their schools and share with
others. The growth of this "culture of familiarization" on campuses
that enhances understanding of and appreciation for the operation of
criminal justice agencies.

4) It offers a way for college instructors and others who teach criminal
justice classes to develop a curriculum around issues of ethics and
standards, allowing for the integration of history, philosophy,
agency administration, and other issues into a class.

5) It provides students with an opportunity for class projects, including
possible "walk throughs" on ACA audits for qualified students, 
networking with professionals for internships or possible employment
contacts, and honing their academic and practical skills.

6) It provides students another opportunity along with ACA Conferences to 
learn about the ACA accreditation process.

7) It enhances public awareness of correctional issues as students
share their understandings with peers and others.


There are many other advantages to a CAMA/ACA-SAC partnership, and we
are only beginning to scratch the surface in this preliminary exploration.
If you have suggestions on how to expand the relationship, we would
like to hear from you.        

We also encourage all of you, whether professionals, students, or
faculty, to join CAMA in Columbus in May!
Send me email at: Jim Thomas - jthomas@math.niu.edu

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