Countless people today get their understanding of contracted prison transport services from eye-catching headlines and blockbuster TV shows and films. However, that’s problematic. The various media platforms fail to provide a well-rounded education of the industry, and fail to highlight the positive benefits communities gain as a result of the industry’s work. Furthermore, not much is mentioned of the fact that these benefits are largely provided without incident. As those in society continue to frame prisoner services through a unilateral, and often misinformed lens, a more comprehensive understanding of this market becomes necessary.
Save Law Enforcement Time and Inefficient Use of Personnel
Contracted prisoner transportation services save federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies time. And for these agencies, saving time is incredibly important. Take for example those local sheriff’s departments that are understaffed, with more offenders than officers. When prisoners need to be extradited to a different county or perhaps state, these departments may not have the workforce to both sufficiently police their communities and send personnel to oversee the transport of inmates. Rather than compromise their ability to protect and serve, governing bodies will contact an extradition service provider like Prisoner Transportation Services to stand in the gap. It then falls on this contracted business to safely get offenders from point A to point B. Simply put, these transport services better enable police offers to serve their own constituents in their own jurisdiction.
“You all have helped us out so much because I’m short–staffed as it is.”
–A sergeant with a local county sheriff’s office
Save Law Enforcement, and Therefore the Community, Money
Inmate transportation services also save law enforcement agencies resources. Over 100 independent studies have concluded governments save money when they outsource certain duties. While there are reports that can debunk this claim for a few businesses in the industry, this benefit rings true in terms of Prisoner Transportation Services. The company has gone to great lengths to build a fleet of state-of-the-art vehicles that go above and beyond federal standards. Something as simple as seatbelts for ALL passengers is an important safety measure that not every law enforcement agency is currently equipped with for in-house transport jobs. Instead of shelling out the considerable amount of money it can take to upgrade transport vehicles, many agencies have opted for a more efficient and cost–saving route in hiring a professional and dependable prisoner extradition service.
Safety
By its nature, the business of transporting incarcerated individuals is not one that comes without risks. Speaking to those risks are the few, yet widely reported, instances of accident or incident. Since this is an industry charged with the safety and protection of human life, it’s understandable that even one issue would sound the alarm. However, a company like Prisoner Transportation Services helps law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. and its territories transfer over 30,000 people between facilities, with less than 0.02% of those transfers occurring with incident over the past three years (none of which occurred as a result of violations to federal rules and regulations). While perfection is usually a goal regardless of the industry, that goal is rarely, if ever, fully attained.
And as with most industries that deal in public service, better methods for doing things will always come about. For example, in the medical world, there are constantly new procedures being developed to improve on efficiency, safety, and in some cases, time. However, these new procedures often spring forth from industry standards that are no longer the best practices. Just like in the field of medicine, Prisoner Transportation Services specifically, constantly evolves to cultivate more efficiency and better safety. The company of today has changed drastically over the last few years, and no longer looks like the company from ten years ago. New personnel, new vehicles, and new protocols have all been put into place to help Prisoner Transportation Services optimize for the best all-around practices for the safety of the inmates, drivers, and community.
Learn the Whole Truth
As inmate transport services continue to be a focus of the media, and it becomes an increasingly polarizing political hot button issue, it again is important to get a complete picture of the industry. In the end, it doesn’t bode well for anyone not to have all the facts. It’s like trying to look at a puzzle with a majority of the pieces missing but professing to know what the full picture of the puzzle is. While it may be a popular opinion to portray contracted prisoner transport services as the villain, a deeper look at the benefits the industry provides, and its safety record can call into question the validity of this portrayal.
