Jeffrey Beard learned early on that noticing small inconsistencies is crucial in any line of work. In the corrections field, it is a philosophy that has served him especially well.
 
“When you don't pay attention to detail, when you don't pay attention to the little things, they build up,” says Beard, Secretary of Corrections for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC). “And that's usually when something bad happens.”

And Beard's mindset has not gone unnoticed among his peers and colleagues in corrections.

In November, the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) named Beard the Outstanding Corrections Commissioner in the Nation. The Francke award, which honors Michael Francke, a Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections who was murdered by a former inmate, is annual presented to an outstanding member of corrections administration.

Touted by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell as an intelligent and honest decision maker, Beard has served as the Secretary of Corrections for the Pennsylvania DOC for the past four years. He has also served as the counselor supervisor and deputy superintendent of Pennsylvania's State Correctional Institution at Rockview. Additionally, Beard was appointed as the superintendent of the Camp Hill facility, following the notorious riot, in order to get the facility back on its feet. Now, Beard is currently leading a staff of more than 15,000 people throughout the state's DOC, and is ensuring that training for staff is the best available.

Recently, The Corrections Connection caught up with Beard to find out more about his hard work, dedication to the field and his back-to-basics philosophy for corrections.

Q: How did your career in corrections start?

Beard: I kind of fell into corrections accidentally. I took a class that was taught by the superintendent of the Rockview facility, and he offered to give me a practicum. I was looking for a job, so I took the practicum and they offered me a job. I started working for corrections back in 1972 at the Rockview facility. I started there as a psychological services associate, working in the psychology department. I functioned as a psychologist in the institution – I worked there for a few years and was promoted to counselor supervisor. I had no intention of staying in corrections, but I really got into it. It went from being a job to being a career.

After that, I was promoted to classification of treatment manager. A few years later, I became the deputy superintendent at the same institution. Following that, I was transferred to Camp Hill.

Q: Serving as superintendent of the Camp Hill facility following the riots, what did you learn?

Beard: Well, that's where I really learned the ropes of corrections, basically. That's where I learned how to treat staff and inmates. I mean, here we were – there were 144 staff and inmates injured, and $17 million dollars in damages. The facility was basically in lock down for several months. Virtually every building in the complex was either destroyed or burnt to the ground – everything was moderate to severe damage. We slowly built the institution back up, we slowly fixed things – and it started to get back to normal.

That's where I really learned how to become a leader. Many things had gone wrong at that particular facility – tool control, key control. But in all honesty, whatever I didn't know by the time I got to Camp Hill, I quickly learned. It was a really defining moment for me in my corrections career.

When I went down and took over Camp Hill after the riots, it validated a lot of things for me. I was a different person and responded differently after that. It really taught me to remember how important the basics of corrections are – core control, key control, unlocked doors and so on. It drilled home to me that the Corrections 101 stuff was very important. Pay attention to the basics. Although these little things didn't necessarily cause the Camp Hill riots, they certainly made things much worse.

Q: You brought up paying attention to detail in corrections. How can paying attention to detail help?

Beard: Well, here's an example. We frequently approve inmates for certain clearances within facilities – we review them for outside clearance so they can work outside of the facility or approve their transfer to a community corrections center. But when we do that, we have to look at a lot of things: background, history, criminal history, detainers. There's a lot that you have to do – but when you make a mistake in that situation, bad things can happen.

There was one particular facility where they had an inmate that was approved to work outside of the fence – but they weren't aware that he had a federal detainer because nobody checked. He had broken a federal law and had to be kept inside the facility. If the staff at that particular facility had done the work with more attention to detail, that detainer would have showed up. Our policies explicitly say that you have to do these kinds of checks before someone can have clearance – but someone became complacent and didn't do the work properly. Essentially, the staff was not paying attention to so the inmate was cleared to work outside – even though the federal government absolutely did not want him to.

When you start skipping over details, that's when bad things happen. And it's not just in corrections – it's in every field. Complacency is what causes huge problems. You fall into that complacent mindset because things go well 20 times that you do something, so you start taking short cuts. Go anywhere, into any field, and you will see that things happened because somebody just didn't pay attention. I always try to make sure that everyone who works for me pays attention to detail. It's crucial.

Q: What else is important in corrections management?

Beard: I come from the treatment side of things, so I usually try to keep treatment in mind constantly. I want to make sure there is available programming. Right now, in Pennsylvania, we're very big into properly assessing inmates to make sure we get the right inmates in the right programs.

We want our inmates in programs that follow effective intervention too. We don't want our inmates to go through a program just to do it – we want them to get involved to help themselves. We're also very focused on re-entry to help people get back into the community.

But while all of that treatment stuff is very fine and good, you also have to start by paying attention to security. You have to have safe facilities, and you have to treat inmates humanely. Once you have the security, medical needs and humane issues addressed, you can turn your focus on things like programming and re-entry.

Q: So how does it feel to be honored by the ASCA?

Beard: I feel so honored to receive this award. When you become a secretary of corrections, you sometimes get awards because you're a secretary of corrections. Maybe a local association gives you a professional of the year award – and those awards are nice to get. You feel good to get them.

But this award is a little bit different – because the previous Franke [Award] winners had to vote for me. I know there were nine other worthy candidates that they were looking at – by your peers, but by people who have been recognized at the top of corrections – it's just really an honor.

It's particularly an honor when you look around at people who didn't get the award and you see what they've done – they've done amazing things in corrections, so to still be chosen – from anyway you look at it, it's an amazing honor, and it's the most amazing award I could get - it means the most to me.