We are preparing to move into a new jail soon. In our current facility, we struggle with controlling graffiti in cells/pods. The deputies can charge the inmates for violating the following rule: "Destruction or defacing property belonging to the facility or any other person, of which the value is fifty dollars ($50.00) or more, such as removal or tampering with painted walls. These damages may be subject to restitution". It feels like we can only charge the inmates so many times before this becomes ineffective.
Some ideas that we have thought about is assigning a deputy the same unit for a week at a time. The idea here is the deputy will take pride in their assigned unit and be more likely to address these problems. They will also be able to remember if the graffiti was there from the day before and hold the inmate accountable in the moment. The hesitation with assigning the deputies the same unit for multiple days in a row is possible burn out.
Another thing we have done in the past is a supervisor checklist where the supervisors do inspections of the pods, and document when there is graffiti present in the wing. The downside to the checklist is it addresses graffiti in the moment, but then graffiti seems to reappear the very next day.
Does anyone have any other tips and tricks to deter this graffiti problem? Any help is greatly appreciated!