Correctional Program Specialist

Full Job Description

About the Position: Serves as a Correctional Program Specialist and American Correctional Association (ACA) Accreditation Manager in support of the U.S. Army Corrections Command (ACC).

For more information about the USDB, please visit the website at https://home.army.mil/leavenworth/units-tenants/army-corrections-command Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job.

You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected.

See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities.

Current Civilian Employees of the Organization Consideration will also be given to current Army employees with personal competitive status.

In order to qualify, you must meet the education and/or experience requirements described below.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community; student; social).

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application.

Additional information about transcripts is in this document.

Experience: Experience must be directly related that includes substantial involvement with a correctional program and provides a thorough knowledge of correctional techniques, or experience in meeting and dealing with people and demonstrates the ability to work effectively with inmates and associates in a correctional environment.

The experience must also demonstrate the ability to perform supervisory or administrative duties successfully.

This includes (1) understanding the problems of custody, treatment, training, and release of inmates of penal or correctional institutions; (2) a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of an institution's internal policies, programs, regulations, and procedures; and (3) training subordinates, coordinating and directing activities and functions, evaluating performance of operations and the effectiveness of programs, and maintaining high standards or work objectives.

This experience must have been gained in an administrative position, or in other positions that included the successful direction, or assistance in the direction of, an entire correctional program or a major phase of such a program.

Required qualifying specialized experience includes: (1) Gathering information to consolidate into reports, (2) completing reviews to ensure organizational compliance with Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards, (3) advising staff and command on regulatory requirements to meet higher level standards and (4) conducting operation inspections to determine compliance with higher level regulations/requirements.

OR Education: Ph.D or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the work of the position, such as correctional administration, criminology, psychology, social work, sociology, or other fields related to the position.

(Note: You must attach a copy of your transcripts.) OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%.

To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12.

Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages.

Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-09).

All applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade and specialized experience requirements within thirty (30) days after the closing date of the announcements. Major Duties:

• Serve as a Correctional Program Specialist and American Correctional Association (ACA) Accreditation Manager.
• Responsible for compliance with Department of Defense (DoD), Department of the Army (DA), and Department of Justice (DOJ) Guiding Principles for Restrictive Housing and ACA regulatory standards.
• Analyze and interpret national correctional standards to develop and recommend revisions or refine institutional policies, regulations, and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• Serve as the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Compliance Manager for the ACC.
• Develop and facilitates staff, prisoner, contractor, and volunteer PREA training Monitoring.