I the first oneFor correctional systems, governments, and advocates seeking to reform the use of segregation, the goal should be more than emptying beds. Success should be measured by impacts in engagement, interactions, and safe environments—not just bed use—to reduce use of segregation beds without seeing a corresponding rise in violence system-wide.
This is not one effort. This is multiple efforts from a wide array of staff that change the range of possibilities. This is not a reform that will ever be complete, because segregation use should be constantly monitored.
For a correctional agency, change can be driven by legislation or litigation. Or change can be driven by the agency itself to improve public safety outcomes, increase institutional safety, or to create a more humane environment.
A systems approach looks at all the factors that contribute to the need to segregate an incarcerated person: the behavior and response to that behavior
