Discrete Event Simulation of Jail Operations in Pursuit of Organizational Culture Change

Justice facilities such as jails are complex adaptive systems. They are people-driven, whether by the organizational culture of those that operate them, or by inmate culture. The development of organizational culture is organic and based on buy-in at all levels, or the lack thereof. Organizational culture evolves, including in response to attempted interventions from within or without. Physical and electronic security's relationship to detention operations and detainee supervision involves similar dynamics. In this paper, we explore jail operations. We model human use of a housing unit and associated support spaces via discrete-event simulation. We simulate this system to understand the capacity and limits on human use of building spaces. We explore how this sociotechnical system responds when stressed. We thereby validate the design within limits that correspond to planned operational capacity. The goal of the research is to design spaces and environments that support improved outcomes via improvements in organizational culture. We introduce the specifics of jail operations via this model while exploring the full range of applications for this type of simulation in the built environment.