CHALLENGER INSIGHTS Vol. 10:
A Focus on Corrections
While training an Area Contractor team this year, I emphasized the Corrections segment of Spacesaver’s Public Safety market—and at the break, one of the team members asked me why Corrections is so important. It’s a simple answer: this market segment values our design expertise.
Prison administration places a higher emphasis on the quality of solutions, the reputation of the provider, and the ability to complete a project on time. In short, corrections opportunities are a great fit for Spacesaver because they offer us a way to differentiate ourselves from our competition. Take a look at a few ways to better position yourself—and our products—in this market.
Utilize Spacesaver’s New Corrections Briefing
Recently, Spacesaver created a Corrections Briefing. It’s a presentation tool that can assist you with communicating our solutions and contribution to correctional facilities, prisons, and jails. The Briefing shows twelve areas of storage within a correctional facility—twelve areas where we can impact the need for additional space, for security of inventory, and for safety. In addition, the presentation talks about the high standards of our manufacturing plant, and our U.S.A.-made products—both things I’ve noticed are very important to the ones who make decisions about purchasing for these facilities.
Click here to access the briefing. (Please note: This link will take you to Spacesaver’s Media Room. To get to the Corrections Briefing presentation, please search the Media Room for “corrections briefing” and you will be able to access the presentation.)
Think of “Long-Term” Prison Residents: The Staff
During a segment at the AIA Justice Conference in November, I listened to a former director of the Ohio Department of Corrections speak about the long-term residents of state correctional facilities: the staff. While they get to go home, they spend more time at a facility than most of the inmates. Addressing the needs of these facilities need to address the needs of the staff.
Position Solutions Through the Lens of Safety
Safety, security, and morale are requirements that can differentiate our solutions from our competition. Put yourself in the position of a prison officer, and ask yourself some questions about the storage areas in your facility. How can the shelving be made into a weapon? What do we need to do to secure the components of the storage system to prevent inmates from dismantling the system? Does the design have blind spots where an inmate can hide or ambush an officer? Can the storage system be used to access a window or an egress? It’s important to consider things like air ducts, and to ensure the shelving couldn’t be used as a ladder to a way out of the room.
The time you invest in working with corrections staff will have an impact on their loyalty in choosing your solution—and that includes addressing their concerns. This loyalty will result in purchases through contracts instead of bids. There’s plenty of additional information to consider when creating solutions for these facilities, and we’re planning to continue talking about this segment in future Challenger Insights.
We’d also love to hear about your successes in the Corrections segment and any potential installations we can use as Lighthouse accounts for these facilities. Email McKenna Dustman and let her know if you’ve worked on a facility that would make a great case study.