Morton J. Leibowitz: superintendent transforms facility into model jail

0 Comments | Corrections Today, June, 1994 | by Karen Carlo Ruhren

Bringing an out-of-date jail into the 1990s is not an easy task, yet Morton J. Leibowitz, superintendent of the 240-bed Rappahannock Security Center Regional Jail, met this challenge well enough to earn him the American Jail Association's 1993 Joe Rowan award, annually given to America's top jail administrator.

Virginia's Rappahannock Regional Jail was years behind comparable facilities when Leibowitz assumed the helm in 1990. "There was no level of programming, and the conditions of confinement were clearly inadequate," he recalls.

Staff development ranked a top priority at Rappahannock, where the turnover rate before Leibowitz's arrival topped out at 37 percent. Targeting retired military personnel and homemakers returning to the work force for recruitment, Leibowitz tapped into a previously unused pool of employees. "They add stability to our facility," he says. "They stay with us and compete for promotions." Within three years, the turnover rate dropped to 7 percent.

Rappahannock's new objective jail classification system is another improvement brought in by Leibowitz. Since last year, inmates have been housed in units on the basis of four criteria: social history, criminal history, institutional adjustment and the nature of their crime. The system has helped decrease the number of hostile incidents at the facility.

Widely praised for his programming, Leibowitz also has made great strides with Rappahannock's pre-trial release and electronic monitoring systems. Within the first two years of their inception in 1991, both programs were noted as state models.

Finally, community service programs also rank high on Leibowitz's list of priorities. Inmates at Rappahannock carry out maintenance and clean-up work for the National Park Service. Two years ago, with the help of several community groups, they erected a local homeless shelter. "They really wanted to put something back into the community as a form of restitution," Leibowitz says.

In view of Rappahannock's dramatic progress, the National Institute of Corrections selected it as a model site for officials interested in learning about regionalization.

Leibowitz credits his insights on improving the jail system to a lengthy career in law enforcement, criminal justice and corrections. Working as a police officer after college, Leibowitz says he found the job "too adversarial," and after graduate school he moved on to serve as a probation and parole officer for adults and juveniles. In 1988, after teaching criminal justice for three years at a local college, he took the job of jail administrator at Virginia's Stafford County Jail. "I haven't had a boring day's work since then," he says. Two years later he was named to his current position.

Having successfully brought Rappahannock into the 1990s, Leibowitz has set his sights on the future, where he sees a new role for jails. He believes that because of cost and crowding, alternative incarceration--such as electronic monitoring, pre-trial release and community service--is going to be recommended for most non-violent offenders.