Planning the WCSS

This module provides guidance on planning to administer the WCSS at your facility. Steps taken here can make a real difference in the utility and success of the WCSS.

Partnerships between Facility Managers and the Independent Survey Team

The WCSS is designed to be administered by an independent survey team in collaboration with facility managers. Given the sensitive nature of the survey topics and justice-involved women's documented concerns with trust and confidentiality, collecting valid and useful information from the WCSS is only possible through such a collaboration. Post-survey interviews with past users of the WCSS have indicated that trust in the survey process is essential to a successful survey administration that results in usable information.

The Independent Survey Team

Because the WCSS is a scientific approach to collecting, interpreting and applying very sensitive data, it is intended to be administered by an independent survey team with practical experience in conducting social science survey work. In our experience developing the WCSS, and in interviews with those who have participated in the WCSS process, two issues are essential to its success: (1) trust in the confidentiality of the survey process and (2) avoiding any appearance of retaliation or other consequences for participating in the process. Stated more simply, facility staff at any level cannot be involved in any way with the survey administration. Any staff involvement in data collection will undermine both the validity and the utility of the survey results.

a photo collage of survey team and facility team members

Local colleges and universities are the primary source of independent personnel with some experience in conducting survey research. If the facility does not have an existing relationship with university faculty, the facility liaison can reach out to college and university departments of criminology, criminal justice, sociology, psychology, ethnic studies or other social science departments.

Survey research professionals employed by the prison system can be considered as long as they are not assigned to the specific facility participating in the WCSS survey. Research professionals from the prison system's lead agency (e.g. a state Department of Justice) can also be considered.

A third option is contracting with criminal justice consultants with expertise in survey administration. This option, however, may involve significant costs.

Regardless of the approach, it must meet the standard of researcher independence required by the Toolkit.

Caution: legal Requirements for Human Subjects Protection

A variety of local, state and federal laws and regulations govern research with human subjects. These laws and regulations extend beyond biomedical research, also covering, for example, survey research on social and behavioral topics such as those addressed by the WCSS. Under some circumstances WCSS survey participants are considered human research subjects granting them various protections required by law. Even in circumstances where WCSS survey participants may not be covered under the various human subjects protection laws, ethical researchers will nonetheless voluntarily adhere to these standards and principles to ensure their rights and welfare are protected. An experienced survey team will be aware of the numerous legal and ethical issues involved.

Resources and information on the protection of human subjects:

Whether or not your administration of the WCSS legally requires human subject protections, such as informed consent procedures, women have the right to decline to participate in the WCSS. As will be shown in subsequent modules, women are asked to listen to the WCSS Survey orientation. After this orientation, they have the right to decline to participate in the survey without repercussions of any kind.

Composition of the Survey Team

We have found that a survey team consisting of a Survey Team Leader and two assistants is the optimal size for successful survey administration. The Survey Team Leader should be experienced with survey and social science research in general, and, ideally, have some background in criminal justice research and be motivated to improve practice through applied research. An interest in incarcerated women, sexual safety and gender-responsive practice would be highly desirable.

3 images of individual women on the survey team

Tasks of the Survey Team Leader:

Become knowledgeable about the WCSS and procedures described in this Toolkit.
Develop Human Subject Protection strategies and procedures as required by law and/or professional ethics.
Work with Facility Team to develop sample, schedule survey days and protect confidentiality.
Use the WCSS Setup Utility to enter the parameters for the survey administration, e.g. housing units to be surveyed, number of surveys per unit, number of Spanish surveys, etc.
Recruit, train and supervise survey team assistants.
Work collaboratively with the Facility Team to plan the survey administration, interpret the results, and optimally, work with Facility Team to respond to the findings.
Follow the WCSS protocol in requesting inmate participation, administering the survey and collecting completed survey documents.
Clean and enter all data from WCSS, with survey team assistants, according to Toolkit protocol.
Run report findings via Toolkit software.
Participate in action planning (if requested by Facility Team)
Present findings to Facility Team (optional)
Work with Facility Team in implementing improvements in operational practice related to sexual and other forms of gendered safety (optional)

Tasks of Survey Team Assistants:

Review the WCSS Toolkit
Prepare and distribute WCSS documents.
Set up survey space.
Assist women in completing survey, such as reading survey aloud (if necessary}, answering questions about the WCSS, responding to women's concerns about participating in the survey, etc.
Collect the completed surveys.
Enter data from WCSS surveys under Team Leader's supervision.

Note: One team member should be bilingual-- English and Spanish.

Academics from a local college or university should fit these requirements. Graduate students could serve as survey team assistants.

members of the survey team handing out the survey

The Facility Team

While the Facility Team will have no involvement in the actual data collection activities, this Team is critical to the WCSS Planning and Implementation. Based on the facility's administrative structure, each facility will develop a Facility Team to: 1} oversee the planning process and 2) review and respond to WCSS survey results. The number of Facility Team members will usually range from five to seven individuals, and should include the Warden or other chief executive, two to three executive staff members (one of whom is a Facility Liaison} and managers from custody, treatment, training and other areas of operational practice.

a photo collage of individual members of the facility team

The Facility Liaison

The Facility Liaison plays a significant role in all aspects of the planning and serves as the liaison between the facility and the Survey Team.

The Liaison will support the planning process by:

getting the current roster of the housing units to be surveyed
assisting in getting the census of inmates or determining the
sample of inmates who will participate in the survey.
determining when and where the survey activities will take place.
arranging for printing hard-copy surveys and supply needs (Pencils, erasers, reading glasses, etc.)
providing any necessary security clearances to the Survey Team

The role of Facility Liaison will involve a significant time commitment, particularly in the planning stages and on the actual survey administration day(s). A check list for making arrangements is available here.

a photo collage of the facility team whiteboarding ideas

Counselors: Inmate Reactions to the WCSS Survey

Although a rare event, it is possible that some inmates may have a strong reaction to some of the WCSS survey questions. In the planning phase, facility staff should identify a counselor, chaplain, PREA officer or other staff who can offer assistance should a woman have an emotional reaction to any questions in the WCSS.

Team Meetings

The WCSS process begins with a kick-off meeting between both teams. The Survey Team Leader, the Facility Liaison, and the Warden might want to meet prior to the first planning meeting to review the overall project, identify other Facility Team members, and set-up the first planning meeting. A sample agenda for the first meeting is available here.

3 images of individuals on the survey team and facility team the survey team meets with the facility team

The First WCSS Planning Meeting

It is critical that significant time be devoted to planning the WCSS administration. The Facility Team and Survey Team must discuss and reach agreement on various issues, some of which pertain to complying with divergent, facility-specific requirements and processes. Most of these issues are covered in the Sample Agenda:

Introduce Survey Team to Facility Team
Describe the WCSS process and how it will assist the facility in addressing sexual safety.
Arranging survey process: scheduling and other "nuts & bolts" issues
Decide on census or sample approach.
Prepare for using the data I operational implications.

After the initial planning meeting, the rest of the preparation work can be done by the Survey Team and Facility Liaison.

Scheduling the Survey

The two teams should discuss the best way to schedule the survey. Scheduling should focus on: 1) the times the majority of inmates are available to take the survey, as well as 2) what times the survey administration will be the least disruptive to inmates and staff. For example, inmates should not be disrupted from activities they enjoy doing, such as recreation time, to take the survey.

Sampling: Who takes the Survey?

Determining the number of inmates to survey is an important step. In small facilities, Planning Teams should consider administering the survey to the entire facility* or to entire housing units (known as a census). For larger facilities, Planning Teams may be tempted to survey only a segment (sample) of the overall population. However, it is important to note the WCSS was developed and validated to measure the safety climate of housing units, i.e. the level of analysis is the housing unit, not the person or facility. Although a few WCSS items and scales address the facility overall, the vast majority of the WCSS measures the housing unit. Given most female housing units in the U.S. do not contain numbers large enough to support a sample without producing an unacceptably high margin of error, samples are generally inappropriate for use with the WCSS.

an image of an empty housing unit with a wall of cells facing tables in the common area

Although the WCSS Toolkit is not designed to make this decision for you. Planning Teams should strongly consider conducting a census of one or more housing units, or if feasible, the entire institution.^* Another advantage of a census is that no women inmates or detainees will be left out of the survey. They will all feel they were given an opportunity to provide input about their safety-related concerns. At the same time, even a census can be unrepresentative of the units if response rates are too low, i.e., less than about 60-70% of inmates in each surveyed housing unit participate in the survey.

In short, sampling with the WCSS should be avoided unless there is a clear, compelling, and well-informed rationale to support sampling over census. Given that sampling is generally inappropriate for use with the WCSS, and sampling methodology is beyond the scope of this Toolkit, please consult qualified professionals should you choose to further consider sampling with the WCSS.

*Note that version 1.0 of the Toolkit is limited to 14 housing units.

Where should inmates be surveyed?

a photo collage of incarcerated individuals filling out the survey

Another important factor to consider when planning a WCSS administration is the location in the facility in which the WCSS should be administered. When deciding the location, consideration should be given to whether it would be best to bring the inmates or detainees to the WCSS survey, or to take the WCSS survey to them.

In some cases, it may be feasible to administer the WCSS survey to large numbers of women inmates or detainees who come to a central location to complete it, such as a dining hall, gym, visiting room, or a program area (e.g., chapel, large classroom, etc.) Although this method has the advantage of getting a large number of completed surveys in one setting, it does seem to have a several disadvantages. For example, moving large numbers of inmates in a group usually requires greater staff resources.

In addition, unexpected delays can occur due to unforeseen circumstances (e.g., disturbance drawing staff elsewhere at the facility). Furthermore, assembling a large number of inmates may interfere with programming, appointments or other operational activities. Plus, some inmates may come ill-prepared to the survey location (e.g., not knowing they should have brought their reading glasses).

For these reasons one should consider taking the WCSS survey to the inmate or detainee. Doing so can lighten staff resources and minimizes the amount of disruption for both staff and inmates.

The WCSS has been successfully administered in just about every conceivable facility location/configuration, including: open-bay dorms, dayrooms, outdoor recreation areas, dining areas, program areas, general population units, and close security units. Regardless of where one chooses to administer the WCSS survey, it's important to be familiar with how it should be administered. That issue will be covered in the next module of the Toolkit.

another collage of incarcerated individuals filling out the survey at computers and tables

Spanish-speaking Inmates

Given the large number of incarcerated Spanish-speaking women in the country, it is important that they not be excluded from opportunities to provide input about their safety. The WCSS Toolkit has a "generic" version of the WCSS that has been translated to Spanish.

Although this generic version has been successfully administered to many different incarcerated Spanish-speaking women in many types of correctional systems with various housing arrangements, some facilities may have site-specific terminology that is not properly phrased and written in the current Spanish version of the WCSS. If that might be the case, Survey teams should consult with a qualified Spanish translator to check whether the current version should be revised or not. Survey teams should also verify the number of women who will require the Spanish version of the WCSS during the Planning phase.

an image of the survey admin introducing the Spanish translator and Spanish version of the survey