Within the international law enforcement community, the intelligence gathering and control role of correctional facilities and prisons has not received the attention that perhaps it deserves in assisting efforts to minimize and control organized crime figures who have been convicted and sentenced to prison. Additionally, little research exists that describes and evaluates correctional 'best practices'. It was proposed that a research project be initiated for 1999, on how prisons in various countries, in North America, Europe and Africa deal with organized crime members after they have been sentenced. It is of course, goes without saying that organized crime activities do not stop once the member is sentenced.
Members maintain links with their families, other members and associates.
In fact, it could be argued that unless special measures are undertaken to isolate and control this 'special' population, prisons can become active recruitment centres for new members. Prisons and other correctional facilities, however, can become a very important source of intelligence and information on the members, their associates and activities depending upon the security and intelligence gathering measures the regime has available to it, such as wiretapping, overt and covert surveillance and reading and censoring of mail. With the above in mind, requests for information were sent out to 10 correctional departments across the world. While the analysis is continuing, at this point it is apparent that no specific policies exist that define how organized criminals are to be dealt with or any specific programs and regimes that should be considered in order to minimize the risk posed by the incarceration of these individuals.