Shield Public Safety Training
ADA Behind Bars
Agency Self-Assessment
About the Agency Self-Assessment
The ADA Behind Bars Agency Self-Assessment is a comprehensive, agency-level review tool designed to help correctional agencies identify potential operational strengths, information gaps, implementation concerns, and areas that may warrant additional attention.
The assessment addresses the application of disability-access obligations across jail administration, custody operations, healthcare, behavioral-health services, communication access, physical accessibility, emergency planning, documentation, training, and contractor oversight.
Responses must reflect the agency’s current implemented practices, not merely the existence of written policies. A policy should not be treated as fully implemented unless the agency has a reasonable basis to conclude that personnel understand it, follow it, document it, and are subject to appropriate supervision and quality assurance.
Complete Responses Produce a Better Review
For every response of Partially, No, or Unknown, the agency must provide a written explanation. The completeness, accuracy, and specificity of those explanations will directly affect the quality and usefulness of Shield’s preliminary review.
More detailed responses allow Shield to better identify the agency’s current practice, the source of the concern, the personnel or function responsible, and the most useful issues to address during the consultation.
What Shield Will Provide
Preliminary Assessment Review
Shield will review the agency’s submitted responses to identify reported strengths, material gaps, unresolved questions, and operational areas that may warrant additional examination.
Prioritized Findings
The review will organize the findings by operational domain and distinguish higher-priority concerns from longer-term system, documentation, training, and quality-assurance opportunities.
Thirty-Minute Consultation
Shield will conduct a focused consultation addressing the highest-priority findings, important unresolved questions, and practical next steps for agency consideration.
Who Should Complete the Assessment
The assessment requires information from diverse areas of jail operations. It is unlikely that one person will independently know every answer.
One authorized representative should coordinate the response, consult the appropriate personnel and records, and submit one coordinated assessment for the agency or facility.
The submitting representative should not guess. When the answer cannot be determined after reasonable inquiry, select Unknown and explain what information remains unavailable and who or what source may be able to verify it.
Personnel Who May Need to Be Consulted
- Jail administration and command staff
- ADA coordinator or responsible ADA official
- Intake, classification, housing, and program personnel
- Medical and behavioral-health providers
- Pharmacy and medication-management personnel
- Facility maintenance and accessibility personnel
- Training, policy, records, and quality-assurance staff
- Emergency planning, transportation, and release personnel
- Contract administrators and vendor representatives
- Risk management and agency counsel, when appropriate
Information the Agency May Need to Gather
The assessment should be completed using the best reasonably available agency-level information. Depending on the agency’s structure, relevant information may be maintained by several departments, contractors, records systems, or facilities.
Required Standard for Explanations
Every response of Partially, No, or Unknown will open a required explanation field. Each explanation should address the following five items to the extent known:
- Current practice: What does the agency currently do?
- Limitation or uncertainty: What is incomplete, inconsistent, unavailable, or unknown?
- Planned improvement: What change, if any, is being considered or implemented?
- Responsible function: Which department, position, contractor, or unit is responsible, if known?
- Timeframe: When is the matter expected to be reviewed or addressed, if known?
For an Unknown response, also identify who or what source should be consulted to verify the answer.
Do not respond only with “I do not know,” “unsure,” “needs improvement,” “Shield should identify this,” or similar language. Those statements do not provide enough information for a meaningful agency-specific review.
You May Stop and Return Later
You do not need to complete the assessment in one sitting. Unfinished answers will be saved locally in the browser used to complete the form.
To resume the assessment, return to this page using the same computer and the same browser.
Use Agency-Level Information
Responses should be candid, specific, and sufficiently detailed to explain the agency’s current practice, any material limitation or uncertainty, and any planned improvement.
Identify departments, functions, vendors, records, or workflows when useful, but limit the response to information reasonably necessary for Shield’s preliminary review.
Exclude Sensitive Information
- Names or identifying information concerning incarcerated persons
- Personal medical information or protected health information
- Privileged attorney-client communications
- Attorney work product or litigation strategy
- Personnel-investigation information
- Passwords, credentials, or access codes
- Detailed facility-security vulnerabilities
- Other confidential or security-sensitive operational details
Important Limitations
Shield’s review is a preliminary educational and operational risk-identification service based solely on the information submitted by the agency.
It is not a legal opinion, comprehensive ADA compliance audit, architectural accessibility survey, medical-care review, behavioral-health review, accreditation determination, certification of compliance, or guarantee of any outcome.
Submission of the assessment does not create an attorney-client relationship. Agencies should consult their own legal counsel and qualified subject-matter professionals concerning issues requiring legal, architectural, clinical, technical, or other specialized review.
What Happens After Submission
Submission Review
Shield reviews the completed assessment for completeness, significant concerns, unresolved questions, and reported operational strengths.
Preliminary Analysis
Responses are evaluated by domain and organized into a preliminary scorecard, priority findings, and potential next steps.
Consultation Scheduling
Shield will contact the authorized representative during December 2026 to arrange the agency’s consultation.
Consultation
Thirty-minute consultations will begin January 4, 2027 and will focus on the agency’s highest-priority findings and next steps.
Use of Submitted Information
Shield will use the submitted information to prepare the preliminary review, conduct the consultation, communicate with the submitting representative, provide related educational resources, and identify potential services responsive to issues disclosed by the agency.
Agencies should submit only the information necessary for these purposes. The assessment is not intended to serve as a repository for protected health information, privileged material, personnel records, litigation materials, or sensitive security information.
Before You Begin
Confirm that you are authorized to coordinate and submit the agency-level information contained in this assessment.
The assessment requires information from multiple operational areas, and one person may not know every answer. Consult appropriate personnel, contractors, policies, records, and information systems before submitting the final response.
Answer each question based on current implemented practice. For every response of Partially, No, or Unknown, provide a complete explanation addressing the five requested elements.
You may stop and resume later, but you must return using the same computer and browser.
Begin the Assessment
The form below will guide the authorized agency representative through the agency profile, acknowledgments, 16 operational domains, and final submission.