The FCP has proven itself as a sound and useful assessment tool that allows for constant improvement and consistent operation that ensures secure, safe, and humane facilities. In developing the FCP, a panel of 12 high-level administrative staff members with various disciplines was formed as the FCP committee. The committee decided to use the Institution Character Profile (ICP) of the Federal Bureau of Prisons as the framework for the FCP. The FCP mirrors the ICP in its use of teams for site visits, observation of operations, information gathering through discussions with staff and inmates, and randomly presented surveys. The components assessed by the FCP are staff morale, staff professionalism, staff communication, inmate morale, and community relations. The planning stage focused on identifying team members who would conduct the assessments, collecting necessary information, and determining how the information from the assessment would be shared with the facility. The examination of particular programs, services, and perceptions of all components includes previsit documentation, onsite documentation, personal observation, and staff survey results. Initial concerns about staff negative perceptions of the FCP and possible resistance to it have subsided largely due to the introduction of the tool to facility managers in the early stages of the process, as well as the involvement of a large number of key staff from varied backgrounds. The process has demonstrated data integrity, respondent confidentiality, and the use of collected information to improve the operation of the assessed institution.