Explain the importance of Ethics in the field of Criminal Justice in all the following professions: Law Enforcement, Probation and Parole Officer, Prosecuting Attorney, Defense Attorney, Judge, and Institutional Correctional Officer. Please answer in at least 4-5 pages. Please document all your sources in APA format, including a title page and reference page. Use your text, Scripture, and 7-9 sources to reinforce your position.
wk6Pollock_Ethics_10e_Ch12_PPT.pdf
wk6Pollock_Ethics_10e_Ch11_PPT.pdf
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Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in
Criminal Justice Tenth Edition
Chapter 12 Discretion and Dilemmas in Corrections
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives
1. Describe the role conflict of correctional officers.
2. List and describe some ethical issues for correctional
officers.
3. Compare the challenges that face jail officers as
compared to correctional officers in prisons.
4. Explain the role conflict of treatment professionals and
provide examples.
5. List and describe the ethical issues of probation and
parole officers.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Correctional Officers (1 of 2)
• Correctional officers (COs) are similar to police officers
(uniform = authority).
• It is impossible to effectively depend on the authority of
the uniform to get tasks accomplished (must earn
respect and authority from personal reputation).
• Like police officers, correctional officers have a range
of coercive control over inmates, from loss of liberty to
lethal force, if necessary, and this power may be
misused.
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Correctional Officers (2 of 2)
• Sensitivity to ethical issues in corrections involves
recognition and respect for the inherent powers and
concurrent responsibilities of the profession.
• Changing goals in the 1970s and 1980s created role
conflict and ambiguity for the correctional officer. Other
factors include unionization, professionalism, and
diversity.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Discretion
• Correctional officers have a range of coercive control over inmates, from loss of liberty to lethal force, if necessary.
• Discretion is used judicially; when a good officer decides to bypass rules, all involved tend to agree that it is the right decision.
• The traits of consistency, fairness, and flexibility are confirmed as valuable by research.
• A good officer:
– Treats inmates in a professional manner and gives them the respect they deserve as human beings
– Treats inmates the way anyone would like to be treated
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
A New Era of Corrections?
• Supreme Court ordered California to release prisoners if
they could not provide a constitutionally mandated level of
medical care.
• Alleged deficiencies included:
– Inadequate medical screening of incoming prisoners
– Delays in or failure to provide access to medical care
including specialist care
– Untimely responses to medical emergencies
– The interference of custodial staff with the provision of
medical care
– The failure to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of
competent medical staff
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Relationships with Inmates (1 of 2)
• Both guards and inmates prefer to live in peace.
• Both feel they must take sides when conflict occurs.
Reciprocity: Officers become dependent on inmates for
completion of important tasks.
In return, officers may overlook inmate infractions and
allow a degree of favoritism.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Relationships with Inmates (2 of 2)
• Officers have the power to make life difficult for inmates
they do not like.
• If officers become personally involved (e.g., sexually),
their professionalism is compromised.
• An alliance sometimes forms between guards and
inmates that is not unlike foreman-employee
relationships.
• Officers insist that “you can be friendly with inmates,
but you can never trust them.”
• Mature officers learn to live with this inconsistency.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Sexual Relationships and Sexual Abuse in
Prison
• There was a great deal of sexual victimization
occurring between female inmates.
• There was a surprising amount of sexual interaction
between male inmates and female officers.
• Sexual assault is rare, but more inmates experience
other forms of sexual victimization involving unwanted
touching and sexual harassment.
• Transgender and homosexual inmates are more likely
to be sexually victimized as well as inmates
incarcerated for sexual crimes. Another vulnerable
group are those with mental health issues.
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Use of Force
• Physical force is often necessary in prison situations.
• Prior to the 1980s, overt physical force was used
routinely in U.S. prisons.
– “tune-ups”
– Tucker telephone
– Hudson v. McMillian
• Today, the incidence of excessive force is less
common, but it is still used in some institutions.
• Inmates have more to fear from each other than from
correctional officers.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Maintaining Morality in Prison
• Correctional officers report that they experience a great
deal of stress and stress-related illnesses
– hypertension
– alcoholism
– divorce
• Maintaining morality in a coercive environment is no
easy task
• Need for a strong moral and ethical code
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Jail Officers
• In many respects, local jail officers have more difficult
responsibilities than state prison officers.
• Jail population is transitory and often unstable.
• Offenders may come into jail intoxicated, suffer from
undiagnosed diseases or psychiatric conditions, or be
suicidal.
• The constant activity and chaotic environment of a jail
often create unique ethical dilemmas.
• Jail officers tend to deal with all troublesome behavior
as a discipline issue.
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Treatment Staff
• The professional goal of all treatment specialists is to help
the client.
• This goal may be fundamentally inconsistent with the
punitive prison/jail environment.
• A dilemma of treatment programs is deciding who is to
participate.
• Psychiatrists in corrections may feel they are being used
more for social control than treatment.
• The most prevalent issue is how to maintain one’s
commitment to a helping profession while being in an
environment that does not value the goals and mission of
treatment.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Community Corrections
• Has a more positive and helpful image than institutional
corrections
• Ethical dilemmas for probation and parole officers
revolve around promoting rehabilitation for the client
and security for the community.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Caseload Supervision
• Discretion exists not only at the recommendation-to-
release stage but also throughout supervision.
• Decision to file a violation report and make a
recommendation.
• Personal relationships of any type–romantic, platonic,
or financial—are simply not appropriate.
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Parole Officers
• Supervision of parole officers is stronger than probation
officers. The parole officer usually manages a caseload
of older and seasoned offenders.
– Two thirds of released inmates were rearrested within
three years.
– Studies indicate that the rate of recidivism is worse than
it was 20 years ago.
– Men, blacks, and young people are the most likely to
recidivate.
– Those who participate in property crimes are most likely
to return to criminal behavior.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Halfway Houses
• The ethical issues concerning halfway houses are a
combination of those that confront institutional corrections
and those seen in community corrections.
• Halfway houses can be large institutions and staff may
begin to feel like correctional officers.
• Halfway house staff members look to balance the rights of
offenders against the safety concerns of the community.
• Probation, parole, and halfway houses have seen their
numbers rise.
• Halfway houses are less expensive than prisons.
• Privatization is problematic because profit motives are
always present.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Discussion Questions
1. Your distant cousin’s husband has just become an
inmate in the prison where you work. Could you
maintain a strictly professional relationship? Do you
think you should have to?
2. As a psychologist working with inmates, which
challenge do you feel would be the hardest to handle?
Why?
3. As a parolee, do you think you’d follow every single
rule in your halfway house? Even the ones that
seemed really unnecessary? Would you tell your PO if
you saw another housemate breaking a minor rule?
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Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in
Criminal Justice Tenth Edition
Chapter 11 The Ethics of
Punishment and
Corrections
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives
1. Provide the definitions of punishment and treatment
and their rationales.
2. Describe how the ethical frameworks justify
punishment.
3. Describe the ethical rationales for and against capital
punishment.
4. Identify major themes from the ethical codes for
correctional officers, treatment professionals, and
probation and parole officers.
5. Explain how occupational subcultures affect adherence
to professional ethics codes.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Five Elements of Punishment
1. Two people involved, the punisher and the one being
punished.
2. The punisher inflicts harm on the one being punished.
3. The punisher is authorized by law to inflict the
punishment.
4. The one being punished has been judged to be in
violation of a criminal law.
5. The inflicted harm is meted out specifically as
punishment for that violation of criminal law.
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Treatment (1 of 2)
• In correctional terminology, treatment is anything used
to induce behavioral change.
• The goals of treatment are:
– Elimination of dysfunctional or deviant behavior
– Encouragement of productive, normal behavior
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Rationales for Punishment and Corrections
• The social contract provides the rationale for
punishment and corrections.
– We avoid social chaos by giving the state the power to
control us.
– The state is limited in the amount of control it can exert
over individuals.
– For consistency with the social contract, the state
should exert its power only to protect.
– Any further interventions with civil liberties are
warranted.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Retribution
• The retributive rationale for punishment is consistent
with the social contract theory and argues that the
individual offender must be punished because he or she
deserves it.
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Prevention Rationale
• Assumes that something should be done to the
offender to prevent future criminal activity
• Preventive methods include:
– Deterrence
– Incapacitation
– Treatment
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Deterrence
• Specific Deterrence:
– Preventing a particular offender from deciding to commit
another offense
– Teaching through punishment
• General Deterrence:
– Prevent others in general from deciding to engage in
wrongful behavior
– Teaching by example
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Incapacitation
• Holding an offender until there is no risk of further
crime.
• Because incapacitation is predictive:
– We might release an offender who commits further
crimes.
– We might not release an offender who would not commit
further crimes.
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Three-Strikes Laws
• Are these laws justified under retribution, deterrence, or
incapacitation?
• Supreme Court holdings of Lockyer v. Andrade and
Ewing v. California
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Treatment (2 of 2)
• Treatment is considered beneficial for both society and
the individual offender.
• The control over the individual is just as great as with
punishment.
• Courts define treatment as “that which constitutes
accepted and standard practice and which could
reasonably result in a ‘cure.’”
• Much of the treatment in the correctional environment is
either implicitly or directly coerced.
• No single program works for all offenders.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Ethical Frameworks for Corrections
• Utilitarianism: treatment, incapacitation, deterrence (we
punish to benefit the majority)
• Ethical formalism: retribution (we punish because the
offender deserves it)
• Ethics of care: restorative justice (we punish only if it is
necessary to meet the needs of all involved)
• Rawlsian ethics: A loss of rights should take place only
when it is consistent with the best interests of the least
advantaged.
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Punishments
• The American criminal justice system has adopted
prison as a standard form of punishment.
• Imprisonment does not carry the physical pains of
flogging or mutilation.
• Imprisonment is painful because it involves:
– banishment,
– condemnation,
– separation from loved ones,
– deprivation of freedom, and
– an assault on one’s self-esteem.
• Prisons are extremely expensive.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Cruel and Unusual Punishment
• Unusual (by frequency): Punishments that are rarely used
become unusual.
• Evolving standards of decency: Punishments acceptable in
the past (flogging) may not be acceptable today.
• Shock the conscience: A punishment is cruel and unusual if
it shocks the public conscience.
• Excessive or disproportionate: Any punishment that is
disproportionately administered or excessive to its purpose
is considered wrong.
• Unnecessary: The purpose of punishment is to deter crime;
only an amount necessary to do so should be administered.
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
“Shaming” Punishments
• Stigmatizing shaming rejects the individual and may
have negative effects.
• Reintegrative shaming rejects only the person’s
behavior, thus creating a healthier relationship between
the individual and his or her community.
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Supermax Prisons
• Prison authorities have long segregated the most notorious
prisoners into special units.
• Today, some states have constructed the most secure
facilities, referred to as supermax prisons.
• Supermax conditions are extremely harsh, including
individual separation of all inmates around the clock and
limited recreational activity.
• Challenges due to conditions, procedures, and who is sent
there (non-violent, mentally ill).
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Capital Punishment
• Does failure to apply capital punishment fairly invalidate
its use?
• The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against executing:
– Mentally ill
– Mentally handicapped
– Juveniles (under 18)
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Should Punishment be Profitable?
• In many cases, poverty, and not the seriousness of the
crime, is inextricably linked to how long someone is
enmeshed in the criminal justice system.
• Proponents argue that private corrections can save the
state money. Private corporations are said to be more
efficient; they can build faster with less cost and less red
tape, and they have economies of scale.
• A very troublesome element of privately run detainee
centers and prisons is that they have been ruled exempt
from open-records laws, which apply to public agencies.
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Formal Ethics for Correctional Professionals
• Common across all ethics codes:
– Integrity
– Respect for and protection of individual rights
– Service to the public
– Importance and sanctity of the law
– Prohibition against exploiting professional authority for
personal gain
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Correctional Officer Subculture
• May consider inmates, superiors, and society in general
as “the enemy”
• Accepts use of force as a routine job element
• Shows a tendency to redefine job roles to meet
minimum requirements only
• Shows a willingness to use deceit to cover up
wrongdoing by staff
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
The Probation/Parole Officer Subculture
• Cynicism toward clients
• Lethargy from heavy caseloads and poor pay
• Individualism: an officer running his or her caseload in
the manner he or she sees fit
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© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.
Discussion Questions
1. Do you think punishments should become progressively
more severe? Or be consistent regardless of the number of
repeat offenses? Explain.
2. Under the ethics of care system, punishment should only be
carried out if it is essential to help the offender become a
better person. Do you believe punishments can do that? Are
there punishments that are more or less effective?
3. Do you believe punishment should be profitable? If so,
where do you draw the line? Should there be more fees?
Fewer? Why?
4. Can you recommend methods of improving the morale of
parole officers and positively influencing the subculture?
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