April 16, 2024

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, Ju

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.

3/23/2021

Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in

Criminal Justice Tenth Edition

Chapter 12 Discretion and Dilemmas in Corrections

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.

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.

3/23/2021

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.

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

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

3/23/2021

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.

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.

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.

3/23/2021

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.

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

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.

3/23/2021

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.

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.

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.

3/23/2021

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.

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.

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?

3/23/2021

Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in

Criminal Justice Tenth Edition

Chapter 11 The Ethics of

Punishment and

Corrections

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.

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.

3/23/2021

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

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.

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.

3/23/2021

Prevention Rationale

• Assumes that something should be done to the

offender to prevent future criminal activity

• Preventive methods include:

– Deterrence

– Incapacitation

– Treatment

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

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.

3/23/2021

Three-Strikes Laws

• Are these laws justified under retribution, deterrence, or

incapacitation?

• Supreme Court holdings of Lockyer v. Andrade and

Ewing v. California

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.

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.

3/23/2021

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.

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.

“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.

3/23/2021

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).

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)

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.

3/23/2021

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

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

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

3/23/2021

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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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, Ju

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