Ethical Justice

1
Ethical Justice

• Chapter Twelve
• Ethical Issues for Corrections Staff

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Ethical Issues for Corrections Staff

• Corrections is the branch of the criminal justice
  system that deals with the probation,
  incarceration, management, rehabilitation,
  treatment, parole, and sometimes execution of
  convicted criminals.
• The vast majority of inmates are easily exploited
  and abused, and they are entirely dependent upon
  the ethical and professionalism of corrections
  staff for their day to day survival and
  protection of their rights and personal safety.

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Types of Facilities

• Jails are used to hold those who have been
  recently arrested prior to any court proceedings,
  such as an arraignment, in law enforcement
  custody.
• Prisons are deigned to facilitate the long-term
  sentences of convicted felons.
• Private correctional facilities

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The Role of Corrections

• The role of corrections is to
• Securely detain those convicted of crimes
• Protect them from themselves and any others
  detained in the same facility and
• Provide essential medical and mental healthcare.

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The Role of Correctional Officers

• Correctional officers are tasked with maintaining
  order and security within prisons.
• They are required to enforce institutional rules
  while modeling appropriate behavior to inmates.
• They are further obligated to help support and
  even facilitate the rehabilitation efforts being
  made by other prison staff.
• Job-related pressures and sources of stress for
  correctional officers frequently include, but are
  not limited to
• Understaffing, mandatory overtime, rotating shift
  work, low pay, the threat of violence, stimulus
  overload, and poor public image.

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Inmate Duty of Care

• When the state deprives a citizen of their
  liberty and confines them to a prison, it takes
  on the responsibility for his or her health,
  safety, and general welfare. The state therefore
  has a duty of care.
• When the state breaches its duty of care to an
  inmate, the state is liable for any harm that is
  suffered.
• The basic duty of care that exists between a
  correctional facility and its inmates is found in
  the understanding that the state must refrain
  from violating an inmates civil rights.
• These rights are guaranteed in Section 1983 of
  the United States Code titled Civil action for
  deprivation of rights.

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Inmate Duty of Care

• Inmate Lawsuits
• Inmates are able to bring suit against
  correctional facilities for a broad spectrum of
  issues related to the circumstances of their
  incarceration. Common problems raised in inmate
  lawsuits include complaints regarding conditions
  of confinement such as the following
• Cruel and unusual punishment
• Excessive use of force by prison staff
• Inadequate medical care
• Access to courts

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Inmate Duty of Care

• Health Care
• One of the key duties of care held by the state
  with respect to prison inmates involves providing
  adequate access to health care.
• When prison staff or administrators are aware of
  medical conditions that go untreated, or of
  treatment conditions that are beneath the
  ascribed standard of care, both the state and the
  individual may be held responsible.

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Misconduct and Ethical Issues

• Misconduct and ethical issues with corrections
  officers include the following
• Use of force
• Professional boundaries
• Inappropriate relationships and
• The introduction of contraband.

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Misconduct and Ethical Issues

• Use of Force
• The inmate has a right to be free from harm, and
  to be free of the fear of harm (with respect to
  both correctional officers and other inmates).
• Correctional officer have an obligation to
  intervene against inmates with reasonable
  force, in order to protect themselves, their
  co-workers, or other inmates.
• They may also use reasonable force in order to
  get inmates to comply with institutional policy,
  to prevent escape, or to facilitate recapture.
• The obligation to protect inmates from harm using
  force extends to that which is foreseeable by
  corrections staff in fact staff members that
  fail to protect inmates can be held accountable
  for what the courts refer to as deliberate
  indifference.

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Misconduct and Ethical Issues

• Professional Boundaries
• Corrections staff have a professional obligation
  to set and maintain consistent boundaries between
  themselves and the inmates in their charge.
• These are sometimes blurred due to the proximity
  in which officers and inmates interact and by the
  staffs need to control inmates.
• Boundary violations can include the following
  deviation from the traditional, self disclosure,
  bending the rules, taking gifts from inmates,
  giving information to inmates, jokes around, and
  receiving help of information for self-gain.

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Misconduct and Ethical Issues

• Inappropriate Relationships
• Personal relationships between correctional
  officers and inmates are inherently
  inappropriate. Worley et al. (2003) identified
  three types of Turners
• Heartbreakers were found to have initiated a
  relationship with a security officer to establish
  a long-term romantic relationship.
• Exploiters were found to have aggressively
  forged inappropriate relationship with staff
  members to make illicit profits in the
  underground prison economy.
• Hell-raisers engaged in a unique kind of
  psychological warfare they simply wanted to
  cause trouble in the prison system.

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Misconduct and Ethical Issues

• The Introduction of Contraband
• Corrections officers account for much of the
  contraband that ends up in a given facility.
• Common examples include drugs, alcohol, weapons,
  and cell phones.
• The most frequently seized items are cell phones.
  
• The smuggling of contraband by prison staff is
  not always a terminal offense.
• Low pay and shrinking budgets are repeatedly
  cited throughout the criminal justice system as
  the primary reason for hiring and retaining the
  unqualified, or even those with criminal records,
  by law enforcement and corrections agencies.
  These decisions lack any basis in professional
  ethics.