Training academy: While an ethical foundation is built when we’re young, the academy represents another fertile time for reinforcing the importance of ethical behavior and what it looks like in a correctional setting. An officer who thinks inmates are “scum” and the institution needs to “teach them a lesson” may feel comfortable using unethical behaviors such as excessive force or harassment. In corrections, “environment” takes on another meaning, too: our belief about the correctional facility and corrections in general. The ways we treat other people-whether we approach them with respect, empathy and curiosity or whether we prejudge them and assume the worst-are largely formed during our childhood and adolescence. Let’s examine each one:Įnvironment: The environment refers to how the correctional officer was raised. Inmates are to be kept safe-from other inmates, from “rogue staff” and from themselves.Įach letter of the word ethics represents a critical part in both the professional and personal lives of a corrections professional. Officers must not deny this care to inmates in their custody. For example, courts have ruled that inmates are to receive adequate mental health and medical care. To the corrections professional, the accepted rules include following the law, including case law, court decisions and the general orders and policies of the agency. Understanding EthicsĪccording to Debbie Goodman, who has written extensively on ethics in corrections, ethics is the study of morals-the good, the bad, what is right and what is wrong.
Ethics form the basis of the public trust placed in correctional staff to perform our duties in a professional manner, thus keeping the citizens safe.īut what does it really mean to be ethical? Can a better understanding of what ethics is help us resist temptation to act unethically? These questions are essential because in corrections, bad decisions don’t just affect our careers they can bring harm on inmates and on citizens outside the facility.
We agree to abide by a Code of Ethics our agencies posts Rules of Conduct we must follow. In corrections, we hear the word “ethics” frequently. Why this $23 million prison escape is compared to “The Shawshank Redemption”įormer jailer sentences to life in prison for the beating death of inmate 5 convicted in Baltimore jail corruption trialĬaught on camera: guns, drugs, beer and gambling in New Orleans prison
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