Correcting Corrections
Program for training correctional officers
The rehabilitative nature of incarceration depends to a great extent on the environment that an inmate experiences. If an incoming prisoner enters a world filled with corruption, drugs, and crime the potential for rehabilitation is nonexistent. Given the prevalence of corruption among correctional officers (COs), including ties to organized crime and street/prison gangs, reinstating the goal of rehabilitation in prisons and jails will require a dramatic sea change in how oversight activities are conducted. Official recognition of this problem was codified in the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, which mandated additional training for correctional staff to eliminate sexual abuse and misconduct between inmates and staff. One of the standards proposed is the creation or expansion of internal investigations by specially trained personnel. This essay outlines how an undercover internal investigations unit would be recruited and trained, whose primary purpose is to investigate all forms of misconduct by COs, including gang affiliation, sexual abuse and misconduct, contraband smuggling, and unsanctioned physical violence.
Correcting Corrections
Background
Correctional officer (CO) misconduct can take many forms, from isolated incidents involving civil rights violations of prisoners, drug trafficking, gang activities, sexual assault, to murder for hire. In April 2009 a federal grand jury handed down indictments for 25 defendants alleged to have engaged in smuggling contraband into Maryland prisons, as part of a CO drug-ring allegedly run by the Black Guerrilla Family Gang (Smith, 2010). The contraband included drugs and cell phones, but also involved extortion schemes and the murder of a fellow CO who refused to participate. Many of the COs who were allegedly involved had a history of gang affiliation.
These incidents are not rare, but literally represent the 'tip of the iceberg'. In 2005 the Texas legislature investigated juvenile complaints of sexual misconduct against COs and other correctional facility staff, and during the five-year period from 2000 to 2005 over 750 complaints had been filed (National Prison Rape Elimination Commission [NPREC], 2009, pp. 88-89). Within the federal prison system there were 1,585 complaints of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct by inmates against COs and other correctional staff between 2001 and 2008, involving all but 1 of the 93 federal prisons (Evaluation and Inspection...
17). Therefore, the proper training of corrections personnel is left unfinished and unrealized which can result in leaving "members of the corrections community handicapped in their ability to address their functions" as corrections officers "in an efficient and effective manner" (1991, p. 18). Not surprisingly, Carter reinforces the importance of training by pointing out that it is essential for the correctional population to receive adequate preparation in the form of
Based on the foregoing considerations, it is suggested that the DCMP restructure their existing training programs and administration so that a more unified and centralized plan is in place, as well as providing for better instructor qualifications, evaluation, learning retention and more efficient and effective use of resources which are by definition scarce. These broad general issues were refined for the purposes of this study into the research questions stated
Walker (2011) did find, however, that drug courts, which are a new type of diversion program, are yielding promising results. In the end, according to Walker (2011), it is a problem of prediction. As Walker (2011), states "some programs work for some offenders" (p. 277). The problem is accurately identifying which programs work for which offenders. Whereas Walker was concerned with recidivism, Worrall's (2008) definition of rehabilitation includes "intervention that is
For example, offenders without job skills can receive job training, while offenders with emotional problems can be ordered to attend the appropriate counseling. (Native American and Alaskan Technical Assistance Program, 2005). Because such a huge proportion of crimes are drug-related or committed by addicts, completion of in-patient or out-patient substance abuse programs is often an integral part of an offender's alternative sentencing program. Furthermore, alternative sentencing strives to make
Training Development "You need to be pro-active; go and seek knowledge so that you can become a valuable resource to Gulf Air and to Bahrain" Jassim Al Marzooqi, Chief Technical Officer (Marzooqi, as cited in Gulf Air welcomes…, 2009). Communication Counts "You kids need to shut your mouths and pay attention for a change!" "Michael -- if you get up out of your seat one more time, I am going to phone your mother and ask
This is largely because rehabilitation of offenders is for the purpose of transforming the criminal to an important member of the society from being a cost to the society. Some of the most common rehabilitation techniques in the correctional system include counseling and drug rehabilitation treatment as well as vocational training. The two most extensively used modes of rehabilitation in the correctional system are education and work programs since they
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