Scholarly Activity

CORRECTIONAL OFFICER DEVIANCE 1

CORRECTIONAL OFFICER DEVIANCE 2

Correctional Officer Deviance

According to Ross, (2016); there is a specific way that correctional officers should behave. Correctional officer deviance takes place when a correctional officer engages in behavior, actions, and attitude that he/she should not be engaging in the first place. It means that the correctional officer is being unethical and unprofessional in his/her tasks. A correctional officer can be deviant in different ways and these are; deviance against the institution, inmate, and other correctional officers. The challenge is that deviance behavior from correctional officers has a negative impact on the officer and other stakeholders involved.

Deviance against inmates is one of the highly committed deviant behaviors by correctional officers. The deviant behavior has a lot of unethical practices attached to it and the challenge is that the correctional officers are able to benefit from their actions. According to Ross, (2016); over 80% of the inmates in the United States have suffered unjustly in the hands of correctional officers. The sad reality is that these are the same people the inmates should trust and seek help from whenever they need assistance.

Deviance against inmates is a deviant behavior that is committed through different ways. Some of them include; discriminating against some prisoners, sexual relation or assault an inmate sexually, and abuse of authority among many others. As Ross, (2016) states, these deviant behaviors negatively affect the inmates and hinder inmates from going through the rehabilitation process successfully. For instance, when some inmates are discriminated upon; they tend to develop bad attitude towards the correctional officer and other prisoners that seems to be favored. Such behaviors compels the discriminated prisoners to device strategies to escape from prison as a way of getting away from the harsh environment or even injure the favored inmates as a retaliatory move. The solution is proper training and conducting a thorough background check for the applicant.

Further, Ross states that misuse of power has been evident for instance through correctional officers transferring inmates from one room to the other or from one correctional center to the other without following the right procedure. There are some instances the officer destroys the properties of the prisoners, confiscates their possessions, or even demands a favor from the inmates. The solution to the problem is making sure power is used properly. Lastly, there have been intense sexual assault and abuse that prisoners are taken through by correctional officers where the officers in some instances indecently touch the inmate. In some female correction centers, some inmates have complained of being sexually abused but the case is severe in make prisons where male inmates are engaged in sexual acts by male correctional officers. The solution is training officers on professionalism and a constant officers evaluation focusing on behavior, ethics and professionalism.

References

Ross, J. I. (2016). Key issues in corrections (2nd ed.). Policy Press.