Ethical decision-making in prison parole board policies

Ethical Behavior in Criminal Justice

The Parole Board

Correction facilities are meant to shape the characters of offenders; offer punishment for crimes committed, and train them to fit the society well after release. It also gives them the chance to become accepted into the society systems once released (Herman, 2012). Offenders are there in different forms. There are those are capital offenders while others are minor offenders. Capital offenders are charged differently from the minor offenders. In every case, capital offenders are the ones who face the worst punishment and the least chances of being pardoned. Terms of imprisonment also vary according to the nature of the crime committed. During parole, the prisoner is taken through a session of relative freedom of movement. Here, the prisoner engages in community service that encompasses cleaning the environment and any other menial jobs. During this process, the prisoner will be expected to report to the police station for assessment. This will continue to the point where the authorities are satisfied that some improvements have been recorded in the character of the individual in question.

Parole is the temporary discharge of a detainee who agrees to some conditions. Parole involves releasing a prisoner after agreeing to change his or her character for good. For instance, the concerned prisoner must have proved to the prison authorities that he can live as a law-abiding citizen. Parole entails having an arrangement where the criminal will keep in reporting to the police authorities every on a frequent basis to report the progress of his or her conduct. Parole is given to minor offenders and to first-time offenders. During parole, the offender is supposed to abstain from any crime whatsoever.

Parole or no parole

From the high levels of crime occurring in the U.S. today, there has been a challenge with the capacity in the prisons. Overcrowding is the latest problem that is facing the corrective facilitate. It is the even to the problem that the government has considered having parole options in order to restore manageable levels of prison populations as it was before. There are many evils associated with overcrowding. This includes the rise of gang fights as well as other socially unacceptable behaviors such as sodomy and bullying. Human rights activists are considering suing the federal governments for failure to give more options for parole.

Mr. Richard, the chairperson of parole team is faced with the challenge of deciding which action to take regarding this issue. The governor wants him to advise him on whether the federal government should give room for more parole to happen or not. When they contravene it, they end risking legal suits from the advocates. In this case, they will not win the case since the severity of the overcrowding effects on the inmates is very high. People in charge of the prisoners will wish to have parole given so that they are relieved from the excess work at their stations.

The dilemma

The big dilemma in this case is whether the parole board should allow more prisoners to be released on parole or not. In the event that they are released, they may end up engaging in the crime again and that it will be hard to re-arrest them. Once a prisoner is out of jail, there is little assurance that they will change in their character. Parole does not allow minor offenders to go scot-free. They have to serve some form of a disciplinary duty such as having to participate in community service activities. It is through these acts of labor that they get to obtain then desire character and conduct. If the parole team fails to approve the opportunity for more parole options, there is likelihood that prisoners will be unmanageable and riotous at some point. Human rights advocates also stand a very high chance of winning the case they file against the federal government.

Mr. Richard should advise the Governor to give approval for the inclusion of parole programs in the prison system. The Governor should also ensure that kind of parole given does not increase the likelihood of a crime being committed again by the said prisoners. Upon release, there should be a tight follow-up monitoring process where all the prisoners are given the chance to develop their conduct with minimal temptations to violence. Mr. Richard also stands a chance of losing the respect that he has from the governor if he does not advise him accordingly. This can be classified as a catch 22 situation, given the fact that there are two equally convincing fronts to the argument.

Ethical basis

Releasing prisoners on parole has the effect of angering the public, especially if the said prisoner is said to have been a nuisance to the society of origin and demoralizing other law-abiding citizens. Law-abiding citizens will end up taking improvement with contempt. Consequently, they will engage in the same crimes that the prisoners once committed. The result of this is that it will be hard to make people accept and practice a law if it is repugnant in any case. The process through which parole is given is also full of corrupt activities. Before someone can be granted parole, the prison authorities unscrupulously end up extorting money from the inmates. Such practices have led to the kind of imperfections currently witnessed at the prisons. There is also a new trend revolving around the parole issue. Other ethical issues revolving around the parole issue include the society's reaction to the release of a criminal who is well-known to have been a thorny issue for many.

2. The warden's position

Mr. William is the warden of one of the correctional facilities in town. He is grappling with the problem of overcrowding in the prisons, Inn this case; he is not on his own in making the decisions concerning the issue. The unions of security workers at the prison have requested him to hear out how to solve the problems of overcrowding. She appears the best person to address the problem in the eyes of his juniors. In his prison, the many detainees have often affected the service delivery in many federal courts. As a result, the challenges that come with overcrowding have put him in this situation where he has to address the concerns of the security people.

Causes and effects of overcrowding

The Arrest and Prosecute campaign has led to the overcrowding effects at the prisons. Human rights activists have been urging the federal government to reduce the time through which suspects have to be termed so before being proved whether guilty or not. In this case, this has led to many arrests being made effective and consequently a rise in the numbers who are imprisoned. There are no sufficient prisons to accommodate all the many prisoners arrested each time. Overcrowding has several effects, which are negative to the employees of the prison and to the prisoners themselves. The security people and the support staff found in the prison system are likely to face attacks from the inmates if they are in their large numbers. The prisoners will also end up harming themselves when they are in an overcrowded place. Reports show that many cases of sodomy as well as bullying that come in the form of gang fights are witnessed in a crowded prison system. It is highly likely that people often turn chaotic and somehow wild when they are in an overcrowded place. In the U.S. prisons, many employees as well as inmates have died from issues related to overcrowding.

Mr. William, at this point, has to address the concern that has been brought to his table. One serious matter touches on not only the lives of the security personnel but also that of the prisoners being held. If not corrected, the problem will water down the whole process of trying to correct the lives of the inmates. Notably, today's prisons serve to harden criminals more than in the past. Those criminals who have gone through the prison at some point are known to be less bothered with the inconveniences that the prison environment brings. Once it gets to this point, then the correction agenda will haves as well be lost.

The challenge at hand is not the making of Mr. William but rather the results of the effects of the government policy. Federal governments yielded to the clamor to have the quickest prosecution of criminals possible. However, there were no responsive plans meant to have the risen numbers contained from exceeding the prison capacity. It will as well be hard for Me. William to address this issue brought before him independently. It requires the efforts and the goodwill of the government to have the prisons decongested. As noted earlier, the problem of decongestion is aggravated by the government's refusal to have a law that allows parole. Although the reasons for turning down the parole appeal are real and genuine, it can be applied cautiously, and the same good results can be obtained. Mr. William should elect to inform the necessary bodies of the need to amend the law on parole. There is a need to have the law on parole amended to prevent the unfortunate circumstance of overcrowding solved.

However, given the urgency and the seriousness of the matter, the warden cannot wait for the government to amend the law to start acting. This is not something that at all requires postponement. Since the lives of the security workers and that of another support staff is at stake, there is a need to put up proactive measures that can prevent the occurrence of the crisis. For instance, in the case of safety of the security personnel, there is a need to have proper fencing of the prison system. The warden also needs to take steps to give these employees some assurance that all is being done to ensure their safety. They need to have a confidence boost since they are facing a potential life threatening issue. The warden also has to assure them that there shall be plans to increase their number to make them safer. Addition of more security surveillance systems is also something that the warden needs to give an assurance to the security personnel that all is being done to have them safe at work.

3. The District Attorney's case

Drug barons had become a menace in the recent past. They conducted through trade while fully armed with guns. At times, they could be engaged in city shootouts that ended up causing casualties on either side of the firing side. Thus made the city mayor, though the police chief to move swiftly and make massive arrests in a bid to tame the situation. The overzealous arresting spree has ended up having many innocent inmates in prisons. The kinds of cases that are also at hand do not have sufficient evidence since there was no sufficient prior investigation done before effecting the arrests. Martha, the district attorney, feels that the arrests made, and the cases presented are weak. She then feels that such hasty arrests ought not to happen. However, she has an obligation to support the mayor and other authorities who have taken a stand to eradicate drug trading. In this situation, she finds herself in a situation where she has to defend her career objectives of preserving justice as well as fulfill the collective duty helping eradicate crime. Pressure from the public also goes the same direction of the mayor.

Martha needs to instruct the prosecutors to carry out a thorough investigation before presenting the suspects to the court. This is done to prevent a situation where the office of the attorney is being put to shame for staging a weak case before the judges. Martha also has to instruct the prosecutors on how to conduct the trial and plea sessions in court. They should be made to understand that no case could go through when there is insufficient evidence. It is also appropriate to conduct a feasibility study on the likelihood of collapse of the cases at hand. If the case is weak from the onset, the prosecutors need to have arrangements for dismissal to be possible. Therefore, Martha should give instructions for actions that will cast the image of her office in good light. This is done using the industry's best practices guiding the law profession. She also has to ensure that she acts in line with the collective responsibility of having to support the government's fight against drug trafficking. These two roles might fail to correlate, but she has to consider having a tradeoff that will lead to some form of optimality.

Ethical issues

Ethics in this case are likely to be lacking. For instance, Martha knows very well that it is against the requirements of her profession to fix cases that do not naturally hold. She however goes ahead to don it. She simply acted in a way that made her appear good to the country's leadership. She also does this so as to looking tough o her job, a fete that is not in the good interest of the suspects (Kitson & Campbell, 2012). Ethical standards were also breached in the sense that the prosecutors acted in response to the directions of the attorney. Ideally, the prosecution process is supposed to exercise independence in their service. Independence and objectiveness are the main tenets that ensure the administration of justice on the part of the prosecution. Other benefits of being ethically compliant in the prosecution process are that it leads to satisfaction to all the participants of the case.

4. The officer

There have been complaints from the prosecution department regarding the case of too many minor cases contributing to unnecessary backlog. Most senior officers in the force have distinguished this as an unnecessary endeavor. Linda, a police officer, also finds herself in a situation as described by the prosecutors as 'minor cases that just bring backlog to the system.'

Linda encounters a potential drug baron. In this case, the drug baron has failed to present official identification documentation and thus has to be arrested so that identification can be done through the fingerprint test process. While still grappling with the issue of whether to arrest a suspect or not, her colleague call her asking her to join an emergency case of a burglary in progress. This hits her mind that the case she is trying to create out of the drug addict falls under the minor cases that had been termed as unnecessary. However, her conviction to eradicate drug peddling makes her stick to the course and pursues her new case. She responds to dispatcher by telling him that there is a case at hand that she is engaged in that is worth pursuing. She chooses to lie to the dispatcher that the case is big and requires due attention. In this sense, she justifies her reasons not to join hands with the rest of her team and instead stay on her line of duty.