Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Cooper's Ethical Decision-Making And The Case Of Corcoran State Prison
The Situation
The situation at Corcoran State Prison was one in which prison authorities were staging gladiatorial type combats between prisoners, baiting prisoners by exploiting poor race relations and tossing them into the "yard" during the recreation hour at the prison (Dryburgh, 2009, p. 162). Rival gangs were put into the yard at the same time on purpose so that "matches" could be held by the guards. Guard Steve Rigg attempted to stop this policy but was unsuccessful. Moreover, guards were needlessly firing into the crowd of inmates in order to break up fights that they themselves helped to instigate. Guards were then prompted by other guards to falsify reports in order to cover-up any wrongdoing. It was in this situation that the inmate Preston Tate was shot in the head accidentally by guards following one of these fights among prisoners in 1994. Tate was killed and guards claimed he failed to heed warnings to stop; surveillance footage showed that Tate was not the aggressor in the fight (Dryburgh, 2009, p. 163). Two guards, Steve Rigg and Richard Caruso, felt the death was the last straw and came forward to the FBI to testify. They went to the FBI because it was their opinion that the Department of Corrections "was covering up the true level of violence...
163).
Possible Courses of Action
Possible courses of action open to the two whistleblowers were: a) to do nothing and let the process go on; b) attempt to reform from within without exposing the corruption to higher/outside authorities; c) quit and find employment elsewhere and leave others to handle the situation. None of these options were particularly appealing for the guards. To do nothing would have made each of them as culpable as the guards violating their ethical code and the corruption would have persisted. To attempt to reform from within would have been as equally unsatisfying, as Rigg's experience already showed him: the environmental culture of the prison was not conducive to reform as authorities within did not wish to have policy changed. To quit and find work elsewhere would have been the same as ignoring the situation and allowing it to go on.
Why They Blew the Whistle
Thus it was that Rigg and Caruso blew the whistle on the activities at the prison: they felt there was no other recourse to positive action. They could not allow the negligent abuse to go on -- not after it cost an inmate his life. After the authorities within the prison refused…
References
Dryburgh, M. (2009). Policy implications of whistle-blowing: The case of Corcoran
State Prison. Public Integrity, 11(2): 155-170.
Friedman, A., Miles, S. (2002). Developing Stakeholder Theory. Journal of Management Studies, 39(1): 1-21.
Davis and Beauchamp At the present moment Michael Davis' "Some Paradoxes of Whistleblowing" begins from the standpoint of skepticism toward what he describes as the "standard theory" of whistleblowers. In this, he lays out what is taken to be the justification offered for whistleblowers, but notes that they are not individual actors but parts of a larger organization. The information they leak to the public is not information that they have
Public Administration and the Role of the Whistleblower The role of the whistleblower in Public Administration is one that continues to be controversial. On the one hand, some members of the public view the whistleblower as an important player in the maintenance of public service offices and agencies. Individuals like Edward Snowden are seen as patriots because they expose overreach and illegal activity by agencies like the NSA which overstep their
In this case the affair did not have any apparent effect on the business. In fact during the time of the nearly two-year affair profits actually rose. However the whistle blower believed that the affair was morally wrong, particularly because the boss was married with children. The whistleblower believed that ultimately the affair would be detrimental to the business so he blew the whistle. He believed that the affair was
Privacy, Security, Whistleblowing [Surveillance is a necessary evil to prevent terrorist attacks from happening.]A [For example, the secret "PRISM" effort saved New York City's subways from a 2009 terrorist plot led by a young Afghan-American, Najibullah Zazi.] A = Main Argument Surveillance is a necessary evil to prevent terrorist attacks B = Level The secret PRISM effort saved New York City's subways in 2009 from a terrorist plot. Claim B. is Level 1 and supports Argument
PharmaCARE -- Case Review The Stakeholders There are numerous stakeholders and stakeholder groups that are presented in this case. The stakeholders can be thought of in two different primary groups to make the first set of distinctions, internal and external groups. Internal Stakeholders The management team The employees CompCARE and PharmaCARE Investors External Stakeholders Colberian Citizens and Workers The Drugs Patients Employees, Management, and Investors at Wellco Society in General PharmaCARE's Unethical Treatment of the Colberia's PharmaCARE's received support from the Colberia's in
Nurses and Ethics of Code Regardless of what institution or department a person is in, there would be violation of the laws in the workplace. Healthy workplaces basically contribute to the job satisfaction of all the people who are working there. Let alone job satisfaction, it leads to and actually affects patient safety. (Browne, 2009) Now many scholars and experts are looking into the ethics of a workplace and how they