Essay Sample on Improvements to the Correctional Systems

Introduction

The corrections systems should establish clear policies of treating inmates and provide adequate education and training to ensure their officers adhere to the principles of professional conduct as stated by correctional officer's organization. Clear established policies ought to guarantee respect for prisoner's constitutional right (Correctional Officer. Org., 2019). Some of the correctional officers deny the inmates constitutional guarantees and basic human rights that include both physical and mental abuse which becomes dehumanizing. Thus, the establishment of clear policies should ensure that correctional officers do not discriminate the convicts based on race, gender, physical appearance and gender among other attributes. They should also ensure that inmates receive basic wants such as food, cloth, and right living conditions while serving a sentence since it is provided in the constitution (Correctional Officer. Org., 2019). Adequate training and education would help the correctional officers to understand their duties, rights, and privileges as well as those of prisoners. Lack of enough information concerning their duties contributes to going against the principles of professional conduct. Hence, it is vital to ensure that all the necessary information is provided to the correctional officers to ensure they execute their mandate within the confines of the law.

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The conditions of correctional facilities circumvent the "cruel and unusual punishment standard" of the Eighth Amendment. Eighth Amendment states that there should be no imposing of excessive fines or requirement of excessive bail or infliction of cruel and unusual punishments (Lerner, 2012). Even though there lack standard measurement of cruel and unusual punishments, some of the correctional facilities by-pass the Eighth Amendment through the torture of inmates. Some of the correctional officers physically abuse those in incarceration to the extent of damaging their body parts. These acts cause some of them to suffer from mental illness and leave the prison worse than how they entered. Therefore, it demonstrates an element of circumventing the law since physical and mental torture is a cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the law.

Capital punishment should be removed from the U.S. corrections system because it is not constitutional. Capital punishment is incompatible with current standards of civility in the U.S, and thus it contravenes the constitution that prohibits excessive as well as disproportionate punishments (Meltsner, 2011). Further people have questioned the morality of this form of punishment that entails ending the life of an offender. Capital punishment consumes a lot of resources including time and money before the final judgment (Meltsner, 2011). Therefore, a life sentence is appropriate for even the most heinous act rather than the death penalty because it does not go against the moral principles and it isolates the offender from the society.

Intermediate sanctions are the sentencing options that fall in between the standard parole or probation and the restrictive imprisonment. They require strict supervision of the offender's behavior and some of the examples include but not limited to fines, house arrest, electronic monitoring, and close monitoring among others. Intermediate sanctions are important in the criminal justice system since they provide a wide range of sentencing options for judges to help reduce the rates of restricted imprisonment. They serve a rehabilitative role of the correctional services by ensuring close monitoring of behavior for the purpose of assisting in correcting deviance from the offenders.

Rehabilitation, particularly for young people, remains an integral philosophy for the criminal justice system and the intermediate sanctions are some of the best alternatives that can support behavior change for young offenders. Intermediate sanctions also help to decongest the prisons which is a major issue in the United States. This sentencing option enables the offender a chance to reform while integrating with the community through programs that have been specifically tailored to help them with behavior change. The intermediate sanctions are critical in preventing recidivism which is another factor that has resulted into congestion of jails (Taxman, 2012). The programs are designed to help people with behavioral problems such as drug addiction and sex offenders to reform within the community setting. A case in point is the recent sentencing of the Hakes an offender of driving while intoxicated where the court sentenced him to wear and pay for Secure, continuous, remote alcohol monitoring for monitoring his alcohol consumption for five years (People v Hakes 2018).

Correctional officers are not adequately equipped to deal with inmates suffering from mental illness. The mentally ill inmates pose dynamic therapeutic and administrative challenges which have been highlighted by various studies. The studies suggest that the size, intensity, and range of mental health conditions among the inmates are some of the challenges that keep evolving and require the officers to undergo regular training to become adequately equipped to deal with the magnitude of the problem. The discussion centers on how the correctional officers have challenges handling the overwhelming cases of mentally ill inmates with limited training amid limited resources which has been dedicated towards such course. The studies challenge the criminal justice system to equip the officers with a more sophisticated approach to mental care for the inmates through a comprehensive approach that entails prevention, environmental control, the use of actuarial devices, medication and isolation as some of the contemporary methods. The research also recognizes that certain significant milestones have been achieved in the care of mentally ill inmates but there is a lot of continuous training required to adequately equip the correctional officers.

References

Adams, K., & Ferrandino, J. (2009). Managing mentally ill inmates in prisons. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35(8), 913-927.

Correctional Officer. Org. (2019). Principles of Professional Conduct. http://www.correctionalofficer.org/professional-conduct

Lerner, C. S. (2012). Sentenced to confusion: Miller v. Alabama and the coming wave of Eighth Amendment Cases. Geo. Mason L. Rev., 20, 25.

Meltsner, M. (2011). Cruel and unusual: The Supreme Court and capital punishment. Quid Pro Books.

People v Hakes, 139 NY (2018)

Taxman, F. S. (2012). Probation, intermediate sanctions, and community-based corrections. The Oxford handbook of sentencing and corrections, 363-385.