Posted: September 9th, 2022

Correctional policies inform and govern staff’s behavior

Correctional policies inform and govern staff’s behavior, confirm that the administration has performed the roles assigned, and sets clear expectations on what needs to be done. It is also the primary source of staff training, supervision, and defense support when things are not right. Correctional policies are grounded in a defensible rationale so that it is not based on whim preference. A policy relates to a legitimate correctional outcome that prevails standards, or a goal aimed by implementing these policies. Legitimate correctional outcomes refer to security, safety, inmate rights, sanitation, inmate welfare, and due process, among others mentioned in the 1980s.
The first example of these policies is Capital punishment, which is the best way to avoid overcrowding in jails since lifers would be sent to death row and executed (Spohn & Brennan, 2019). The lifers don’t need a cell or space in jails in an already crowded jail. Additionally, the death penalty frees up space in federal prisons and overcrowded state. The second policy is the rights of the inmates. Although inmates do not have full constitutional rights, the Eighth Amendment prohibits unusual and cruel punishment and protects them. The provision also requires the inmates to be given a minimum standard of living. Inmates have the right to be free from sexual crimes, the right to humane conditions and facilities, the right to express complaints on their conditions, and the right to be free from racial segregation.
The third example of the policies includes treatment programs. The treatment programs for inmates that exist include academic education, innovative programming grants, substance use disorder treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, and career technical education. Punishment prevents other people from committing criminal acts. The punishment is just an example to the society and the inmates, which puts them on notice that criminal behavior is punishable. Capital punishment, which is also regarded as the death penalty, refers to the execution of an offender sentenced to death after being convicted by a criminal offense law court. Capital punishment is distinguished from extrajudicial executions undertaken without due process of law, and it is under the utilitarian theory.
The second theory of punishment is a retributive theory that seeks to punish offenders because they deserve punishments (Ghafar, 2017). The utilitarian theory of punishment punishes offenders for discouraging them from future wrongdoing or deterring them from committing a crime in the future. The most common types of punishment theories include deterrence, rehabilitation, just deserts, restoration, incapacitation, and learning more about criminal punishment. The treatment program policy is under rehabilitation, while the inmates’ rights belong to just deserts type of criminal punishment.
Rehabilitation is a recently formulated theory of punishment whose idea is to apply punishment meant to treat and train the offenders to enable them to return to society and function as law-abiding community members. The main purpose of such a program is to reduce recidivism. That is the number of inmates who re-offend after being released to the community. Just desert is a theory designed to promote fairness and equality of sentencing to impose a sentence. The principle behind it is that punishment should be relatively equal to the crime. When that happens, it is said that the inmate has received just deserts. Restorative justice is a theory that emphasizes repairing the damage done by criminal behavior. Crime does damage, and justice focuses on repairing that harm, the most affected people by that crime take part in finding the solution.
References
Spohn, C., & Brennan, P. K. (2019). Sentencing Policies and Practices in the 21st Century: An Introduction. In Handbook on Sentencing Policies and Practices in the 21st Century (pp. 1-16). Routledge.
Ghafar, M. (2017). Exiting solitary confinement: A survey of state correctional policies. UCLA L. Rev., 64, 508.

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