Michael A. Gray M.A.Ed. - An Ethical Approach to Ending Recidivism: The Optimal Guide to Moral Practice and Effective Communication with Inmates in the Department of Corrections

AN ETHICAL
APPROACH TO ENDING
RECIDIVISM

THE OPTIMAL GUIDE TO MORAL PRACTICE AND

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH INMATES IN THE

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

MICHAEL A. GRAY M.A.ED.

Educator/Trainer

Copyright 2016 by Michael A. Gray.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 12/22/2015

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Contents

Creating and
maintaining your beliefs

Though the law enforcement officers bill of rights varies from state to state, the most common provisions include:

• Officers should be informed of any pending investigations against them, unless informing them would compromise the integrity of the case
• Officers should be informed of the outcome of the investigation and of any recommendations made regarding discipline
• Interviews should be conducted while the officer is on duty whenever practical or possible
• Officers should be informed of the name, rank and command of the officer overseeing the investigation
• Officers should be permitted to have an attorney or representative present with them during any interrogation
• Officers must not be threatened or promised rewards in exchange for their testimony
• Officers should be entitled to a hearing regarding the final disposition of the investigation, with access to the allegations and evidence presented against them
• Officers should have the opportunity to provide written commentary and attach it to any adverse information, such as complaints and disciplinary action that is placed in their personnel files.
• Officers should not be subject to retaliation for exercising these rights

Every sworn officer knows, or at least should know by now, that they live in a glass jar. Friends, relatives, neighbors, and strangers watch every move Correctional Officers make both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizes police officers more than most other professions, either because theyre cynical or hope to catch them screwing-up or because theyre hopeful and are looking for a good example and a strong leader. In either case, its up to the officer or custody staff to be above reproach in both his public and private life. The major difference between most correctional officers or custody staff and extremely successful officers or custody staff is the gap between what they know and what they do. Both groups have about the same knowledge base. Extremely successful officers and custody staff are just better at doing what they should be doing.

The public become upset for a number of reasons, many of which dont have much to do with the police or customer service your department provides. These include:

Unmet expectations: This could be related to how the public expected to be treated or how they think police protective services should be provided.

Untrained personnel: People really dont want to be the test subject for a trainee. They want their problems to be handled by people who know what to do.

This side of the organization: People who have had previous bad experiences with the department are had heard negative things about the department may react more angrily when something goes wrong than they would otherwise.

Is the only way: Some customers think the only way they can get their needs met is to be angry and demand better service.

Discourtesy: Naturally, people are angry when they feel they have been treated without respect.

Ignored: people who feel they are being ignored or, such as those whose phone calls are not return, react angrily.

Conflicting stories: When people are told one thing by one civil-service worker and something else by another, they naturally become angry, because it appears that someone is lying to them.

Argument: if someone in the department has argued with the customer, the customer will often have to be handled carefully in order to return them to a state of calmness.

Feelings invalidated: When you tell someone they shouldnt feel a certain way, it often angers them, because it implies that their feelings are unimportant or wrong.

Previous state: if a customer is already upset, tired, or under stress when he comes in, it is easy for him to be upset.

Frustration: If the customer is having difficulty getting help, he can easily become angry. For example, a customer who is transferred from department to department may lose his temper, particularly if he feels helpless.

Honesty is challenged: A customer who feels that his integrity is being question will often react with anger.

Embarrassment: People are angry when they are embarrassed, and they often lash out unfairly.

Vindication: Some people are determined to prove themselves right, whether it is really necessary or not.

Failure to listen: To those who feel as if they are not given a chance to tell their side of the story often react extremely negatively.

Personality: Some customers are just naturally contrary, and they dont need much of an excuse to fly off the handle.

Personal prejudice: Everyone has prejudice, and some people are unable to control them. The person may be prejudiced against your skin color, your department, your cologne; while virtually anything else conceivable.

Manipulation: Some customers may use anger as a method of intentionally manipulating others.

This book is specifically for new correction officers, custody staff and educators. This book teaches how to communicate effectively with offenders in a correctional educational setting.

This book is also written with the intent to remind teachers of where it is they work and the dangers they face if they work outside the rules while working in a correctional setting. The majority of inmates in the criminal justice system are undereducated and systemically powerless, mostly the black and brown men and boys already failed by a nightmarishly bureaucratic urban education system for who prison intensifies powerlessness. A few inmates enter prison with education as a critique- and acting on the critique may be what landed them there. In the end, the argument for or against this book or that for prison education is not the point.

The point is there are learning opportunities for inmates in prisons. That is no salvo to the system of corrections, rather, that is what people do dream, create, and grow against all odds and in the most horrifying circumstances. This wonderful accident of humanness does not, however, mitigate the unbearable conditions of prisons or the reasons theyre placed into them. What is needed is acute dual attention to structural sicknesses of our society regarding racism, sexism, and the classed system of economic inequity.

The departments adult education system is based on the public school model. Each prison operates its education program as an individual school composed of academic, vocational, and life skills instruction. Because of repetitive reentry and exit of inmates from prison, the department of corrections (DOC) organizes classes on a model that provides an individual, self-paced programing for each inmate.