Correction officers and sexual misconduct.
Correction officers wear a uniform similar to police
and that uniform should represent a presence of authority. Correction officers must use discretion in order to maintain control over inmates. Currently, there are
more male correctional officers than women. But I don’t think that necessarily
indicate there are only male correctional officers having sexual relations with
women inmates. Women correction officers have been found guilty of having
relations with male inmates also. I think correction officers have a subculture
of survival and codes of their occupational community.
Our text has an example of such misconduct. In Case
Study 6.8, a former correctional officer was sentenced to 3 months in jail for
having sex in the Women’s Correctional Institution in Columbia, S. C. with
Susan Smith. Susan Smith is the young mother who was found guilty of drowning
her two sons in 1994 and whom is serving a life sentence for the crime. This admission
opened the door for a much broader investigation into misconduct of the
Correctional Department. Since, more
than a dozen officers and employees were charged with prison misconduct to
include sex with inmates or smuggling drugs.
What price is paid when a correction officer’s
authority is abused for sexually favors? How do a prison pick up the pieces after a
scandal of sexual misconduct?
References
Banks, C. Criminal
Justice Ethics. 2013. 3rd edition. SAGE. Thousand Oaks, CA.
http://edition.cnn.com/2000/LAW/08/30/susan.smith.sex/
