Instructions
In a two-page paper discuss the following describe the different perspective of liability and that officers may have from correctional leaders. Discuss why leadership styles may need to be adjusted in different prison environments. Finally discuss how you as a correctional leader, would handle officers ethical issues as is not reporting inmate altercation as required.
Leadership
The correctional leaders and officers have to intervene when another officer is engaging in unlawful, especially excessive force. Failure to intervene attracts two liabilities, civil liability and criminal liability. Civil liability is a liability that results from all the damagers which the officer did not prevent. In contrast, criminal liability results from federal prosecution. Management of these liabilities is an important issue in the correctional and detention operations. Liability is applicable in all aspects of correctional operations. The particular focus of litigation is based on detainees and prisoners’ constitutional rights. The source of liabilities involves medical and health care, suicide prevention, and the use of force.
The correctional leaders and officers have to consider ways to manage these liability risk that they face daily in their work. The considerations involve the things that happen to bring problems in terms of litigation and what should be done in the right way and to demonstrate proper actions to be taken. The officer and correctional leaders have a different perspective of liabilities. The officer’s liability arises from their actions and conduct, which involves acting in a certain way and also a failure to act in a certain way according to the situation. On the other hand, the correctional leaders, which are the supervisors and administrators, have liabilities from the failure to do something in their leadership positions.
The officer has different levels of liabilities, which results from civil actions that include intentional torts, negligence actions, and violations of civil rights. The correctional leaders have a different level of liability that is considered criminal actions, which involves state criminal actions, depravation of rights, and deliberate indifference. The correctional leaders face supervisor liability that comes from the actual knowledge of subordinate conduct and also result from the inadequate response from the supervisor to show deliberate indifference.
Weak and inadequate leadership within the organization structure is among the leading causes of stress to correctional officers. The leaders face organizational issues that relate to inconsistent discipline, poor communication, and lack of support from supervisors. There is a need to change the culture of corrections that is established in a negative work environment that leads to high-stress levels and causes too many suicide cases. A transformation of the leadership practices and guidance provision should be adopted to achieve a positive leadership style.
A correctional leader is important to focus on building a team, motivation and collaboration with employees at all levels of the organization structure. In the leadership position, inspirational motivation and idealized influence would be the basic ideology of leadership style. As a correctional leader, handling officers’ ethical issues such as reporting altercation of inmates require the creation of open communication with officers and focus on transparency pertaining to what is happening at the facility. The officer needs to understand the vision and mission of the correctional facility and work towards their achievement. The officer needs to work toward adopting change that occurs and change in certain policies concerning their conduct and the facility’s management. Cultivating transformative leadership requires the officers to know the challenges and issues that the leadership position face in work. As a result, the administrator and the officer maintain an open-minded attitude and actively listen to ethical concerns. Consequently, correctional leadership gets a chance to deal with people’s concerns and resolve them with immediate effect.
References
Corrections administrators must change their leadership style. (2016, August 30). In Public Safety. Retrieved from https://inpublicsafety.com/2016/04/corrections-administrators-must-change-their-leadership-style/
Leadership in a correctional environment. (2006, May 1). Free News, Magazines, Newspapers, Journals, Reference Articles and Classic Books – Free Online Library. Retrieved from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Leadership+in+a+correctional+environment.-a0151973849
Worley, R. M., Worley, V. B., & Hsu, H. (2018). Can I trust my co-worker? Examining correctional officers’ perceptions of staff–inmates inappropriate relationships within a southern penitentiary system. Deviant Behavior, 39(3), 332-346.
