CCJS432 Final Essay (Essay Sample)

Instructions:

(3) Final project:
Students will review the following scenario, analyze the facts, and prepare a recommended course of action for the Commissioner of Corrections.
Project Requirements:
· The format for the opinion is as follows:
o Using the following outline:
•§ Overview (1 paragraph each) ◦Heading and Introduction
◦Issues
◦Brief Answer
•§ Detail ◦Statement of Facts
◦Discussion (including applicable case law)
•§ Course of Action ◦Detailed
(Caution: Stick to the facts presented. There is no value in repeating in your paper significant parts of the information already provided in the Project Description.)
Project Scenario:
The Department of Correction has recently adopted a new mail policy. Effective immediately, all inmate correspondence, both incoming and outgoing, must be on 5x7 inch pre-stamped postcard. In addition, the policy restricts the color of ink that can be used; and requires that the return address be printed or written rather than being placed on an adhesive label.
The Commissioner held a press conference and explained that there were two reasons for the policy change. The first reason for the change was that there has been a significant increase in the amount of contraband being confiscated through the mail. The second reason given was that due to the volume of mail being received in institutions it is close to impossible to manage the mail processing operation; he stated that there is very limited space available to secure the mail, and that the number of Correction Officers required to process the mail daily is becoming a significant drain on the staffing requirements at facilities. The Department of Correction reported that it is currently 400 Correction Officers below the appropriate staffing levels. The Commissioner further reported that the Department must compensate for the staffing shortages by employing staff on overtime shifts and by closing inmate programs in order to assign staff to more important security posts.
Pre-Stamped 5x7 postcards are available for purchase in the inmate Commissary at a cost of $.50 each. The Commissioner stated that indigent inmates will be provided with three free postcards per week, providing that the meet the Departments definition of indigence. The policy states that to be considered indigent, an inmate’s commissary account must have less than a $10.00 balance for 45 days prior to the request for indigent supplies.
As can be expected, several civil suits have been filed by both inmates and inmate advocacy groups. The various suits claim that the policy change is a violation of the inmates’ First Amendment Rights, an invasion of privacy, and it interferes with the inmates’ access to the courts. The complaints further state that the policy changes are harassment, because they do not serve a legitimate correctional purpose; the majority of prisons and jails, in the country, manage to process letters and packages, without resorting to such draconian measures.
In addition to the civil suits filed by the inmates and advocacy groups, several legislators have demanded that the Commissioner immediately rescind the new policy and return to the previous method of managing the mail process. There have also been several editorials in the state’s major newspapers condemning the changes as being unnecessary and having no purpose other than to harass inmates and their families.

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Content:

CCJS432 Final
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Overview
Heading and Introduction
A correctional facility is structured to be an avenue through which inmates can use the vast amount of time on their hands to try and correct their deviant behavior, and to become better citizens of the society. In these facilities, one of the longest-serving traditions that has also kept many inmates grounded in the belief that the system does work is the ability to communicate with their loved ones through mail (Neubauer & Fradella, 2012). In essence, the mail system is the lifeline of any normal-functioning correctional facility. Attempting to replace this system with a less efficient one is in itself a suicide mission, and one that has detrimental effects on correctional facilities as institutions and as systems of change in society.
Issues
There are a number of pertinent issues that are raised through the change of the mailing system at the correctional facility. The first and most pressing is the shadowing of the First Amendment by this system. The First Amendment guarantees every American citizen, inmate or not, their freedom of assembly, religion, right to petition and expression. Going against this Amendment is, in essence, going against the constitution of the USA. The second issue in this change is the infringement on an individualâ€™s right to privacy. The fact that they are inmates does not mean they are no longer human beings that are entitled to their right to privacy. This also needs to be critically resolved.
The matter of indigence is also a critical issue within the correctional facility. The establishment of laws that seek to serve the indigent in a different manner, while still promoting the feigning of indigence also needs to be intricately assessed. Last but not least, the increased presence of contraband within the correctional facility has reached alarming levels. There is a deep need to develop and maintain a system that works to eradicate contraband and prevent further entry into the facility, while still maintaining the First Amendment guarantees of the inmates as enshrined within the constitution (Delaney, 2004).
Brief Answer
The majority of the issues that the correctional facility faces are legal issues, and which need to be addressed. It is necessary to address and solve these issues in a manner that does not contradict the constitution, but still ensures that correctional facilities exist to serve their purpose in society-correction and rehabilitation.
Detail
Statement of Facts
It is a fact that even as inmates, individuals are guaranteed the freedom of speech, expression and right to petition. This is evidenced by the single fact that before being an inmate, an individual is first a citizen of the USA. As such, the constitution exists to protect them, whether they are incarcerated or not. Being of the tenets that helps inmates actually correct their deviant behavior, mailing needs to be awarded the special attention that it demands.
Consequently, one cannot simply go ahead and change the entire mailing system (which was considered intimate and private) into a postcard system. It is essential to streamline the mailing system of the facility, not eradicate it completely. It is also extremely essential that all inmates are treated equally at the facility, regardless of their social status outside of the facilityâ€™s walls. Therefore, establishing criteria that define indigence essentially renders the indigent inmates a "special group" within the facility. This is a contradiction of the constitution.
Discussion
The mailing system is the lifeline of communication between the correctional facility and the outside world. It is the avenue through which the inmates communicate with their loved ones and the world in general. Communication, just like many things, is an intimate affair that requires plenty of privacy. It is for this reason that the initial mailing system existed. However, the recent surges in contraband within the prison have fuelled the need to replace the ailing mailing system.
Needless to say, this does not provide a permanent solution to the process. This standpoint is supported by two reasons: First, chopping off a head does not cure a headache. It is imprudent to eradicate a system that has and continues to work well in many areas over many years because some individuals have found ways to bypass the system. Rather than replacing the letter system, it would be wise to correct the issues that make this system inefficient. For instance, introducing scanners that can be used to vet mail received would go a long way towards returning the system to its previous glory. Secondly, the First and Fourth Amendments are explicitly clear when it comes to matters of expression and privacy. Being asked to communicate intimate details about oneâ€™s life such as family and personal affairs is a contradiction of the right to privacy and the freedom of expression.
In terms of privacy, an individual (an inmate in this case) is denied the privacy of communication with friends, relatives and even family. Because of this, they lose their constitutionally protected right to having private matters remain private. On the matter of expression, a postcard limits the expression of an individual to great lengths, seeing that it can be read by anyone. Because of this, an individual is denied the opportunity to freely express themselves, based on the technicality that contraband levels within the facility are getting very high. The need to eradicate contraband within the correctional facility doe not outweigh the privacy and freedom of expression that an individual is entitled to.
Contraband within correctional facilities cannot be tolerated as well. However, changing to a postcard system does not do the trick. Contraband only requires that letters and envelopes are searched more carefully to ensure that they do not contain any contraband. In addition to this, letters can also be checked for hidden codes more thoroughly, to prevent the passage of contraband through third parties already on some criminalsâ€™ payrolls.
Investing in better technology to improve on and build capacity for efficient service delivery works extremely well for the control of contraband. For this, it is rather obvious that it can be achieved without replacing the traditional letter system.
Indigence is not an option that would lure millions of individuals into pursuing. In this light, indigence within correctional facilities seems to be more compulsory than it is optional. Because of this, establishing a set of criteria that must be met to determine indigence within the facilities works to discredit the correctional facility not only for this decision, but also as an institution (Dershowitz, 1996).
The right to a lawyer and the court of law is also a fundamental need for every free individual. This is because it provides the ordinary individuals, inmates included, the opportunity and ability to pursue a legal process and hope to achieve success through this same process. By having postcards as the preferred object of writing, then client-attorney confidentiality is compromised, since an attorney would be unable to converse with their client without having other individuals "join" in the conversation (Neubauer & Fradella, 2012). It is for this reason that postcards are very inefficient as the sole mode of communication with inmates in this correctional facility.
In addition to this, inmates also stand the possibility of being subjected to high levels of harassment. Having prison guards, wardens and other staff have direct access to the intricacies and details of oneâ€™s life based on communication to and from oneâ€™s family is an infringement on their right to expression and privacy, as ...

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CCJS432 Final Essay (Essay Sample)

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