Correctional Officer Ethical Dilemmas

698 Words2 Pages

In a correctional setting, if the correctional officer gets complacent or decides to do the bare minimum work then an array of things can happen. With the case of the of a union work slowdown due to budget cuts and likely layoffs it can produce many ethical dilemmas. A correctional officer has duties “referring to those actions that an individual must perform to be considered moral.” (Pollock, 2016) This will also bring up ethical formalism which tells the officer to do your duty, but when there are conflicting duties it does not help. This is because you have to choose between a work slowdown and doing what you know is morally correct. When a correctional officer does not complete their duties then this would bring up an ethical dilemma. Due to these factors of a work slowdown by correctional staff it can affect many different groups of people, and not just officers. This work slowdown could also affect administration as well as the inmate population. If there are fewer officers due to budget cuts, then the safety of the inmates could be in jeopardy if there are less officers, or if they are doing the bare minimum work. It could also result in a cut in the …show more content…

To fix this dilemma of a work slowdown it would be proposed that if layoffs are necessary due to budget constraints then layoffs are done by seniority with the department, as well as developing an early retirement package to those who are close to retirement. This could possibly save the jobs of those who could be laid off. To keep officers all overtime can and should be eliminated. Also, if an officer is laid off then they will be given the option to come back to the department as soon as fiscally possible. This would allow some officers to keep their job, others to retire early with a full retirement, and this would ease the pressure on administration to make layoffs within the

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