Death Penalty

 

        

 

After last week’s discussion in class regarding the death penalty, I was curious as to what others thought about this extremely controversial topic. Clearly, as Judge Taylor mentioned, most are either very admittedly against or for capital punishment, I like most things, fall short of this general population. I understand and agree with both sides of the argument. I do see how the death penalty provides a necessary deterrent for dangerous criminals and how it gives a since of justice and closer to those close to victims of dangerous criminals. As with all things in criminal justice and in life, every incident is separate. There is not same murder or rape or mass shooting. These acts may have several common factors, but each is an isolated incident.

Some state in our nation are not supporters of the death penalty and therefore they have made it illegal and they are 18 of them, the most recent was Illinois in 2011. Then there are those states that support the death penalty for example, Texas, the leader with a total of 510 executions since 1976.

From the website, Procon.org, I’ve selected two quotes from individuals on either side of the argument that I feel capture the real passion behind this very controversial issue.

In 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union has this to say about the death penalty:

“It [capital punishment] is immoral in principle and unfair and discriminatory in practice [...] No one deserves to die. When the government metes out vengeance disguised as justice, it becomes complicit with killers in devaluing human life and human dignity.

In civilized society, we reject the principle of literally doing to criminals what they do to their victims: The penalty for rape cannot be rape, or for arson, the burning down of the arsonist's house. We should not, therefore, punish the murderer with death... Capital punishment is a barbaric remnant of uncivilized society."

Also in 2007, Mr. David Mulhausen, says this regarding the death penalty:

"While opponents of capital punishment allege that it is unfairly used against African–Americans, each additional execution deters the murder of 1.5 African–Americans. Further moratoria, commuted sentences, and death row removals appear to increase the incidence of murder... Americans support capital punishment for two good reasons. First, there is little evidence to suggest that minorities are treated unfairly. Second, capital punishment produces a strong deterrent effect that saves lives."

Mr. Mulhausen is a senior policy analysis.

Both statements to me ring very true and convincing. I’d venture to guess the solution to this argument is one that may never be discovered.    

Reference –

ProCon.org. (2009). Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed? Retrieved from http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001324.

Training & Ethics

 

When discussing ethics as it relates to criminal justice, I often wonder what type of “training” is provided to those men and women who are police officers and faced daily with situations where they are required to make the right ethical decision.  I came across an article; “Ethical Challenges Faced by Law Enforcement Regularly”, which describes the different scenarios that are provided to not only street level cops but also the upper management, one of which I found particularly fascinating.

The situation is a 16 year police officer who happens to be gay, is partnered with a police officer that is not gay. The not gay partner approaches his supervisor and requests a transfer because he does not want to work with this known gay police officer.

This is an extremely difficult situation for the manager because there are so many layers to this one issue both with the civil rights aspect as well as the moral dilemma. In all professional capacities not just law enforcement, managers, owners, or any person of authority knows and understand that discrimination is not tolerated. This includes the equal treatment of homosexuals also.

Another concern this manger is now faced with is overall job safety. What if the complaining officers chooses not to conduct himself in a proper manor while at work and worst case scenario the two officers engage in sometime of conflict where they will need to rely on each other for protection. Is the officer that has a dislike for his partner really going to help keep him safe on the job?

Clearly, this manager cannot re-assign a partner to the gay officer simply because his partner requested this, but what is the right thing to do here? Today, we are faced with so much diversity in race, gender, religion, and sexual preference, it’s really insane to think there are two people unable to work together based off of one’s sexual preference but these situations do exist. How are they supposed to be handled? The idea is, with proper training and updated guidelines, these challenges should be easily met with the correct response.

Reference-

Hall, E. Ethical Challenges Faced by Law Enforcement. Criminology and Justice. Retrieved from http://criminologyjust.blogspot.com/2013/02/ethical-challenges-faced-by-law.html.

Our textbook has a discussion case titled, "Practical Jokes, Initiation, Hazing, or Discrimination" which covers the heavily debated topic of hazing. In this particular case, a female Chief of Police; Mary Bloom, is confronted with her past and "hazing" incidents that took place while she was a newer employee in a non-supervisor position. In my opinion, the type of hazing described in the text is considerably minor and hardly qualifies as an incident to be investigated as they are merely practical jokes such as, rubber snacks and shaving cream pranks. However, I do agree with this statement, "those officers who just accepted these jokes and didn't complain were accepted, but the complaining officers were not" (Banks p.335). I claim a neutral stance regarding hazing. I do feel there are some agencies that take the initiation a little too far. During my husband's initiation phase in the Navy he explained to me a few events that I considered border line but my husband thought it was an awesome learning experience and necessary for all newly selected Navy Chiefs. My husband also claims he can tell those who have not participated in the initiation process are shunned from their mess room and labeled differently for those who did complete the process. Some larger college sorority clubs also practice initiations which include crude hazing. A close friend of mine attended "unnamed" university and shared some of her stories of initiations events which included; nudity, reckless driving, and fasting. Regarding the discrimination suggestions in our textbook I do see how practical jokes in a work place maybe targeting a certain employee, not racial driven but possibly in a "bullying" manor. I do not feel that  a group of people engaged in initiation which sometimes involve hazing involve their selections based on discrimination. I say that because those who are going through said initiation are most of the time volunteering to withstand whatever type of hazing they will receive and therefore these people are not directly targeted. The ethical issue here is those who choose not to participated in these types of group initiations and as a result they are treated differently than those who complete initiation. There is where I would suspect discrimination takes part. Should those who do not participate in the traditions through initiation be treated differently? 



Banks, C. (2013). Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice (3rd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications. 

Inmates as Organ Donors

Is it ethical to allow inmates to be organ donors?

            I’m not sold on the idea of a lesser time sentence for inmates if they donate their organs. This would be an allowance only suitable on a case by case basis. However, I am all for the organ donating of death row inmates.  This is a controversial subject and I’m not sure if it’s been legalized yet, but I know one thing one organ can save more than one life; does it really matter who the donor is? I say no. This country has a huge need for organ donors. According to organdonors.gov “…an average of 18 people die each day waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of the shortage of donated organs.” There are some that say inmates on death row are attempting to redeem themselves by doing one last charitable thing before they are put to death and I say, what’s wrong with that? I do believe there are higher health risks involved with those who have been in prison for a long period of time, but that just means the medics would have to conduct really excellent tests on those specific organs prior to allowing them to be placed in someone else.  Each state is different in handling the request to be an organ donor. Some, like Texas have denied the request of a death row inmate to be an organ donor. Yet, in Alabama and Ohio there have been a couple documented donations from an inmate to a person needing an organ.

Death Row Inmate’s Raise Ethical Questions

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/14/death-row-inmate-wish-raises-ethical-questions/

            In the attached article there is some good information about inmate organ donating including both sides of the argument. I enjoy the part where a 62 year old survivor shares how she received an organ from a young child that was hit and killed while riding her bike and that saved her life. She also mentions how if she would have known the organ was coming from a death row inmate she probably would not have accepted it. I wonder if that were the real scenario, would she still be alive today to share her story in this article. It’s all very fascinating and I see how both sides of the argument have a great point of view but I still think the logical answer would be to allow on to donate in order to save another.

Lauren R., Sade, R. Shu S. Prisoners on Death Row Should be Accepted as Organ Donors. Retrieved from

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3388804/#!po=3.57143.

Death Row Inmate’s Wish Raises Ethical Questions. Fox News. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/14/death-row-inmate-wish-raises-ethical-questions/

Heath Resources and Service Administration. Retrieved from http://www.organdonor.gov/sitemap.html.

Women's Incarceration

I've heard about the growing rate of women committing crimes and ultimately going to prison.  In chapter 6 of our textbook the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) is briefly discussed and I was interested. The largest prison for females (worldwide) is the CCWF.  The prison is divided into different “risk” areas ranging from low to high. The prison’s low risk is the administrative segregation (where most of the inmates are, 75%). The highest risk area is actually death row (since the opening of the CCWF there have been 20 death row inmates). In the death row area women are not allowed to leave their cells without a correctional officer escorting them.  

Like many other prisons in the United States, the CCWF operates on a tight schedule. Starting at 6:30, cleaning, school work, job work, and eating meals take up the majority of an inmate’s day.  The majority of the inmates at the CCWF are sentenced for drug related crimes.

The CCWF does house some well know criminals such as; Susan Atkins who was associated with Charles Manson and Helen Golay known for the "Black Widow" murders in California. 

This website: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Facilities_Locator/CCWF.html will lead you to the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation webpage where you can locate the Central California Women’s Facility page by using the drop-down.  

Banks, C. (2013). Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice (3rd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications.