Introduction
Correctional counseling is a profession that entails many duties and is vastly exhausting not only mentally but also physically. The paper is going to focus on the role ethics play in correctional counseling. The article will also focus on the role of the correctional counselors, the primary objectives of legal disclosure statements and procedure forms, and elaborate on the legal consequences of violating the ethics in correctional counseling. Finally, the paper will address the significance of creating awareness of the ethical and legal duties of the correctional officers to the prisoners.
The role of ethics in correctional counseling.
Societies rely on federal, county prisons, and other correctional institutions to enhance public safety by operating safe facilities. Correctional counselors are aware of the fact that their duties are a form of public service and thus unethical practices ad misconduct vastly distorts public confidence. Based on these reasons, the correction facilities, therefore, operate on certain ethic codes and behaviors. According to Bhola and Raguram (2016), correctional counselors usually work with the prisoners to boost a healthy and peaceful environment and make changes to the parole procedures as required. Female correctional counselors might even work with male prisoners examining their progress or helping them in their transition process both inside and outside the institutions. The relationship between the correctional counselors and prisoners in most cases becomes sensitive and unstable, and thus there is a need for the correction counselors to adhere to a set code of ethics to ensure they remain objective.
Describe the role of the correctional counselor.
Correction counselors work with individuals that are in prison and jails, and their primary role is making significant decisions that have the best motives and interests for the prisoners. Correctional counselors also seek to help the prisoners, for instance, by intervening for them and monitoring their behaviors. Some of the things correctional counselors assist the inmates to overcome is reoffending and this is achieved through offering them emotional counseling and educating them on issues like mental health and the need to follow any set rules and regulations (Carrola et al.,2016). The correction counselors update and maintain the data of the prisoners they offer counseling and in most cases act as their witnesses during disciplinary meetings or hearings. The correctional counselors regularly create time for the prisoners and raise their problem coping and solving skills, enabling them to deal with the daily hardships they encounter in prison.
Describe the main goals of correctional counseling.
The principal objective of correctional counseling is to offer therapeutic intervention to different clients, most of these clients being offenders. The intervention entails prison changes, prerelease and post-release adjustments, and working with adolescent-related changes and challenges. Psychotherapy and correctional counseling encompass procedures that necessitate three vital goals one of which is the sense of timing that involves respecting and understanding the position of the offender in terms of perception and value. As postulated by Bhola and Raguram (2016), the other objective is that of effective risking that entails imparting significant efforts to the client to change their behavior and attitude. The additional goal of correctional counseling is career-based humility, and it incorporates acceptances of life occurrences that are not always fair and coming to terms with the fact that an individual does not win consistently. Generally, the goals of correctional counseling include boosting safety, justice and enhancing the treatment programs for the prisoners to ensure their wellbeing is improved.
Explain the importance of the legal disclosure statements and procedure forms.
Legal Disclosure Statement and procedure forms disclose data in an accurate and precise written language that is comprehensive. The data disclosed in these statements and forms are relevant to the prisoners and correction facilities (Carrola et al., 2016). Such statements and forms, therefore, have immense benefits, for instance, they make it easy for the correction counselors to examine the progress of the inmates. The prisoners’ family members can also employ these statements to track the progress and treatment plans of the prisoners, to evaluate the effectiveness of the facility.
Describe legal ramifications of violating ethical guidelines.
Correctional facilities operate on a set code of ethics and conduct that entails moral and effectiveness standards in their responsibilities. The primary goal of these facilities is to offer justice as instructed by the law and with integrity (Bhola & Raguram, 2016). Failure of the correctional facilities to adhere to the set rules and policies could attract punishments, for instance, sanctions. Greater violation attract severe penalties, for instance, court actions and dismissal of the correctional personnel involved.
Conclusion
A vital component of the correctional counselors’ professions is to give knowledge and awareness to the inmates regarding their legal and ethical responsibilities as well as rights. Even though the prisoners are sentenced based on crime, they are still entitled to enjoy the essential human rights as guaranteed by the constitution. Failure to keep them informed of their legal and ethical obligations could make the offenders file lawsuits against the faulty correctional counselors. Making the inmates aware of their legal and ethical duties boost objectivity as they are aware of what is expected of them, making them do the right things at the right time and this boosts productivity and the effectiveness of the correctional institutions.
References
Bhola, P., & Raguram, A. (Eds.). (2016). Ethical Issues in Counselling and Psychotherapy
Practice: Walking the Line. Springer.
Carrola, P. A., DeMatthews, D. E., Shin, S. M., & Corbin-Burdick, M. F. (2016). Correctional
counseling supervision: How supervisors manage the duality of security and mental health
needs. The Clinical Supervisor, 35(2), 249-267.