The corruption of public employees poses a significant problem to the administration of justice in the United States. The literature on corruption in criminal justice has focused almost exclusively on law enforcement agencies. The present study departs from this tradition by conducting an exploratory examination of the phenomenon of corruption within the field of corrections. The setting for this research was a state correctional agency responsible for the care and custody of adult felons. / The research design consisted of three complementary components: an assessment of contemporary accounts of correctional corruption reported in government documents, the academic literature and the public media; a content analysis of the official records of the Internal Affairs Unit of a state correctional agency; and a self report questionnaire designed to supplement the records analysis administered to a random sample of correctional officers. / The assessment of the contemporary literature revealed that corrupt practices appeared to be endemic in the field of corrections, and permeated all phases of adult corrections; no staff level appeared to be immune to charges of corruption. The opportunities and incentives for corruption appear to be great. Contributing factors are the intense inmate demand for illicit goods and privileges, the generally poor quality of staff employed in line positions in correctional agencies and the widespread use of low visibility discretion in matters dealing with the control of inmates. / The primary objective of the records analysis of the Internal Affairs Unit was to identify and describe the characteristics and patterns of corruption experienced by a specific correctional agency. / Five general offense types were identified: theft, trafficking with inmates, embezzlement, misuse of authority for personal material gain and a residual category. In addition, a descriptive profile of corruption was formulated, based on an analysis of the actors involved, initiator of the offense, organization, location, source of the complaint, and validity of the allegation. / To supplement the records analysis, which was necessarily limited to official reports of corruption, a self report questionnaire was administered to a random sample of correctional officers. In general the results obtained fom the self report instrument tended to support the findings of the records analysis. / Generally the research suggested that corruption serves two primary functions in a correctional setting. First, involvement in corrupt practices appears to be a technique used by certain employees to maximize their own personal gain through the exploitation of the authority vested in their position. Second, the corruption of public employees represents one method available to certain inmates to neutralize or at least minimize the rigorous deprivations associated with confinement. / There are several implications for controlling and managing staff corruption that emerged from this research. First, the widespread use of low visibility discretion can be reduced by formulating written and public guidelines with regard to the use of discretionary decisions in the operation of the prison; the inmate demand for illicit goods and services could be addressed by attempting to normalize, as much as possible, the conditions of confinement; the quality of staff could be improved by upgrading screening procedures, salary and promotion structures; and creating opportunities for advancement on the basis of merit. Finally, combatting corruption requires a commitment to accountability in corrections. The establishment of an independent Internal Affairs Unit and the use of routine and special audits increases the threat of detection and provides some measure of accountability to correctional agencies which has generally been lacking in the past. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-01, Section: A, page: 0400. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74376 |
| Contributors | MCCARTHY, BERNARD JEROME, JR., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 280 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds