Constitutional Rights and Administrative Goals Essay

The 8th Amendment and Prison Life

Not all of an individual’s Constitutional rights are lost the moment the person is incarcerated. On the contrary, it is there that they become more important than ever because it is in the penitentiary that individuals are essentially cut off from society and at the mercy of the correctional system. The correctional system must, therefore, maintain a degree of authenticity and transparency so that society can be assured that prisoners are treated humanely and in accordance with their Constitutional rights. At the same time the correctional system has to take issues such as security, effective administration, and cultural sensitivity. This paper will show that when it comes to the rights of the incarcerated, the correctional system must be fair and equitable in their treatment and handling of prisoners.

Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 (1974) was the United States Supreme Court case that set the record straight on prisoners and their due process rights. One of the allowances provided prisoners is their “good time credits”—and upon the occasion that these are taken from prisoners as a punitive measure by the prison, the Court ruled that prisoners must be allowed to present a defense. Firstly, the Court ruled that in the event of a disciplinary decision to revoke good-time credits the prisoner be notified; secondly, there should be administrative hearings, and the prisoner should have the opportunity to call witnesses and present evidence in his defense. The Court showed the extent to which prisons must consider the rights of the incarcerated.

Oaks (1965) defines due process as “the highest safeguard of liberty” (p. 243). That liberty must extend to prisoners as they do not lose their right to due process to administrative appeals and the right to have access to the parole process. They also have an 8th Amendment right to be free from the abuse of cruel and unusual punishment. This one is especially important, as there are some prisons, such as the ones in Alabama, that may be violating…

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…corrections can be anything from hiring a diverse crew to represent all ethnicities in the facility to making sure that no minorities are marginalized because of their differences, such as homosexuals or Hispanics and so on.

Within the perspective of Constitutional rights and administrative balance, cultural sensitivity is important because it shows prisoners a humane treatment that they should get to experience if they are to be truly rehabilitated. At the same time, the administration must make sure that certain groups are not receiving privileges that other groups are not. So if one group is going to receive cultural indulgence, then all groups should receive cultural indulgence. This can be a problem logistically, which is why cultural indulgences are usually minimal at most. Diversity on the other hand can be promoted more easily within the administration. Marginalization of minorities can be discouraged as part of the administration’s core message and a diverse crew can be employed to make sure the staff reflects the population of the prison…