Sentencing, Penal Policy and Management in a Correctional Facility

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Law - Criminal process, Criminology, Law Enforcement, grade: 87.00, University of Malta (Faculty for Social Wellbeing), course: B.A. (Hons) Social Wellbeing Studies, language: English, abstract: This paper discusses the struggles encountered by correctional managers while formulating policies which are aimed at achieving the following objectives: strengthening the management of staff working within a correctional facility, ameliorating professional service provision to maintain the holistic wellbeing of inmates and implementing penal sentences that meet the needs of the offender, the victim and society in general. The word policy is extremely hard to define since it holds different connotations and meanings to everyone. However, a common understanding of the word is about having a set of ideas which are used within a particular organization, in this case being the prison setting, in order to make particular decisions which can influence one's behaviour. When creating a policy, for it to be well-structured and maintained, it needs to focus upon delivering its main objectives. The objectives of a prison revolve around the rehabilitation and reintegration of the prisoner. Correctional managers are faced with a number of challenges whilst, they are formulating such policies. These struggles are going to be discussed in the following sections. Usually, when people talk about prisons, they only mention the physical attributes about them like for example, the locked-up building with bars. However, prisons are much more than that. They also consist of the essential roles of the staff working within them, who have a crucial part in the prisoners' process of reintegration and rehabilitation. In order for the management to be strengthened, all the staff needs to understand their role within the prison, whom they should report to and be able to meet the needs of the service users, i.e. the inmates, society and victims.