People and Policy

We are complicated. The human condition is a state of being that has countless variables. Influences, traumas, people around us, these all affect how we come to be and will be. I author this article from the perspective of an employee in Connecticut’s Department of Corrections. As a chaplain, I work with people who did terrible things and were convicted. Policy determines everything in the department from the mandatory programs for the incarcerated individuals to how staff members are to conduct themselves during shifts. Quickly, I recognized there is a disconnect between policy makers and both the people we are here to “help correct” as well as fellow staff. A correctional officer’s average lifespan is 59 years (Center 2016). The bureaucracy of the Department must be humanized; with a special focus on being human, for the sake of everyone.

Public service is a trying occupation. Thousands of people working together demands a hierarchy be established. This hierarchy creates accountability and order. Moral and ethical leadership is essential. How does one lead? What happens when the promotion goes to someone less qualified? If leadership bases decisions on nepotism, problems will arise. In a letter from Lord Acton to Archbishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, he writes,

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which . . . the end learns to justify the means. (Acton, letter on historical integrity, 1887 n.d.)

Being in a position of power can make or break a person. How many times have we heard “The Good Boys Club” or promotions were given only because of a relationship? Power disrupts the healthy wellbeing of leaders and their team if left unchecked. If the leader is unhealthy, all those who follow will be unhealthy too. Corruption eats the person’s essence, transforming them into unhealthy beings. Accountability is essential. Acton also mentions compound corruption. The National Registry of Exonerations states that over 50% of exonerations happen because of a Brady violation (Exonerations n.d.), where evidence is withheld, ignored intentionally, or lies among other things (Brand 2018). The morality and ethics that our justice system prides itself on has cracks and must be checked. The same must be said for leadership, as they maintain the system. For the average employee, we are just pieces in the system where we maintain “just enough” for the status quo. This in turns puts the system in a situation where the average employee has no fulfillment during work hours. It takes more than just a pension and other benefits. None of that means anything to the deceased.

For the sake of productivity, bureaucracies tend to turn everything into numbers because it is easy to then create a record of growth and the ability to generate future projections. In light of this, policies that intend growth and stability are put into place. How many inmates does a facility “ship out” in response to an incident? How many is considered too high? What can be done to maintain a status quo? How many inmates for example, does a state send through programs to ensure funding continues to come to the facility? These are some questions asked by policy writers. I ask them this: How can human experiences be quantified? In the process of writing this article, I wonder, “When was it considered a good idea to turn people into numbers?” Policy created for incarcerated individuals is very general and does not ask the question, “What brought them here?” Another example of bad policy, this outside of prisons, is about guns in the United States. The ease of an 18-year-old in Uvalde, Texas to purchase guns with no checks is alarming. The country witnessed the consequence of this at a local elementary school. By means of outside forces, policy in Texas has allowed this tragedy to occur.

What makes policy or laws just? This is a long legal conversation. One of the fathers of justice in the last one hundred years was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King speaks quite a bit on the level of justness of laws. He differentiates the two as such, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law (Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. n.d.).” Examining this another way, one can claim that a just law or policy falls in line with the greater good and an unjust law or policy goes against the greater good. Coming from this place now, uncovering the Good will be something universal. It will take every part of the system to execute the greater Good. When someone goes against it, accountability must be upheld. For inmates, we can inquire this based on philosophy, psychology, and mental health as well as safety and security. A revamped mental health approach will break us free from framework that is not doing people justice. Just examine recidivism rates across the country. Where is the correcting in the Departments of Corrections?

In conclusion, policy must be in line with actual human experience. The experience on the ground is different than what is often understood in the office. Maintaining open lines of communication between staff and supervisors is important to ensure that whatever the policy is, it speaks to the current condition based on real interactions on the ground. When dealing with specific sublets of the population, we should consider philosophy, psychology, and mental health as well as safety and security. They need more than just policy disconnected from the human experience. People in power must be held accountable; as it starts at the top. Being grounded in the greater good, whatever that may look like for every last one of us, is essential to avoiding corruption. For the average employee, it takes more than a pension and benefits to work every day to their fullest. The promotion of authentic employees to higher positions can change the morale of a work environment. I have witnessed it myself. I encourage leadership to build upon this and honestly nurture the growth of all those involved.

Bibliography

n.d. Acton, letter on historical integrity, 1887. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/165acton.html.

Brand, Jessica. 2018. The Epidemic of Brady Violations Explained. April 25. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://theappeal.org/the-epidemic-of-brady-violations-explained-94a38ad3c800/.

Center, NIC Information. 2016. Correctional Officer Suicide. National Institute of Corrections, 22. https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.nicic.gov/Library/033237.pdf.

Exonerations, The National Registry of. n.d. Exoneration Registry. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/ExonerationsContribFactorsByCrime.aspx.

Pamental, Jason, ed. n.d. Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://letterfromjail.com/.