Social work 3.3

  • Case

    • Alen Martin is a social worker and has been in the field of criminal justice for 6 years. He was on adult probation but in the past 6 months he has been working with youth correctional services. He has been thinking more about criminal justice than social work

    • Brian Cook is in the case, he is 14, he went into the correctional center because he sold drugs. He is serving 5 years, he has served 2 years and got out. Burans mom is Laura, Sheri is the girl who brian got the drugs for. 

      • Alen met brian before he went into the correctional center. Brian came out as being passive and mistrustful. Biran felt that those who went in were not criminals. Alen met brian to talk about the parol contract, Alen started yelling at him and lecturing him, nto what a social worker does but what the petrol or correction officer does. Biran was told that he had to go weekly for urine testing for drugs. He also had to go to school and if he did not go to school he would be sent back to the correctional facility.

    • Ramon Perez is another case that Alen is working with. Ramon is 13 and just got arrested for selling cocaine and weapons were involved. Ramon and the police officer involved were both badly injured and taken to the hospital. Ramons mom is also involved in the case. 

      • Ramons mom called Alan from the hospital. She told him that the nurses and doctors were treating him horribly. Alen went to see him and Ramon died that night. He attended the funeral and his attitude changed because he realized he needed to be a social worker not a correctional officer. 

    • Alan received a note that brian wasn't attending school. This was a violation of the contract. Brian said that the school messed up and not him. Alan went to the school and found out the school did mess up and brian did not violate the contract. Brian also found out that Sheri(his girlfriend he went to jail for) is now pregnant by another guy. Alan apologized for not trusting him and decided to try harder to be a better social worker

  • Goals of criminal justice system

    • Goals of the criminal justice system:

    • 1. Punishment

    • 2. Deter Crime

    • 3. Rehabilitation

    • 4. Remove criminals from society

  • Components of the criminal justice system (pg. 342)

    • Misdemeanor: a relatively minor offense, punishable by fines, probation, or a relatively brief jail or prison sentence unless taken to extreme or done repeatedly.

    • Felony: a serious crime, punishable by a prison sentence of 1 or more years, the most extreme penalty is the death penalty.

    • Probation: is a sentence following a conviction in which the offender is ordered to undergo supervision for a prescribed period of time instead of serving that time in prison. Brief sentence in jail may precede release under probation but the majority of the sentence may be served in the community if the terms of the contract are met. The supervision is under a probation officer who is often a social worker.

    • Parole: a person has served a portion of his sentence in prison and then receives an early release to complete the sentence in the community under the supervision of a Parole officer who is often a social worker. Both of these contracts can be revoked if they violate the contracts. The violator usually ends up going back to prison.

    • Jail: a correctional facility used for short sentences or for detaining persons while they await a court hearing

    • Prison: is a correctional facility used for lengthier sentences, generally for a number of years Major components of the criminal justice system:

    • Law Enforcement Usually the police. They respond to citizens’ complaints and for questioning and apprehending persons. They are also responsible for keeping the peace, ie. Domestic violence

    • Police social work: within police departments, courthouses and jails. They work a lot with personal and family crisis situations. Cases besides DV may include traffic accidents and fatalities, child abuse, suicide, substance abuse, mental health emergencies and family disputes. They provide crisis intervention, brief individual or family counseling, referrals, victim assistance and sexual assault intervention, as well as community crime prevention efforts. In addition to home visits and crime scene crisis work, they are involved in crime prevention work in the community.

    •  The Courts, Courts exist at the federal, state, and local levels and they range from municipal courts to the highest court – the supreme court. They have 2 functions: civil and criminal. Civil deals with the rights of private citizens and may result in fines or monetary damages. Criminals involve determination of guilt or innocence. It begins with an arrest.

    • Court social workers work with and on behalf of victims of crime. They work in the victims/witness programs. Housed in the local district attorney’s office. Programs that work with battered women to obtain restraining or harassment no-contact orders, and they serve as client advocates in court. They also testify in court, usually in child and family services. Another role of the social worker is conducting a presentence investigation which is requested by the judge. They often involve evaluating the merits and risks of keeping an offender in the community.

    • Community-service sentencing usually requires the offender to work without pay in a private or governmental human service organization for a specific period of time. Restitution programs require that offenders, adults as well as juveniles, compensate their victims for the losses suffered as a result of the criminal offense.

    • Forensic Social Work is defined as a specialized area of practice built on in-depth knowledge of the law and litigation in civil and criminal justice. It is the assessment and evaluation expertise of the social worker, as an unbiased party in the legal system that forms the foundation for this practice. For example the courts may request an evaluation and recommendation for the purpose of determining a child custody in a divorce situation. They may also assist in mental competency hearings.

    • 3. The Correctional System It is a part of the criminal justice system that uses imprisonment, probation, parole and various alternatives to change the behavior of persons convicted of crime. 2 major components are prisons and community-based programs. Each of our states has its own correctional system. The federal government has the Bureau of Prisons, which operates the federal prison and is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, and a federal probation system operated by the courts. In addition the Department of Defense maintains military prisons.

    • Prisons: there are minimum, medium and maximum security facilities. Some are owned by the government and some are owned by private enterprises. Often newly sentenced persons are observed in designated facilities while testing is being done. Social Workers often participate in this evaluation. Prison social workers are the links to the community. They are the link to the foster care system where the prisoners' children have been placed. They are the link to the families. They are also the link between the prisoner and the prison staff. They are advocates for the prisoners. Social Workers seek to reduce violence by building bridges between inmates and staff, by helping prisoners develop or enhance their sense of self-worth, and by reducing the inmates sense of powerlessness.

    • Community-Based Corrections: they provide an alternative to incarceration. Probation and Parole are the major programs and they require ongoing supervision until the original sentence is concluded. The person is the parole or probation agent or officer. These folks are very often social workers. Helping people to meet the terms of the agreement is the key function of the agent. The client's life is subject to almost continuous scrutiny so the skills of the social worker are most important in getting the trust of the person to complete the contract. Some jurisdictions have created separate units to work with the mentally ill and crimes involving substance abuse or sex offenses. Often the social worker who works in these specialties have MSW degrees. A big issue is to reduce recidivism. So a risk rating is done to see who is at a higher risk of returning to prison. These folks are placed under closer and more frequent supervision. Generally a minimum level of supervision involves contact once every 3 months with more frequent telephone and mail-in reports. Maximum level of supervision involves office visits every 2 weeks and a home visit every month.

    • Intensive Probation is for persons who have committed violent crimes or who have displayed violence or hostility and are considered to be of high risk. Often it utilizes frequent contacts, often daily and wearing an electronic monitoring wrist or ankle bracelet. This is more cost efficient than prison.

    • Victim-offender mediation and restitution is another form of community based programs.

  • Juvenile Justice System

    • This has been established because it is of the belief that children are not fully developed and not capable of making judgments about their behavior or controlling their lives in the same way adults are expected to do. There is a strong belief that children can be rehabilitated. Treatment is stressed as well as separating the child from the adult. Social Workers are a major presence in the operation of children’s court and juvenile justice programs. There is due process in all the courts with each child having legal representation.

    • Phases: arrest, intake, detention, adjudication and disposition. Most juveniles that come in contact with the police are not arrested but given warnings. There are now juvenile detention centers to keep them away from adults. The intake process will conclude with a decision to detain, dismiss or make some other disposition of the case.

    • Social Workers in juvenile detention centers regularly provide individual and group counseling, often with a behavior change focus. This work often includes services to the family as well.

    • Value Dilemmas:

      • 1. use and abuse of authority

      • 2. issues of confidentiality

      • 3. Coercion – forced to see social worker by law

      • 4. enforce specific behaviors from unwilling clients therefore lack of self determination