ETHICS AND CORRECTIONS
2
Ethics and Corrections
If you could choose only one ethical system to control all of the corrections system, which
would you choose? Why? How would using that system exclusively impact corrections as it is
known today?
Utilitarianism is the most appropriate ethical system that can control the corrections
system. Fundamentally, this system is embedded on the primary function of emphasizing on
achieving the greatest good in the society. The system has a principal stipulation that punishment
is a process that should also produce the best consequences to the individual and the community
at large (Pollock, 2014). The correctional system can tremendously improve using this theory
because it marks as the nucleus of this industry’s functionality. The theory seeks the greater good
of the society and not the individual. In this regard, controlling the correctional system is
possible under the utilitarianism system because it promotes punishment of prisoners to produce
reformed people (Pollock, 2014). The reformed become important people in the society
thereafter.
Classic utilitarianism asserts that the inherent purpose of power is exercised on an
individual against their will when they prove harmful. The correctional system, therefore, works
best under utilitarianism because the intention of all departments is to bring justice to the society
and rehabilitation. Imprisonment is for rehabilitative purposes to eliminate the criminal mindset
among inmates to produce morally upright citizens (Smart, 2020). The victims of these criminal
acts should, therefore, earn their justice through a fair court process that ends with a deserving
