Imaginethat your team was hired to evaluate the success of the criminal justice intervention program selected for your Ethical Issues with Program Evaluation assignment due in Week Five. The organization that runs the program needs you to create a brief proposal about your plan for evaluation
Write
a 200 -word summary of your proposed program evaluation that includes the following:
Target population (must be included in the paper)
Format
your summary consistent with APA guidelines
Here is the Program I have selected : (the new paper must be based on this )
Since the 1960sorganized gangs in the American Justice System have been a growing problem.In the prison systems today differentgroups pose a threat to the correctional staff and inmates. Forty of the 50states in the United States, gangs are exist. Those gangs bring drug trafficking, continued violence, racial unrest, and overrunning prisons are a few of the main challenges that the justice system faces when trying to control these gangs. Based usually on race, these gangs are some of the most dangerous in the world and are only getting larger. Even though there are measures to prevent these gangs from growing in size, most attempts fail as the gangs are becoming too prominent and too powerful.
GRAD Program
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice acknowledges 12 differentgroups consideredgangs. The mission statement of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is to reintegrate offenders in society, assist victims of crimes, and keep society safe. Since the 1980s there was an influx of gang members into prison. When these offenders bean getting out of prison, there was no programs that assisted the rehabilitation for these gang members was imperative to assist in the basic mission statement. The grad program deals with the renouncing of the membership of the gang("Security Treat Groups On The Inside ",2007). There are many aspects of this program such as counseling, anger management, andno interaction with gang members of any kind. The goals of this program are to exit successfully offenders from their gang affiliation while maintaining the safety of the offender and their family members. The personnel employedby the prison system are selectedcorrectional officers whomaintain the utmost integrity for doing the job and that cannot be swayedby the possible influences from outside the system. This program tends to be very difficult to get a place and even more difficult to finish. However, the success rates of these programs are evident by the recidivism rates that reducedfor the gang members whoparticipate in the program.
Ethical Issues during the program
Ethical issues can arise in any program. Correctional facilities are complex settings in which to provide services. The environment is difficult and safety cannot be compromisedwhich may confound legal and ethical issues for program participants and directors. Each participant has a right to privacy as well as civil and legal rights, these rights must be protected(American Counseling Association, 2005). Evaluators must protect people from harm as their first action. It is important that evaluators consider the harm that could be doneto someone admitted into a program. When assessing potential gang activity, there are many things toconsider. First, isolating certain groups as security threats may post a threat to the safety of the group or individual. In the GRAD program, security threats are identifiedby recognizing certain groups as gangs. Isolating people within these gangs may be donein a bias manner, perhaps by race or ethnicity.
Confidentiality is another concern. In a program such as GRAD, individuals participate in training todefect from a gang. Their protection and confidentiality is essential to keep them from harm’s way. Another possible issue is gang members existing afraid to participate in the GRAD program and because of this; there may be people who never get the chance to try to defect from the gang because ofthe possibility of retaliation by other gang members.
Ethical Issues in the future
Across the United States several efforts are being renderedby both the federal and state authorities to address the issue of involvement of the youths in gang life. Several of the criminal justice intervention programs are being aimed at curbing the propensity of the American youths to get involved in different sorts of gangs. Moreover, it has also been found that many of such intervention programs have some ethical issues to consider as intervention programs are directly and indirectly related to the wellbeing of the society at large. Initiated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Gang Renouncement and Dissociation program (GRAD) is one of those criminal justice intervention programs thatoffers “known gang members the chance to erase their gang ties and return to normal prison life” (“Prison program offers inmates way to erase gang ties”,).“Inmates identified as gang members are considered security threats and are housed alone, with at most one hour per day of recreation outside their cells” (“Prison program offers inmates way to erase gang ties”, 2001). Such a process, though considered successful and effective by the authorities, is bound to come across a potential ethical issue. Segregating a particular convict and placing him or heralone can render negative impact on the psychology of the individual, and this negative impact can affect in a negative manner deteriorating the willingness of the inmate to get back in normal life giving up the desire of being a gang member.Moreover, the conditions that have to be fulfilledby an inmate tobe eligible for the GRAD program are also tough, making it difficult forthe willing convicts to make a way into the concerned program.
Conclusion
The Grad program has a particularly strict regimen of policies that have to be met to join the program. It is believedthat this program is fairly racist. However, the gangs that are acknowledged by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are in a variety of different races. These requirements changing of the routine for the offender that enters this program are changedfor the safety of the offender and the security of the prison. The usual understanding for most gangs is the blood in and blood out theory. When these members attempt to leave their particular gang this causes danger for everyone around these offenders. This is the reasons for the rules of the offenders are for this particular reason. The ability of these offenders to get out of this lifestyle depends on the ability to successfully segregate themselves from any possible reach from the gang. The ability to complete successfully this program and to reduce recidivism walks hand in hand and is a positive program.