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37 Fed. Probation 42 (1973)
Teaching Corrections Law to Corrections Personnel

handle is hein.journals/fedpro37 and id is 116 raw text is: Teaching Corrections Law to Corrections Personnel By WILLIAM P. STATSKY Professor of Law, Antioch School of Law, Washington, D.C. A VETERAN correctional officer recently made the following telling comment about the changes taking place in the field of correc- tions: Everything is changing so fast that I sometimes feel like a man in a valley looking up at a monstrous white glacier that is rapidly com- ing down on me. One significant component of this change is the development of corrections law. Its impact on the operation of correctional institu- tions has been enormous. This article focuses on the response of corrections personnel to this de- velopment in terms of their own training pro- grams. The author recently conducted such a training program for the California Department of Corrections.1 The Mandate for Training Within the last 25 years, the visibility of correc- tional institutions has increased substantially. In many sections of the country, the days of isolating correctional facilities out in the farmlands, far from the public eye, are coming to an end. For years the courts reflected society's apathy over the condition of our penal system through the re- spectable vehicle of the hands-off doctrine by which a court answered the complaint of an in- mate by ruling that the courts would not interfere with the discretion of the warden in adminstering 1 While at UCLA School of Law, the author developed three semi- nars which intimately involved county, state and Federal corrections personnel. The seminars were: (1) Probation, Parole and Alternatives to Incarceration, (2) Discipline, Classification, and Transfer and (3) Treatment and Rehabilitation in an Involuntary Setting. The last seminar involved the treatment issues not only of inmates but also sex offenders, drug addicts, juvenile delinquents, inebriants, and the mentally ill. Law students interacted with approximately 25 probation officers, parole officers, correctional counselors, correctional officers, and prison psychologists. A conspicuous omission from the participants were inmates themselves; although one of the parole officers was on parole himself and had recently been released from the California Institution for Men in order to join the parole staff in a special capacity. His presence did result in some understanding of the in- mates' point of view-at least for the students enrolled in the seminar he attended. In each of the three seminars, there were about 10 law students and seven correctional personnel. The latter attended all of the ses- sions of the seminar in which they were enrolled as noncredit students (several of the corrections people, however, registered for and received university extension credit for their participation). All members of the class used the same text which was compiled specifically for the seminar. (The unpublished casebooks were as follows: Statsky and Robinson, Cases and Materials on Probation, Parole and Alternatives to Incarceration; Statsky and Meek, Cases and Materials on Treatment and Rehabilitation in an Involuntary Setting; and Dillard and Berke, Cases and Materials on Discipline. Classification and Transfer. A two- volume version of this latter text was also prepared but not used.) Quoted in In re Tucker, 486 P.2d 657, 682 (1971). 3 See J. Gavin. Training Correctional Manpower, 3 Manpower 15, 17 (January 1971). the institution unless unusual circumstances ex- isted. Such circumstances were seldom found to exist. Today, the hands-off doctrine is not so frequently used and some argue that the demise of the doctrine is at hand. A body of corrections law has emerged. For the first time, law schools are providing curricula for law students in this area. Chief Justice Warren Burger recently echoed this change in the form of an admonition to attorneys: The system of criminal justice must be viewed as a process embracing every phase from crime prevention through the correctional system. We can no longer limit our responsibility to providing defense services for the judicial process, yet continue to be miserly with the needs of correctional institutions and probation and parole services.' This change in perspective of the legal profes- sion has created a new environment for correc- tions personnel. Some employees have complained that the courts are issuing decrees without the slightest comprehension of the realities of correc- tional institutions, .the effect of which is that the decrees are either ignored or, if applied, impose a cure that is worse than the ills that the decrees were designed to remedy. Others welcome the in- tervention of courts, legislatures, and lawyers as a way to bring about needed outside pressure for reform. Whether the impact of court involvement has been beneficial or not, the fact remains that the field of corrections is operating within a new arena. Corrections personnel must develop a re- sponse to this change. Recently, the Joint Com- mission on Correctional Manpower and Training pointed to the necessity of corrections staff be- coming acquainted with court and legislative de- cisions affecting the operation of correctional in- stitutions.3 This is not an easy task, given the current state of corrections law and the tension that now exists within correctional institutions. Some sophistication must be brought to bear in designing preservice and inservice curricula on this subject. Training Options There are at least four ways that departments

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