Since early times, abuse, misconduct and corruption have been an ethical problem within America's public prison systems. It was not until modern times that these problems have been looked at and acknowledged. Prison staffs, from the correctional officers to the wardens, to civilians that work in these facilities, participate in numerous forms of corruption and misconduct. These actions result in the abuse and unfair treatment of prison inmates. Prison staffs have been found all over America, partaking in numerous forms of abuse and corruption that involve committing boundary violations, unethical behavior, un fair treatment, rape, murder, and many other crimes within public prisons. The purpose of this paper is to identify the types of misconduct, corruption, and boundaries violations committed within public prisons, as well as identifying policies and procedures that have contributed and made these acts more possible and more likely to occur or that have allowed these acts to go unpunished or corrected. As well an analysis will be made of the Ethical, and legal issues associated with these problems and policies, and how these problems provoke a staff vs. Inmate mentality. Along with identifying the problems in public prisons, ideas, experiments, and cases that have taken place will be examined to try and identify and explain what causes these behaviors and actions by the prison staffs. And finally concepts and ideas will be discussed in order to find a resolution that will help future prevention and reporting of these un-ethical actions and behaviors.
             The main problem with public prisons is the misconduct and corruption of prison staff. Using the Text Book, Ethical Dilemmas & Decisions in Criminal Justice, by Joycelyn M. Pollock and an article titled Fatal Attraction: An analysis of employee boundary violations in a southern prison system, 1995-1998, by James W. Marquart, Maldine B. Barnhill, and Kathy Balshaw-Biddle, this section...