The ethics of punishment: Correctional practice implications

Correctional practitioners work within a context that is heavily influenced and constrained by punishment policies and practices. The overlap between the normative frameworks of punishment and offender rehabilitation creates a unique set of ethical challenges for program developers and therapists. In this paper we set out to briefly outline three major punishment theories and draw out their implications for correctional practitioners. First, we discuss the nature of punishment and the problems it poses for practitioners and all citizens in liberal democracies. Second, consequential, retributive, and communicative justifications of punishment are succinctly described and their clinical implications analyzed and some limitations noted. Finally we conclude with some suggestions for ethical practice in correctional settings.