How to Be a Professional Prison Psychologist - Coursework Example

The instructions indicate that one is a prison psychologist, and during the of one’s counseling session with a drug offender, the offender confesses that has been using drugs. Obviously, this is a serious violation of prison rules. The discourse would hereby answer the following questions: (1) should you report him? (2) What if the drugs help manage his mental illness? (3) What if he tells you of an impending escape plan?Ethical IssuesGiven the case scenario, as a professional prison psychologist, it is within one’s scope of responsibilities to adhere to expected ethical and moral codes of conduct as stipulated in one’s profession.

If a prisoner who is a drug offender confessed that he still has been using drugs, there are different violations that must be noted and reported, as required: (1) the kind of drugs being used and the frequency by which they are used; (2) the manner by which the drug offender accessed the drugs; (3) if the drugs are used to manage his mental illness, as presumed; this must be validated with other medical practitioners within the prison setting; and (4) an impending escape plan must at all cost be duly reported to increase vigilance on his case; but with appropriate interventions to be provided in the form of intensified counseling with other collaborative rehabilitation techniques, as needed.

As a prison psychologist, one’s duty is to assist the drug offender to be rehabilitated and to be reintegrated in society in the future. One would, therefore, report his noted violations for the purpose of imposition of corrective interventions, as needed. The drug offender must be comprehensively assessed in his mental capacity to perform tasks that are consistent with a rehabilitated individual to prepare him for reintegration to society in the future.