History Of Probation And Probation

Introduction

In response to question one of unit one, I will discuss changes, trends and the current use of probation and parole in the United States.

Discussion

The birth of probation in the United States is attributed to John Augustus in 1841, following his transformation of a local alcoholic through rehabilitation in Massachusetts between the bailing hearing and sentencing (NYC Probation, n.d.). In the eighteen years following the first probationer, John Augustus voluntarily assisted nearly two thousand individuals using his rehabilitation strategy as a probation officer. The strategy involved a careful consideration of several aspects, including the age of the offender, their character, as well as the environment of the offender to determine

Parole offers an incarcerated offender an opportunity for conditional release from a prison sentence with community supervision. In the United States, there are 4.6 million individuals on community supervision, including those on probation as well as parole (Kaeble & Bonczar, 2016). The number of individuals assigned to community correction has seen a steady decline since 2012, with over eighty percent of offenders reportedly on probation. The number of individuals on probation had declined and the number of individuals on parole had increased in the report detailing the year 2015. There has been no notable change in the race or sex characteristics of community corrections in the ten year period preceding the report indicating one-quarter of offenders are female and over fifty percent are non-Hispanic white at the close of

The increased growth of probationers has placed a strain on the workload of probation officers throughout time creating a less personal approach to community corrections (Still et. al., 2016). A revamping, restructuring, as well as revision of the revenue allotted to community corrections, is required to allow for an increased success rate of probation. As noted earlier in my response, the majority of offenders within the United States are assigned to community corrections shifting away from incarceration. This shift is setting the stage for an opportunity to revise the way probation and parole are handled to allow for an increased success rate of reform through the use of proven effective rehabilitation strategies similar to those used by John Augustus.

References

Kaeble, D. & Bonczar, T.P. (2016). Probation and parole in the United States, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppus15.pdf.

Latessa, E. J., & Smith, P. (2011). Corrections in the community (5th ed.). Cincinnati Ohio: Anderson Publ. Co.

NYC Probation. (n.d.). History of probation. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/prob/html/about/history.shtml.

Still, W., Broderick, B., & Raphael, S. (2016). Building trust and legitimacy within community corrections. Retrieved from