Introduction/Problem Statement
Throughout this paper I will discuss Parole in the Criminal Justice system. Parole is a term that refers to offenders who a released from prison to finish the rest of their time in the community but under supervision. A parole board typically makes the decision whether to release a prisoner or to not release him/her. They follow their own judgement and the suggestions of those who interact with the prisoner. While being out on parole the individual must follow certain rules and if he or she breaks those rules they could be sent back to prison for the remainder of their sentence. Parole is a system that is still new. Only beginning in 1944 did all jurisdictions of the United States have a type of parole (Mackenzie,
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Parole board members are tasked with making a decision that will have a long effect on someone’s life for the next few years. Parole itself is meant to help better someone with hopes it will stop their previous criminal behavior and stop them from being sent back to prison. But there is no way to correctly predict who will reoffend or who will be successful with parole. Paul Gendreau, Tracy Little and Claire Goggin came up with a study that will hopefully predict what risk factors lead to the biggest recidivism rates. The study addresses several predictors like criminal and antisocial behavior history, age/gender/race and family factors (Gendreau, Little, & Goggin,1996, p 575). This study did not address if anyone was on parole, but it is safe to assume that not all members of this study had maxed out of prison. But the study did not clarify it they were max outs or parolees; it was just looking at recidivism. Research on recidivism rates is common but going into depths and looking at the background of the offenders is not. The researchers wanted to answer questions on what predictor is more expected to predict recidivism and the differences between measures of risk factors. For one to go into depth on recidivism, they must look at previous studies and that is what Gendreau, Little and Goggin did. The criteria to be accepted into this study was that the previous study had to have previous data on the offender, …show more content…
The members are often faced with making a life changing decision and one cannot help but wonder how they come to their decision. Joel M Caplan has a journal article that talks about the factors that can affect parole. In this article he talks about how “despite guidelines, parole release decisions remained irregularly applied and were primarily a function of institutional behavior, crime severity, criminal history, incarceration length, mental illness, and victim input” (Caplan, 2007, p 16). A problem with parole boards are what truly makes them capable of releasing someone. Are all the members qualified to properly asses a person? Caplan’s study talks about how mental illness is one of the factors that can affect the parole boards decision. If one is not a psychiatrist or psychologist, they cannot truly digest the issues a person has when they are living with a mental illness. But it is known that having a mental illness can negatively affect whether an inmate is released or not. The next thing in the study is the victims input. Victim input statements can have a positive or negative effect for an inmate, most of the time it is negative. At times the input statements have an impact on the decision. The parole board makes up their mind strictly off that statement and does not give the inmate a chance to speak on it or they will not listen to the
Parole is a controversial issue because its vase ways to debate the challenges and problems that will exist. It’s like a side effect to medication based on one’s effectiveness belief. In like manner, the public media allows others who aren’t immediately effected to become tertiary, and secondary victims. It is the door to open opinions. An inmate is released from a sentence given parole and then assigned a parole and probation officer. The one thing that will make probation and parole successful is the supervision of the program and rehabilitation or residential treatment center. This will support the goal to maximize the good behavior and minimize the harmful behaviors of individuals. Probation is a good program because it’s a form of rehabilitation that gives inmates elevate space to obey rules and regulations. On the contrary, probation is risky just like any new diet plan that people use to
Without proper motivation, many inmates may lose sight of their overall goal to improve their behavior. However, for the safety of the public, the requirements for parole should be strict enough to allow only the rehabilitated individuals out so there are less chances of violent re-offenders within the public. These constraints should serve only to filter out dangerous individuals, and should be flexible enough to provide the hope necessary to benefit offenders who are ethically ready to enter the general public. Furthermore, having the parole available to those who deserve it increased the overall compliance of inmates within prisons. Everyone deserves a second chance and probation should not serve to deprive offenders of that.
Zhang, S. X., Roberts, R. E. L., & Callanan, V. J. (2006). Preventing parolees from returning to prison through community-based reintegration. Crime & Delinquency, 52(4), 551-571.
Convicts rarely serve their entire sentences in prison (Ross and Richards, 146). To alleviate the costs of imprisonment on taxpayers and lessen the staggering populations of prisons across America, it is simply prudent to let inmates out on parole. Unfortunately, the parole system is imperfect and often leads to many ex-convicts recidivating. With the various trials and challenges that ex-convicts are bound to face when rejoining society after prison, Ross and Richards provide valuable lessons in their book of how a convict might survive beyond bars.
Prisons and correctional facilities in the United States have changed from rehabilitating people to housing inmates and creating breeding grounds for more violence. Many local, state, and federal prisons and correctional facilities are becoming more and more overcrowded each year. If the Department of Corrections (DOC) wants to stop having repeat offenders and decrease the volume of inmates entering the criminal justice system, current regulations and programs need to undergo alteration. Actions pushed by attorneys and judges, in conjunction current prison life (including solitary confinement), have intertwined to result in mass incarceration. However, prisoner reentry programs haven’t fully impacted positively to help the inmate assimilate back into society. These alterations can help save the Department of Corrections (DOC) money, decrease the inmate population, and most of all, help rehabilitate them. After inmates are charged with a crime, they go through the judicial system (Due Process) and meet with the prosecutor to discuss sentencing.
from arrest through parole, rather than the result of the activities at any single phase. Addressing
Prior to taking this course, I generally believed that people were rightly in prison due to their actions. Now, I have become aware of the discrepancies and flaws within the Criminal Justice system. One of the biggest discrepancies aside from the imprisonment rate between black and white men, is mental illness. Something I wished we covered more in class. The conversation about mental illness is one that we are just recently beginning to have. For quite a while, mental illness was not something people talked about publicly. This conversation has a shorter history in American prisons. Throughout the semester I have read articles regarding the Criminal Justice system and mental illness in the United States. Below I will attempt to describe how the Criminal Justice system fails when they are encountered by people with mental illnesses.
...niors who brought us into this generation. We deserve to be protected as much as any other human race. Our tax dollars spent on housing inmates are a lot cheaper for us to pay when one considers the cost of irreparable pain and suffering, of a victim who falls prey to a parolee who had no intention of reversing his or her former lifestyle and recommitted their life to crime. One cannot put a price tag on scarred lives. It would be worth every penny to keep these criminals behind bars until they have completed their full sentences, if it meant even saving one innocent life, or sparing someone an unforgettable damaging experience. In conclusion, parole serves to benefit the inmate who is seeking his or her freedom, while society seldomly benefits from progress or efforts implemented by parolees in the community. We must understand that parole is a privilege, not a right. We must take into consideration that if almost half of the population that is released on parole returns to prison; parole is not working and should be abolished. Law abiding citizens have earned their right to freedom, and criminals have earned their right to confinement, and should remain that way, as sentenced.
The data gathered in the Teplin, Abram & McClelland (1994) research was conducted in the Cook county jail in Chicago during a six year period, using interview techniques during the intake process of 728 inmates. They then tracked the participants over the six years by monitoring their rap sheets. What sets this research apart from the others is that they utilized the population of a jail versus a prison. Typically, once in prison, the time spent there is long whereas in jail, the incarceration time is usually much shorter as the inmates are in jail for lesser crimes or are awaiting trial. In any case, there is a larger turnaround and more opportunity to obtain diverse long term data.
Prison was designed to house and isolate criminals away from the society in order for our society and the people within it to function without the fears of the outlaws. The purpose of prison is to deter and prevent people from committing a crime using the ideas of incarceration by taking away freedom and liberty from those individuals committed of crimes. Prisons in America are run either by the federal, states or even private contractors. There are many challenges and issues that our correctional system is facing today due to the nature of prisons being the place to house various types of criminals. In this paper, I will address and identify three major issues that I believe our correctional system is facing today using my own ideas along with the researches from three reputable outside academic sources.
What is the purpose of granting probation and parole? Depending on the type of sentence, once an inmate has become eligible they can be granted parole if they have followed the rules of the institution, it does not depreciate the seriousness of the offense, and does not endanger society. The purpose of releasing a convicted felon into society again is relatively obvious, such as allowing the freedom to remain in a community or maintaining contact with family and friends, it also provides the guidance to attend treatment programs, maintain employment, pay restitution, the cost is considerably lower than being incarcerated, but ultimately allowing the offender to become a law-abiding citizen (Carlie, M.K., 2002). Probation and parole stipulate
Prior to its inception, parole was clearly not an option for correctional practitioners because of the neoclassical long-term sentencing of the early twentieth century. Earliest concepts of parole were highly criticized and thought to impair judicial sentencing power and raise concern of how prisoners were selected for release. Parole was also criticized during the early eighteenth and late nineteenth centuries for failing to protect the public and lack of community supervision involved.
There are many different alternatives to end prison overcrowding in prisons. The system of parole is one way that contributes the this issue. When individuals are release on parole it creates growth with in expensesand resources. Supivisors continue to establish new ways to control these issues. Many would agree that some incarcerated individuals should have stricter conditions and around the clock supervision.
Parole and Probation have several advantages when it comes to managing offenders. When well implemented, they can be both effective and efficient as a way of dealing with offenders. Given the fact that the main role of the correctional systems is not to punish but to correct and reform, it is necessary to identify offenders who are worthy of being given a second chance to make sure that they are given a better environment to reform as opposed to sending them to prison. Apart from being an effective way to manage some types of offenders, parole and probation can help in managing prison population. When there are too many in people in prison, this leads to too much use of public funds and reduced productivity in the society. Therefore, probation
Parole is the release of a prison inmate prior to the end of their sentence by a parole board appointed by the governor, which the parolee is supervised by a parole officer. So in my reflection I will discuss how parole laws change, felons being able to rent apartments, and how parolee's are kept in the dark about the changes made and how we can fix it.