Supervise offenders in their communities seen to be one of the most promising strategies because offenders are accessible to many opportunities to change their lives. Offenders have the opportunity to be accepted in their community once he or she is involved in rehabilitation programs, community service, Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities, Breaking the Cycle, Special Offender Services Program, Probationers in Recovery, The Amity Project, Personnel and Training and Program Violations. According to Sipes (2006), there are two types of supervision that inmates should be aware of. These types of supervision are applied depending on the circumstance of the offender and the nature of the crime that was committed. In intensive supervision …show more content…
However, when the offender is unemployed, he or she is required to report the extensive day reporting program to make sure they are doing well with their rehabilitation while unemployed. Also during their first eight weeks of supervision offenders are mandated to be tested twice a week for drug test, but once they demonstrate that they are continued compliance, frequency for drug testing is decreasing (Alston, 2004). One of the most important goals when offenders are being supervised is to make sure that they are going to success in life and to assure that they will not commit any crime or offense. The purpose is to make a difference once they are in their communities (Alston, 2004). Moreover, John W. (2004) emphasizes that community supervision is a challenge on maintaining a balance. Also that community supervision of criminal offenders only succeeds if the balance is in place. However, by using that balance on supervising offenders in their communities, supervising officers have to make sure that offenders are living up to their conditions of probation and parole and are hopefully taking advantage of the services provided while under supervision. During the process of supervision offenders are taught to think differently, to see the world in a different perspective to change their thinking …show more content…
Continuous tracking system is used to track the offender’s location as they move in the community, assure that they are not in a prohibited area and capture the offender’s movement that can be revised regularly. Continuous radio frequency is utilized to monitor the offender if she or he is in their house to check if they are in compliance with their curfew schedule. Alcohol testing system is regularly used to test offenders for alcohol assumption (Peggy Conway, 2002). All of these systems use radio frequency technology wherever a transmitted device is secured on the offender’s ankle or wrist and a receiver unit is established in their residence (Peggy Conway, 2002). Furthermore, the use of monitoring devices has been a great idea due to the success on reducing prison and jail overcrowding. However, this new idea of supervising the offenders in their communities without the presence of any supervising officer has worked efficiently (Turnbaugh, 1995). The supervision of offenders in their community is more effective and cheaper than imprisonment. For instance, in the years of 1994/1995 the cost to house a federal inmate was approximately $45,753 and $39,527 to house a provincial inmate for one year. In contrast, in the same years, supervising an
Managing case assignments allows for the offender to have the best opportunities for reintegration into the community as well as for the criminal justice system to successfully supervise the offender. There exist 4 different case assignment models that are used most frequently to provide the offender with his or her most basic needs and services. The first caseload assignment model is the conventional model. The conventional model uses an unsystematic method to assign offenders to community supervision officers. This random assignment of offenders leaves the officer with a variety of different types of offenders.
Cohen (1985) supports this sentiment, and suggests that community based punishment alternatives have actually led to a widening and expansion of the retributive criminal justice system, rather than its abolishment. The current criminal justice system is expensive to maintain. In North America, the cost to house one prisoner is upwards of eighty to two hundred dollars a day (Morris, 2000). The bulk of this is devoted to paying guards and security (Morris, 2000).
Drug courts are, as the title states, for offenders with drug problems. The participants chosen for this method agree to terms of treatment, drug testing, and counseling. Their participation can lower their sentences and sanctions or even drop the charges against them completely. Supervision is used to monitor the offender’s participation in the various programs they are assigned, while also verifying their abstinence from drug use through testing (National Criminal Justice Reference Service, 2011). According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service website, in 2009, there were about 2,400 drug courts in the U.S. These courts are separated into smaller categories based on the age or circumstances of the offenders, such as juveniles, adults, families, veterans, and even college students (OJP, 2010).
The first issue to be tackled for an offender is a drug referral if needed since other interventions and programs will not have much effect if the offender will not retain them due to drug use. These treatment facilities communicate with the probation officers. They keep them informed on the offender’s progress and/or issues the offender has. The lower risk offenders are eligible for treatment programs. (Loftus, lecture)
The goals of juvenile corrections are too deter, rehabilitate and reintegrate, prevent, punish and reattribute, as well as isolate and control youth offenders and offenses. Each different goal comes with its own challenges. The goal of deterrence has its limits; because rules and former sanctions, as well anti-criminal modeling and reinforcement are met with young rebellious minds. Traditional counseling and diversion which are integral aspects of community corrections can sometimes be ineffective, and studies have shown that sometimes a natural self intervention can take place as the youth grows older; resulting in the youth outgrowing delinquency.
We can all agree that an important goal of the American criminal justice system is rehabilitation. It expects that most, if not all, offenders to learn from his or her wrongdoing and become productive members of society (Ballenstedt, 2008). It is this thinking at the heart of a community-based initiative that is designed to bring law enforcement officials together to form a single concerted effort to identify and address patterns of crime, mitigate the underlying conditions that fuel crime, and engage the community as an active partner (Wolf, Prinicples of Problem-Solving Justice, 2007).
This model of corrections main purpose was to reintroducing the offenders in to the community. This Program was invented to help offenders in the transition from jail to the community, aid in the processes of finding jobs and stay connected to their families and the community. The needs of these individuals are difficult: the frequency of substance abuse, mental illness, unemployment, and homelessness is elevated among the jail population.
The “Tough on Crime” and “War on Drugs” policies of the 1970s – 1980s have caused an over populated prison system where incarceration is policy and assistance for prevention was placed on the back burner. As of 2005, a little fewer than 2,000 prisoners are being released every day. These individuals have not gone through treatment or been properly assisted in reentering society. This has caused individuals to reenter the prison system after only a year of being release and this problem will not go away, but will get worst if current thinking does not change. This change must be bigger than putting in place some under funded programs that do not provide support. As the current cost of incarceration is around $30,000 a year per inmate, change to the system/procedure must prevent recidivism and the current problem of over-crowed prisons.
Community corrections programs are therefore frequently used as a method to reduce the overall percentage of the prison populations. These programs offer supervision that “oversee offenders outside of jail or prison, and are administered by agencies or courts with the legal authority to enforce sanctions” at a significantly lower cost than incarceration (Community Corrections (Probation and Parole), 2015). Although statistics vary, it is believed that approximately two-thirds of the people who could be incarcerated for a crime or offense committed, are actually given a positive alternative option. Typically the people who are given the opportunity to partially or completely bypass incarceration are non-violent offenders who in the long run will be better off if he/she is handled thorough a community corrections program (Alarid, Cromwell, & Del Carmen,
The United States criminal justice system is an ever-changing system that is based on the opinions and ideas of the public. Many of the policies today were established in direct response to polarizing events and generational shifts in ideology. In order to maintain public safety and punish those who break these laws, law enforcement officers arrest offenders and a judge or a group of the law offender’s peers judge their innocence. If found guilty, these individuals are sentenced for a predetermined amount of time in prison and are eventually, evaluated for early release through probation. While on probation, the individual is reintegrated into their community, with restrict limitations that are established for safety.
Since they are free, proper parole supervision is required to monitor their situations. Offenders are likely to face many problems that may make them recidivate. Their survival and intended behavior may be compromised due to changing situation. It is important to check on them by devising a program that advices them accordingly.
Such an assumption does not refute that some criminals make their own personal choices to break the law but rather it argues that these personal choices are usually caused by certain factors which contribute to criminal behavior. Rehabilitation programs are therefore based on such perspectives where the various correctional programs are designed to deal with criminal enforcing behavior. For example counseling programs could focus on the behavior that led to the criminal offender committing the offense while educational programs could focus on how to change negative behavior to positive behavior. Correctional programs in prison facilities are therefore important in reducing the recurrence of criminal behavior as well as reducing recidivism among probationers and parolees (Barkan & Bryjak, 2009).
The first purpose of the prison is that of Public protection via incapacitation of offenders; this is considered to be the only purpo...
Throughout this paper, one will obtain a better understanding of the correctional system and how it is an important aspect of the criminal justice system. Therefore, the history of corrections, their mission statement, and sentencing goals will be briefly discussed. In the correctional system, there are different alternatives to imprisonment, such as probation, parole, and intermediate sanctions. I believe that parole makes a significant impact on the criminal justice system because it gives inmates who have already served time and shown good behavior the opportunity to be released early from prison. For example, there are two primary models of parole. First, the parole board grants a prisoner their parole based on their judgement
Community-based corrections alleviate overcrowded correctional facilities, reduce taxpayer burden, and rehabilitate offenders, while providing effective, efficient low cost methods of supporting public safety, community rehabilitation, behavior modification and personnel responsibility, because it uses multiple approaches and involves both legislative and judicial personnel in all steps of the process. Community-based corrections facilities are located in the community and support diverse rehabilitative programs including restitution, community service and repayment of monetary fines (Moses, 2007). Community-based correction is not incarceration; there is accountability, responsibility and supervision with graduation within nine and twenty four months of enrollment (Honarvar, 2010). Probation, day reporting and house arrest, which use global positioning satellite tracking devices, are forms of community-based corrections, which cost less than five dollars a day (Honarvar, 2010). The efficiency by which community corrections reduce cost, prison populations, and decreases this rate judges should disposition to these programs in lieu of incarceration (Honarvar, 2010). The state spends taxpayer money on building correctional facilities and staff to supervise offenders, while the research shows reduced recidivism rates when community service and other alternative methods of rehabilitation are used (Hovarvar, 2010). However, to maintain the balance of justice and rehabilitation, society demands incarceration for all criminals. Judges continue to support determinate sentencing guidelines over reducing the taxpayer’s burden and placing victimless crime offenders in community workhouses (Taylor, 2011). The issues of restitution and pub...