Past, Present and Future of Probation and Parole
In order to study the past, present and future implications of the probation and parole system, I had to study the history of both. I will begin with the history of probation and then talk about the history of parole. I will also talk about how probation and parole work in the present and how and what will happen to both probation and parole in the future.
Probation comes from the Latin verb probare which means to prove, to rest.
Probation was first introduced to the United States in 1841 when a boot-maker by the name of John Augustus attended court to bail out a drunkard. This offender was released to the custody of Mr. Augustus making him the first true probation officer, the offender was told to return to court in three weeks time for sentencing. During the time the offender was in the custody of Mr. Augustus he cleaned up his appearance and demeanor. Mr. Augustus had the belief that abusers of alcohol could be rehabilitated through the use of understanding, kindness, and sustained moral suasion not convictions and jail sentences. His beliefs were based on his affiliation with the Washington Total Abstinence Society, they abstained from alcohol. Augustus was a volunteer probation officer for 18 years. He began the practice of evaluating the prospective probationers paying close attention to whether the candidate would prove to be a successful candidate for probation. Things that were considered in a successful candidate were the character, age, and influences, those influences could be people, places or things.
The first probation statute was first enacted 1859. The administration of the probation system varies from one state to another, some combine probation and parole.
Parole comes from the French word parole which means to give one’s word of honor or promise.
The credit for establishing the early parole system goes to Alexander Maconochie who was in charge of the English penal colony at Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia and Sir Walter Crofton, director of Ireland’s prisons.
Maconochie criticized the definite prison terms so he developed a system for good conduct, labor and study. He used a process called the mark system. Through this system prisoners, progressed through stages of increasing responsibility with the reward being release. In 1840, Maconochie received a ...
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... an inmate is release with the use of parole then they should be assigned a parole and probation officer. By assigning both, the offender now has to report to both officers. The report days would be different and at first should be weekly for a predetermined amount of time then become bi-weekly, eventually working to a once a month visit to the probation and parole officers. It should also be allowed that the probation and parole officers can go to the offenders home and/or job at random times to “check-up” on the offender. With the offender, not knowing if and when this could happen would keep them “on their toes”. With a drug offender, the use of random drug testing that could happen at either a office visit, in the home or on the job, would most likely cause the offender to think about using drugs while on probation/parole. The one thing that will make probation and parole successful is the supervision of the programs.
References used:
Parole and Prisoner Reentry in the United States, Joan Petersilia, Ph.D., retrieved from www.appa-net.org on April 21, 2005
Probation in the United States, Joan Petersilia, Ph.D., retrieved from www.appa-net.org on April 21, 2005
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
Globokar, J. L. (2017). The Politics of Punishment: A study of the Passage of the 1925 Federal Probation Act. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 56(8),
The United States Criminal Justice System has several options available when it comes to sentencing. Probation is one that we hear of most when it comes to first time offenders as well as juvenile offenders. John Augustus first developed probation in Boston in 1841. The first probation law was enacted in Massachusetts in 1878. By the 1990’s the juvenile justice system was far more effective as it began taking greater measures. In 2010, probation was used in approximately 53 percent of juvenile delinquency cases. Typically, probation sentences are circumstantial, and are imposed under very specific terms and conditions. These must be followed by the defendant unless he or she would like to return
The father of probation in America is a Boston cobbler by the name of John Augustus. John spent a lot of his time in a courtroom and took on his first probation client in 1841. John‘s first case was a common drunkard, who John was able to devote his time with. Over time according to are reading John “became convinced that many lawbreakers needed only the interest and concern of another to be able to stop drinking, straighten out their lives, and become model citizens.”
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.
& Conis, 2013). This probation tries to decrease recidivism, but the probation officer does hold
Probation is when the sentence of being in prison is adjourned, and there is a period where the offender is place under supervision of a correctional officer.Probation also releases the person back into the community, but has less freedom then a regular citizen. Because it comes with conditions that the person must meet, for example: see their probation officer, and have good behavior, if they do not meet these conditions they violate probation, and their probation may be revoke or amended(Phillips,2014).
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines Probation as a period of time given to someone who commits a crime and instead of being incarcerated are allowed to spend their sentence in the community based on conditions set aside by the courts. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/probation) The task was given to me to build the ultimate model of Probation Services. After careful consideration and great thought this is the route I decided to take. I believe that parents play a great role in some of the decisions their children make. The decisions children make today are a reflection of their parents. My focus on this probation model is to place both child and parent in an institution were they would undergo a period of restoration of family values, rehabilitation, parenting courses, academia and counselling. The ages of these juveniles will range between the ages of ten (10) to seventeen (17) years old.Therefore I stand for institutionalized probation and how this probation will assist in instilling family values.
All in all, the ideas surrounding the criminal justice system were affirmed by the field practice experience. Many open doors have resulted from the venture into the field of probation. As an advocate and future employee of the criminal justice system the skills and intellect gained from the college of criminal justice at SHSU along with the internship opportunity with the Dallas County Adult Probation Department will serve as a path to a successful career. The talented individuals and extraordinary situations encountered on the journey will not be forgotten.
An American resolution: The history of prisons in the United States from 1777 to 1877 by Matthew Meskell. Stanford Law Review.
A probation system is an opportunity offered to offenders with minor crimes or good behavior in where the offender is not send to jail instead he/she is put it in probation in where they have to report to a police officer and they have to follow the court orders and cannot break the law. Usually probation is an opportunity for offenders to reintegrated with the community. The North Carolina Probation system is based on supervising the offenders and help them succeed. Also making sure that the offenders don't go back to prison or jail. The organization of the probation system is very similar to a corrections goal which is overall rehabilitation. Probation is not given to anyone, before an offender is place on probation a judge would look at all his criminals record, acts against
The correctional system is not a perfect system as it does not address the key issues that cause offenders to continue to be imprisoned after only one year of release. The system has been evolving from a punishment base system from the 1970s to a complex system designed to beyond the punishment to deal with the rehabilitation of the criminal mind. This allows the individual offender to recognize their faults, receive treatment and be released from the correctional system as a productive member lacking terminal deviant behavior.
Probation is more humane and cost effective and it also allows people to maintain their family and community ties, which are extremely important in reducing recidivism. People placed on probation are less likely than those sent to prison for the same offense to re-offend (Dolan, 2016).
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.
Furthermore, it will be looking at whether punishment could be re-imagined, and if so, what would it entail? The use of prison as a form of punishment began to become popular in the early 19th century. This was because transportation to colonies had started to decrease; transportation was the removing of an individual, in this case an offender, from its country to another country; usually for a period of seven to ten years and in some cases for ever. During this time prison was now being used as a means for punishment, this was in response to the declining of transportation to colonies. Thus, instead of transporting offenders to other colonies, they were now being locked away behind high walls of the prison.