Effectiveness of Halfway Houses vs. Electronic Monitoring

Prison reforms are necessary to better the conditions for prisoners to enable the creation of an efficient and reliable correctional system. In reforming the prison system, it is essential for alternatives to incarceration to be explored (UNODC). There has been a sizeable escalation in the number of individuals serving prison sentences in American prisons. In fact, America has the world’s highest number of incarceration cases with over 2.2 million Americans in prison. The increased number of inmates has resulted in unprecedented congestion in prisons. Further, the available funds from state governments have been significantly outstretched by the expanded penal system.

Both jail and prison offer some type of early released programs, in this case probation and parole will briefly be discussed. Probation is a prison sentence that is suspended on the condition that the offender follow certain prescribed rules and commit no further crime (Seiter, 2008). Parole is similar to probation except that it is after a period of incarceration, which involved determinate and indeterminate sentencing (Seiter, 2008). The other types of prison sentencing include mandatory minimums, three-strike laws, and truth-in-sentencing (Wilson, 2001). The only difference is that a parole board allows convicts to serve the remainder of their term in society under supervision and strict limitations (Wilson, 2001). In summary both jails and prisons should strive to provide as much educational, health, and counseling opportunities as possible to reduce the likelihood of recidivism. Second, funding for the jail and prison systems will be briefly discussed.

The United States is the nation who incarcerates more offenders than any country in the world, this means that the cost of imprisonment, and healthcare for inmates is an expensive cost for taxpayers. The role of probation and parole was develop as a relief for taxpayers in order to reduce the cost of imprisonment. This supervision programs were develop in order to rehabilitate the offender, release into the community, and to prepare the offender to gain skills to obtain a job. Offenders spend a hard time trying to look for an employment, but the criminal justice system label affects the offender. There are many factors that affect the offender while trying to look for employment: criminal background, race, education, skills, and the social

I am doing this paper on electronic monitoring. I am doing this paper because I need a paper to write for you and this is the page I opened to in the book to get the idea. No, really because I believe that electronic monitoring is a terrific way to police probation and parolees when probation and parole officers are so severely overworked. By not having to check in on the offenders as much, because at any time we can hit a button and know exactly where they are, or be notified instantly when they are somewhere they shouldn’t be, it would be a lot easier on probation and parole officers.

The first even type was technical parole violations. 42.60% of the control group had a technical parole violation and of the treatment group 43.88% had these types’ violations. Even know there was not much of a change it can be perceived that GPS monitoring help parole officers detecting technical parole violations. The second event type was nontechnical parole violations. Again there was not a huge difference. The control had 54.85% violations within its group and the treatment group had 53.83% violation. The third event type was arrest. Of the control group 56.12% were rearrested and the treatment group only 46.68% was rearrested. The research shows that there was a significant decrease between the control group and the treatment group. This can be concluded that GPS monitoring may have made a difference. The fourth event type was arrest for a violent offense. 19.64% of the control group was arrested for a violent offense but only 12.50% of the treatment group was arrested. Again this decrease shows that GPS might have played a role in the percentages decreasing. The fifth event type was return to custody. This group showed that the treatment group was more likely to return to custody then the control group. The treatment group had a 79.34% and the control group only had 69.39% of their group being returned to custody

The purpose of this paper is to examine the revocation process for probation and parole and the differences in the processes. As it is viewed probation and parole should be combined due to how close they are to each other. While there are some differences between the two and what they require of the inmate to do. The same punishment is received when a parolee or probationer does not obey their condition could be sent back to prison till further notice. When a probationer or parole commits a crime again will be revoked and more than likely will never receive it again. (Clear, Reisig, & Cole, 2014)

The question we have to ask ourselves is if electronic monitoring can reduce crime specifically high-risk offenders? According to Bulman (2012), sex offenders on parole who are labeled high-risk had a lower recidivism rate when they were placed on GPS monitoring in comparison to those who were under traditional parole supervision, exclusively in the state of California. NIJ came up with the conclusion when they studied and reported the results of 516 high-risk offenders on parole between the years 2006-2009. Electronic monitoring is effective in reducing the recidivism rate but it cost more in comparison to traditional parole supervision. The results stated that it cost 35.96 a day per offender but it only cost 27.45 under traditional parole

How do you punish a person who is already being punished? This is the problem the penal system faces. On the surface solitary confinement seems like the perfect solution. Put into place to protect prison workers and other inmates from being harmed by dangerous and unruly prisoners, the side effects of solitary confinement can often be far worse and destructive to prison rehabilitation than the benefits of such a system. The abuse and overuse of this form of punishment has had severe repercussions on a social and moral level. Social exclusion, rehabilitation in the form of punishment, and prison workers' lack of control in many maximum security prisons all contribute to the detrimental effects that solitary, as it is colloquially known,

This paper is intended to inform corrections administrators, probation/parole, and community service vendors. Parole boards should know the following information as they serve as gatekeepers to make sure that inmates have effective release plans (Seiter & Kadela, 2003). Additionally, supervision of parolees can be negatively impacted by overwhelming caseloads for parole officers (Bouffard & Bergeron, 2006), so they must be cautious on how to conduct themselves to maximize positive outcomes.

Probation and parole face the struggle of how to properly deal with probationers and parolees. This is no small task; there are always complications along the way to the habilitation/rehabilitation of an individual. The problems might be personal emotional issues, or they could be problems in the form of future arrests. While we cannot change who the individuals on parole or probation are, we can provide them with incentives to motivate them to want to change. We can also provide well-trained officers to help parolees and probationers to become habilitated/rehabilitated in the best way possible. However, this is very

Once an offender has served their time in prison they are released back into the community. Many of these offenders will face months or years of community supervision by the correctional system, a program designed to help them transition to civilian life and reduce recidivism rates. Probation officers must therefore understand the risk of recidivism and noncompliance for each individual offender (reviewed by Hildebrand, Hol, and Bosker, 2013). This essay examines the tools probation officers are increasingly using to make these determinations.

Due to the high cost of building and maintaining prison cells and to try to avoid extreme overcrowding of the prisons there are many correctional community programs for those inmates that do not pose a huge threat to society which can help save money to the corrections system and save space in jails for those inmates that do pose a high threat to society and that must be kept away until they rehabilitate (Peak, 2014, p. 263). One of the community based programs alternative to incarceration is the intensive supervision program or ISP, this programs is similar to regular parole or probation but the difference is that in ISP the contact between the parole officer and the parolee or probationer occurs more often and in most cases the contact is almost daily either face to face or over the phone, also in this program the parolee or

Furthermore, this program will allow the offenders to correct their behavior while working in society, preparing to transition back home. With them being in jail or prisons, their chances are limited to taking on responsibilities. With them being on probation and working closely with the probations officers, their relationship becomes somewhat personal as a mentor of father figure. Parole is presented as an incentive for good behavior while serving a given sentencing term. This incentive motivates good manners among offenders while serving their term. Offenders changing or transiting into society will get the opportunity to be readily prepared for home. With this transition, offenders are offer jobs by the parole officers, which make them responsible for their own finances. There are numerous challenges that the offenders sometime

This research will utilize some qualitative and quantitative approaches. Given that this project began with research surrounding departments utilizing kiosks, this literature review will continue throughout the project. This will result in a final project that highlights successes and failures in regards to kiosk reporting. Additionally, the literature review will touch on how to supervise low/moderate/high risk offenders and justification for the use of kiosks on low risk offenders (thus providing officers more time to focus on high risk offenders).

Additionally, a benefit of the government role in security through monitoring is the tracking of current criminals or suspects. The electronic alternative to rehabilitation certainly cuts down on government revenue being poured into criminal cases. The electronic method significantly reduces the amount of taxpayer money going into the juvenile detention centers. Furthermore, this electronic alternative genuinely increases the success rate of the rehabilitation of previous criminals. The reason for this success is attributed to the familiarity and comfort while being allowed to stay in their own home, while still under government watch. The government can monitor the offender in real time, making sure that the terms of punishment are being met. The device that is worn broadcasts a signal which can be tracked very accurately, conveying the exact location of the wearer. This same technology is used to alert the local police if the offender is near a certain location, such as the house of a known rival, or a spot known to have illicit drug activity. This signal is automatically sent out to alert the police of the exact position of the offender. The electronic method of surveillance in such cases is beneficial not only to the police who keep watch over the offenders, but also to the offender, offering a more comfortable alternative to sitting in a cell