The Pros And Cons Of Diversion And Probation

The United States prison system is considered today to be one of the most flawed and corrupt systems of the modern world. Given this fact, it is unsurprising that one of the most talked about issues in the US today is prison reform. Prison reform is a phrase which refers to the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, establishing a more effective penal system, or implementing alternatives to incarceration. The US has spent the past twenty years gradually working to improve its prisons, and even recently strives to better the federal and state prison system as a whole. One of the main goals of prison reform is reducing recidivism, which is the chance of an incarcerated person re-offending. One of the main ways to do this is to give inmates ways to spend their time that will better them and prepare them to re-enter society as a fully productive, rehabilitated citizen. This facet of prison reform is the basis for the Prison Reform and Redemption Act of 2017. This bill, which was to be reviewed on Wednesday, April 25 but is

The policy options that will be discussed are establishing efficient and beneficial rehabilitation systems in prisons, establishing educational systems in prisons, eliminating private prisons, and reducing mandatory sentencing laws. These are a few of the many ideas and solutions that the United States can take in order to reduce its high incarceration rate.

The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Program was aimed to follow a rehabilitative justice perspective. This rehabilitative justice perspective is a “concept intended to meet the needs of the victims/offenders with the intent of having the community involved” (McCold, 1995). LEAD carries out this concept in three ways: it aids the police/ social services by creating a resource base, removes the offenders from society, and provides aid to the offender.

First off, parole is “the conditional release of a prisoner, prior to completition of the

The need for the Jail Diversion Program arises from the increasing number of mental health problems among the jail population in the United States. According to Bell, Decker, & Sullivan (2013), 64 percent of the adults incarcerated in the US prisons in

These programs hold the said offenders liable for their actions in a way hold them responsible for their actions and prevents future participation in criminal activities. Diversion treatment plans offer a variety of services, including methodological services to mentally unstable drug abusers and offenders. This is essential to society to prevent the appearance of drugs on public streets when these mentally unstable offenders are released. Diversion programs can greatly help those with a dual-diagnosis rehabilitate, not just spend time in jail. Diversion programs are aslo time and cost effective. They take less time and money to process a case than a regular court case does. According to a website that provides information on youth and adult diversion programs (youthservicesinc.org), in these programs, offenders are expected to acknowledge their responsibility for breaking the law, they must also be willing to make amends. Attendance at diversion board hearing is required to explain the violating behavior and to see if your case will be accepted by the board. If accepted, the offender will complete a contract within the specified length of time. Successful completion of a diversion program results in the dismissal of the charges against the offender. This helps participants of these programs continue working and going to school. It even helps them remain functioning members of society

The United States of America is phrased by many, as being “the land of the free.” Yet, the Unites States currently has the highest per capita prison population than any other country. The United States makes up only 5% of the world’s population and of that 5%, 25% of our overall nation’s population is currently incarcerated. A few factors that attribute to our high rates of incarceration include, sentencing laws: such as mandatory- minimum sentencing, lack of initial deterrence from crime, the war on drugs and the presence of recidivism. With our ever growing incarceration rates and the cost of housing individual offenders averaging $22,000 a criminal justice agenda. Recidivism refers to a person 's relapse into criminal behavior resulting in rearrests, reconviction or return to prison with or without a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner 's release (National Institute of Justice.) Many programs have been implemented in our prison system to help reduce the recidivism rates. Programs such as educational/ vocational programming, reentry programs, substance abuse programs and subsidized employment are among many programs in which have been proven effective. Yet, due to costs deficits, the clock is ticking to find evidence based programs to invest in. So, the question currently being sought after is, which method is most effective in reducing recidivism rates?

In the United States, over 90,000 juveniles are incarcerated in juvenile justice facilities. To house 90,000 juveniles, majority non-violent offenders, it costs the states roughly 5.7 billion dollars annually. “With states facing serious budgetary constraints, it is an opportune time or policymakers to consider ways to reduce juvenile justice spending that won’t compromise public safety.” In the effort to reduce juvenile justice costs, community-based programs known as pretrial diversion programs were implemented. Pretrial diversion programs did not only reduce funding costs, but benefited the juvenile as well. Pretrial diversion programs main objective is to rehabilitate juvenile offenders, which ultimately led to lower recidivism rates and safer communities. As a result of the benefits to all parties involved, today’s juvenile judicial system offers more juveniles the opportunity to attend these diversion programs; rather than proceed through traditional criminal justice processes. (Justice Policy Institution)

Parole is a highly controversial issue in Australia and around the world. A likely cause for this controversy is the general public’s ignorance of the specifics where parole is concerned. Any casual observation of a local newspaper or current affairs program on TV will likely result in the discovery of a member of the public’s opinion of crime and criminals and the criminal justice system in general, and what they believe to be wrong with it and no doubt suggestions on how to fix it. These opinions will probably be biased in nature, and influenced by information supplied to them by various forms of media. This information does not necessarily reflect the reality of the situation regarding the parole system. Adding to this potential for

Despite the large amount of criminals in prison, the crimes: murder, rape, and others has only “accounted for 10.6 percent of the total Crime Index” (Access Integrity Unit). The vast majority of criminals locked up are held on drug addiction or petty theft charges and not more serious offenses such as murder or assault. To put it simply, the cells that were built with taxpayers’ dollars holds 89.4 percent of criminals that are of no real threat to society. While the jail cells continue to fill up with occupants that has no business being behind bars, the general public will not feel any safer until new laws are passed to insure lesser offenders can get the help they so desperately need.

When the term corrections is mentioned, the thought of incarceration is the first to come to mind. This is the case for as of the end of 2013, there were 1,574,700 people serving time in state and federal penitentiaries (Carson, 2014, p.1). This alarming number gives reason for the need of alternatives to incarceration. Avoiding imprisonment does not translate to a lenient punitive sentence for the alternatives can just as easily repair harms to the victims, provide benefits to the community, treat the drug addicted, and rehabilitate offenders (FAMM, 2013, p.1). The use of programs that offer an alternative to incarceration can reduce the amount of people in the prison system that is living on taxpayers’ dollars.

“Counties who use prisons at a low rate in proportion to their population could get some sort of economic discount at the end of the year” (Semuals, 2015). This could become a problem because people would not want to send others to prison so that they can receive the discount. The second proposal, talks about not locking people up for minor crimes to make room for the more serious offenders (Semual, 2015). Yet again, they talk about rewarding counties with refunds if they manage incarceration rates. If there’s a reward, people start to only care about how they can get the reward. I do believe these strategies would help reverse the tend

Therefore, if we reduce the overcrowding rate, what are we going to do with all the criminals not headed to jail or prison? Well, that brings us to step four: realizing the benefits of the alternatives to incarceration. Because building prisons puts a terrible strain on most state’s budgets, taxpayers have been more willing to consider programs that might cost less- as long as they also control and punish crimes appropriately. Alternatives saves the taxpayers money along with strengthening families and communities by keeping them together and allowing criminals to contribute to the community like paying taxes and getting a job.(Alternatives, 2) 77% of adults believe alternatives are the best way to deal with non-violent and non-serious offenders. Alternative promote good behavior by advertising the possibility of “good-time credits” which allow prisoners to reduce their sentence with good behavior. (Overcrowding, 1) These types of benefits will surely make an impact on our society for the better.

Most findings indicate that punishment, deterrence, incapacitation and restitution are ineffective ways to reduce crime. It is noted that if the same resource monies could be redirected rehabilitation, the cost to the tax- payer would be reduced over time (Gertz et al, 2005). Rehabilitative programs are the most effective in reaching our ultimate goal of reducing crime and reducing future criminal behavior which is the purpose of incarceration. The problem with rehabilitation is that it is the most difficult to proof effective and even more difficult to persuade policy makers and community members to fund (Pinard, 2010). There are at

There are many reasons why the courts or prosecutors would choose this option instead of taking the case to trial. The purpose in this program is to allow defendants to stay in the community to receive treatment or help and allow them to remain with their family. This also helps defendants be able to provide for their families and avoid being labeled as a criminal. It does not only help the defendants but it helps the courts, prosecutors, and jail systems. The courts benefits because it allows for more serious cases to be brought to trial and frees up money for those cases. It takes pressure off the prosecutors allowing them to focus on bigger more serious cases as well. This program benefits the jail and prison system by not overcrowding them. This is just one of the options for defendants to avoid going to jail or criminal charges in court. There are some people that believe this program is not fair or is not strict enough. There seem to be a lot of problems that are associated with pretrial publicity. Pretrial publicity can make it harder for the courts to find jurors that have not heard the facts about the case on the television or some form of