The Role That Electronic Tagging

Punishment has evolved from the days of waiting to be hung to the sophisticated prison systems of today. However prisons in the United States are crowded and costly and they are not always appropriate for all offenders, especially those that have committed minor offenses. In the last couple of decades new methods of punishment has been developed for the minor offender. These fall under the category of intermediate community sanction and consist of electronic monitoring and home confinement. These punishments have proven very useful in dealing with minor offenders, pretrial confinement and others in need of supervision. They seem to be effective and help to transfer some of the cost of prison back to the offender.

Almost everything someone does in today’s society is under surveillance. It does not matter if you are surfing the web, going to the store, or even driving a car; it is almost always under surveillance. While Michel Foucault does not specifically talk about modern surveillance technology in Discipline & Punish (1977), much of the primitive technology that he does talk about is directly related with today’s surveillance technology. Michel Foucault believes that societal surveillance began to take effect during the 1600’s to control the masses. Many modern surveillance technologies reflect Foucault’s ideas helping to categorize, differentiate, hierarchize, and exclude people from the masses.

Surveillance is not a new thing. In fact, espionage, tracking, and sleuthing were part of society ever since 5000 B.C. But in the rise of the modern era, the idea of surveillance in the public eye serves as a controversial topic of discussion. People everywhere complain about the existence of security cameras, government tracking, and the right to privacy. Such problems, however, are not due to the sudden discovery of surveillance, but the modern abuse of it. Seeing the disastrous effects of over surveillance from George Orwell’s 1984, the public rightfully fears societal deterioration through modern surveillance abuse portrayed in Matthew Hutson’s “Even Bugs Will Be Bugged” and the effects of such in Jennifer Golbeck’s “All Eyes On You”. The abuse of surveillance induces the fear of discovery through the invasion of privacy, and ensures the omnipresence of one’s past that haunt future endeavors, to ultimately obstruct human development and the progress of society overall.

This essay will critically reflect on the interventions used in the community to manage offender’s risk by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of communication, between Offender Managers and external agencies. An evaluation will be made of how Offender Managers are able to use feedback from community interventions, to effectively manage an individuals risk throughout supervision sessions and explore different strategies used in order build a relationship and manage compliance throughout an order. This essay will highlight diversity issues raised and how future practice can be improved from reflecting on current work. I will be referring to two case studies drawn from my own practice as a Probation Service Officer (PSO), Mr N and Mr C, and demonstrate how theoretical literature and research has informed decision-making in managing risk and planned interventions.

The legal definition of crime is “an act of violation of a criminal law for which a punishment is prescribed; the person committing it must have intended to do so and must have done so without legally acceptable defence or justification” (Walsh & Hemmens 2008:2). Alternatively, deviance is any social behaviour which departs from that regarded as ‘normal’ or socially acceptable within a society or social context (Jary & Jary 1991:160). The underlining focus of my essay is The Criminal Justice System in England and Wales which is a key public service consisting of various bodies and individuals including: the Police, Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty’s Court Service, National Offender Management Services (Probation and Prisons) and Youth Justice Board.

The second supporting argument that Parliament imposes the judiciary to place too much emphasis on incarceration is characterized by the reduction of credit for pre-sentence custody credit. Fortunately, this was amended in 2014. The Truth in Sentencing Act, one of the government’s early “tough on crime” laws was passed in 2009, but became operative on Feb. 22, 2010. This Act contributed to the changes regarding the credit offenders received for pre-sentence detention or “dead-time,” that does not count towards any parole or early release eligibility. This curbed judge’s ability to give a break on sentencing when a convicted offender has spent lengthy time in pre-trial jail custody. This discount in sentencing had evolved to recognize that

However, research carried out in the 1990’s as part of ‘what works’ movement identified that the most successful sentences were those that attempted to change, not only the offender’s behaviour but also their attitude towards their offending (Hollin, 2007). This catalysed the push towards cognitive-behavioural approaches and by 1999 one especially important development was the establishment of the Correctional Services Accreditation Panel, which ‘quality assured’ probation and prison programmes for rehabilitating offending. This technique brought an emphasis of individual responsibility of an offender (Mair,2004). A criticism of this was the lack of attention of sociological factors that can influence criminal behaviour.

However, the same technology that empowers the general public also empowers criminals and terrorists. Is it worth it to compromise the privacy of the general public in order to monitor the behavior of a select few potential criminals? Thus far, the consensus has been 'no'; every publicized effort by law enforcement to introduce general surveillance to the Internet has been met by loud public outcry. [Riley] The public simply will not permit law enforcement to do any form of monitoring that is not accompanied by probable cause and a search warrant.

The ongoing role of prison within the UK Criminal Justice System is becoming increasingly unclear. On the one hand in the 21st century, it is considered to be a “state strategy for crime control, a deterrent for those contemplating crime and punitive response for those who have broken laws”McAvinchey (2011 pg.10). On the other hand, it is also supposed to have a rehabilitative purpose, the intended role of a prison is to rehabilitate the offender so that when they have completed their prison sentence, they can be successfully rehabilitated back into the community and live a crime free fulfilled life. Yet, when examining the vital statistics that underline an increase in prisoner population, it is clearly apparent that the system neither

Resettlement has been an important element in prison life throughout England and Wales for many years. It is when “prisoners and their families receive assistance and support from the prison and probation services and voluntary agencies to help them prepare for life after prison” (Justice, 2002). The objective is to hopefully lead prisoners towards recidivism, which will hopefully return ex-offenders to normal life, employment and housing. Criminological and social research done by Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) identified the following factors to be what influenced reoffending. These are; education, employment, drug and alcohol misuse, mental and physical health, housing, financial support, debt and family networks. The aim of this essay is to discuss the impact that resettlement has in imprisonment today by looking at the factors within prison life and also looking at the effects that resettlement has on the prisoners.

"Approximately 1 in 51 adults in the United States was under community supervision at yearend 2013, the lowest rate observed since 1996" (Herberman & Bonczar, 2014, p.1). Probation/parole supervision also known as "community" supervision, helps individuals (ex-criminals) acclimate back in their community. Probation is used when a judge chooses to let the offender serve his sentence under officer supervision in the community, rather than in prison. It is usually given to individuals that have committed a non-violent/ minor infraction or that have a really good defense attorney. However, when someone has been sent to prison for an extended period of time but have served a certain amount of their time or has proven to the Parole Board that they have improved their behavior, will be released to a Parole officer. The probation and parole program is comprised of two approaches casework and brokerage. Casework approach deals with the offender as a flawed person that needs help; brokerage approach is when the probation/parole officer uses his influence in the community to assist the criminal in finding employment or programs. Knowing how to use these approaches along with monitoring techniques will assist in the officer and offender being successful. This paper will examine the approaches to PO work along with the types of monitoring used to keep track of offenders. The purpose of this paper is to examine the elements of community supervision (probation/parole) that will make the

Halfway houses and electronic monitoring are two methods used by probation or parole officers to allow offenders to enter back in to the community in different ways. Each option for officers offers a different way of supervision which allows for offenders to enter back into the community while still being monitored. In this paper I am going to explain how both halfway houses and electronic monitoring work and how they each are effective. Also I am going to discuss which one if any is better than the other. Some topics will include cost effectiveness and reducing recidivism. To conclude I have an officers input on which one he believes to be better and a summary of

There are many acts to cover like; The Anti- Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, Police Reform act 2002, Antisocial Behaviour Act 2003 and a Crime and Disorder Act 1998. But the first one that I will be covering is the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. This is an act which was put into power to cover a range of topics from giving people information about harm in relationships, violence, forced marriages and guns. This will help to protect the victims who were involved in harmful relationships. With the act introducing new powers it gives the

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.

Technology has become the bedrock for different parts of the correction system. The main force of expenditures and study in the corrections field is for the use of monitoring offenders. Different technologies that allow for better control pf the offenders can save lives and help prevent new crimes from emerging. The point of these technologies is to reduce the chance of recidivism by deterring criminals from behaviors that they may commit if otherwise left to their own devices. “The role of staff in the correctional institutional environment will never be obsolete but the use of technology can enhance and enable staff to perform their jobs more efficiently and in a safer and more secure way.” (Mannix 2) There is also an increase use of