The Role of Parole in Criminal Justice

Each country across the globe has its unique ways to deal with criminals. Most of their criminal justice systems include some form of parole for individuals who have completed their sentences, in order to maintain some form of control over them while they readjust to life outside prison. This article will discuss the overall parole system in the United States and those of Australia and Canada. The Australian and Canadian parole systems will be compared to that of the United States and their effectiveness will be discussed. The information

Since many inmates return back into our communities, the Reformatory Era helped decrease the impact of imprisonment on long term inmates as see under the Principle of Normalization. This principle explained how conditions of prisoners should correspond as much as possible to the living conditions in the general society. A solution during this era was parole. This gave the offender the opportunity for early release based on their behavior. Offenders were given a minimum and maximum period of incarceration which is also known as indeterminate sentencing. New York adopted indeterminate sentencing during 1876. Since prisoners had indeterminate sentencing, they could be paroled and able to achieve goals that were set to them by their “handler”. Probation soon spread all around the United States giving different approaches to they way criminal justice policies were

As the imprisoned population in the United States grows and American culture changes, rehabilitation is becoming popular among these alternatives to a standard prison system. Rehabilitation when referring to criminal justice are programs and methods used to assist prisoners in reforming themselves in order to avoid the habits that placed them in prison in the first place. These programs are becoming more popular due to the high cost of imprisonment and a change in American culture. Each prisoner costs forty thousand dollars each year to keep in prison(Weissmueller). This is money that is coming out of the taxes paid by United States citizens who aren’t even in the prison system. Alongside this, American culture is changing to be supporting of rehabilitation efforts as Americans see the effectiveness of criminal justice systems that include it. This was seen on a trip to Europe by U.S. prison officials; once they had seen the effectiveness of German and Dutch prison rehabilitation, they wanted to bring similar programs to their prisons (“People, not prisoners”). A rehabilitation based criminal justice system in the United States is gaining popularity, and as it does so it is earning the attention it needs and deserves.

Once the offender is released from prison with still no understanding of how to re enter society they resort back to what they know. However, some state and federal facilities are offering rehabilitation programs within the prison systems. Some federal prisons offer GED programs, college classes, and apprenticeships. There are also many of prisons who offer drug classes such as nonresidential drug abuse programs as well as the drug education class, 500 hr residential drug program. Some also offer classes that will get an inmate mentally ready before they release. In the state prisons they offer college classes in some as well as apprenticeships, and a drug class. What I have seen is that federal prisons are still offering a good bit of programs threw the poor economy while the state is cutting programs from left to right. I witnessed this statistic in person January 2010,21 inmates at Greenville Federal Prison Camp completed a 500-hr residential treatment program out of 21 inmates who was released in the same three days only one has returned back to prison to this exact day. However the first three years out for an

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

Today we see five prevalent goals of corrections including retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation and restorative justice. Goals employed in corrections change over time depending on several factors including the trends of thought in society and issues within the prison system. Politics as well as prison overcrowding also factor into determining which goal dominates. Retribution has a long-standing history as the most culturally accepted goal because people fended for themselves prior to organized law enforcement (Bartollas, 2002, p. 71). Incapacitation, the dominant goal currently, eliminates the threat by placing the criminal outside society, typically through incarceration, and preventing the criminal from having the ability to commit additional crimes. Deterrence, like retribution, has continued as a goal throughout history. In an effort to reduce the risk of crime, law enforcement attempt to deter criminals from committing crimes. Rehabilitation gained enormous strength with an attempt at moral redemption of the offender. Reformists believed corrections needed a makeover as they worked towards rehabilitation. Rehabilitation places more focus on the individual rather than the act in an attempt to rehabilitate the person. America did not begin to look at the corrections system more substantially until the 1970s as the idea of rehabilitation fell (Bartollas, 2002, p. 75). Restorative justice promises to restore the victim as the offender

These include not just parole, also probation or drug court. The easiest way of violating one of the community programs above is employment. It is not just a suggestion; it’s a requirement to remain to one’s freedom. Which is uncovered challenging, and in this day and time nearly unrealistic! Not only due to today’s economy; also due to that bad choice(s) or a criminal history can make finding employment difficult. NIJ (National Institute of Justice) found that a criminal record reduces the likelihood of a job or offer by over 50%! (Solomon) With another study showing that 92% of employers use some sort of background check. With any kind of simple arrest or criminal history (even if it didn’t lead to a conviction.) that shows quite a problem. So being on a community corrections program and the conditions of the job employment is very discouraging to more than half of those sentenced to these programs. Recidivism is bound to occur for most

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.

While some critics regard parole as an early release option that puts the public at unnecessary risk, there are others that argue that parole allows the re-integration of offenders into the community and provides better prospects for their rehabilitation. There are however, several questions that need to be answered in order to figure out which of these two arguments makes more sense. This includes, how is parole defined and described in the academic field? What are the pros and cons of using parole as an early release option? How do we determine if parole is over or under-used in Australia?

In Sentencing legislation. Under that law, parole was abolished; felons sentenced to prison are now given a bifurcated (two-part) sentence in which the sentencing judge specifies an amount of time a convicted felon will serve in prison and an amount of time the person will serve in the community on extended supervision. Under

are on probation or parole. Also included is the beginning of the probation and parole systems,

They have to fill out and sign an application the happens to be furnished by a case manager. If the criminal does not complete the application then the offender is provided the waiver to the application. After that, the caseworker the will notify the criminal when his parole hearing is to take place. The parole hearing is an opportunity for the criminal to present their case and why they think they should be able to receive parole. The commission determines if the person is eligible for parole according to the type of sentence the criminal recieve when he was convicted. The earliest time the criminal can be parole is called the parole eligibility date. If the criminal is granted parole they must wait to be released until on or after the parole eligibility date (Frequently Asked Questions). If granted parole the parolee will then be recieve back into the community. Only 15 states do not use the parole system today while the rest of the 35 states do. The first state to use the parole system was New York. “In 1910 Congress established the U.S. Parole Commission and gave it the responsibility of evaluating and setting the release dates for federal prisoners”( Parole). Also those of a very serious crime must complete eighty-five percent of their original sentence before they can be released from prison and sent back into the real world.

What is Parole and its` purpose? Parole is a method of releasing offenders from prison prior to the expiration of their sentence. Inmates are screened for their suitability for release based upon the risk they pose to the public. Once

(Encyclopedia, 1986) Under this type of sentencing, an offender received a specific amount of time to serve in prison for a specific crime. (Encyclopedia, 1986) This actually created a major problem when prisons became overcrowded. (Encyclopedia, 1986) The governors were forced to issue mass pardons or the prison wardens had to randomly release offenders to make space for new entering prisoners. (Encyclopedia, 1986) Then in 1840, Captain Alexander Maconochie was appointed governor of the notorious English penal colony at Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia. (Encyclopedia, 1986) Maconochie came up with a system that he issued “marks” to encourage more positive behavior and let inmates serve their sentences in stages, which each increasing in responsibility. The final stage was a ticket of leave. (Siegal & Bartollas, 2010, pg. 254) The final stage of his system was a ticket of leave, the graduated release. (Siegal & Bartollas, 2010, pg. 254) “Later, influenced by Maconochie, Sir Walter Crofton established the “Irish mark system” in which inmates could earn early release by positive behavior.” (Siegal & Bartollas, 2010, pg. 254) The four stages of graduated release that he created were solitary confinement, special prison, open institution, and ticket of leave. (Siegal & Bartollas, 2010, pg. 254) “The Irish system was well received, appeared to have low rates of recidivism, and penologists from the United States began to urge bringing these ideas of graduated release to the United States.” (Siegal & Bartollas, 2010, pg. 254) But indeterminate sentence and the use of parole was not recognized and adopted across the U.S until 1944. (Siegal & Bartollas, 2010, pg.

Parole is the part of the general 19th-century trend in criminology from punishment to reformation. Alexander Maconochie developed the early parole system. He was in charge of the English