Parole and Probation Essay

â€Å"A term coined by John Augustus from the Latin term†probare†- to prove, to test; the origin for the Probation came from English Law in the Middle Ages. †(A Brief History of Probation) â€Å"In 1841He persuaded Boston Police Court to release an adult drunkard into his custody rather than send him to prison- the prevalent means dealing with law violations at that time. †(Meet John Augustus, 2007) He was successful in improving the drunkards’ condition. It wasn’t a task done without controversies. Other police, court clerks and turnkeys didn’t agree with what John Augustus was doing, because this was taking away their pay. They got paid for those that were incarcerated, not the ones John Augustus took in his custody. â€Å"In 1878 Massachusetts passed the first probation statute mandating an official State Probation System with salaried officers. Other states followed suit. †(Meet John Augustus, 2007) â€Å"On July 1, 1930 the Division of Parole was established in the Executive Department. †(History of Parole in New York State) This meant that the Department of Corrections would no longer make decisions on which parolees would be released from prison. This responsibility was given to the fulltime Board of Parole that had been established by the Executive Department. â€Å"In 1917 Division of Parole was consolidated with the Department of Corrections to form the Department of Corrections Services (DOCS). †(History of Parole in New York State) â€Å"The Sentencing Reform Act of 1998 referred to as Jenna’s Law added a new dimension to the Division through the elimination of discretionary release for all violent felony offenders while mandating court imposed periods of post release supervision of 1. to 5 years that the offender must serve after his period of incarceration imposed by the court. †(History of the Parole in New York State) Taken a closer look it seems that probation and parole are basically the same thing, its’ like they did the same work but only had different names. No, if you think of it that way you are wrong they are both in the same agency or department but they are not the same. There is a difference; â€Å"probation is part and parcel in the offenders initial sentence and parole comes much faster allowing the offender early release from prison sentence. (Findlaw, 2008) Probation is alternative used by the courts, instead of sending the offender to prison. The courts put restrictions and supervision; they go through sanctions depending on their offense. If they are drug addicts they put them through a rehabilitation program to help them get cleaned. They put them through school to learn a skill so they can find a job. If necessary they also go through anger management classes. There is a variety of sanctions available which the probation officers prepare for them to go through to better themselves and keep from falling in the same offense or any other one over and over. Parole helps the inmates to return to the community after serving part of their prison term. There is a very strict process through which they have to go through to be able to return to the community as a normal person and not as an outcast. There are many sanctions they have to go through to help them be prepared to return back to civilization and not return as a repeat offender. Probation and Parole officers have large caseloads, more than reasonably acceptable, but there’s nothing they can do about it. They do the best they can to help the offenders get ready and feel confident about themselves and their return to their communities. These officers are assigned to areas where they know the community and its resources. This way they are able to provide better help for the offenders. Some offenders have specialized cases and the Probation and Parole officers focus on these special areas; supervision is provided by Parole for domestic violence, sexual assault, violent youthful offenders and other types of offenders. More and more conservatives now favor the abolishing parole, sharply curtailing probation, imprisoning over adult felons for his or her entire term and warehousing juvenile offenders in adult jails. †(Dilulio Jr. , 1997) To abolish probation and parole is not a very good idea. It just needs work and money to be invested on it. They need to hire more officers for Probation and Parole to help alleviate the load they have now. By hiring more personnel, they can put the light cases to a team of officers; this can help the officers that have specialized cases, it will make the caseloads they have now lighter for them. This gives them more time to focus on the special needs of the offenders. Being able to spend more time to help the offenders get through and be able to understand what and why they are doing some of these sanctions and what benefits they will get out of them. Once they understand they will look forward to continuing and finishing these sanctions because it will make them a better person and feel a change in their lives. This will be a big help to the Probation and Parole officers; they will be able to rigorously enforce the sanctions the offenders go through, and be proud of them when they complete these sanctions and become better citizens. It will be even better when the officers see a year or two or three pass by and don’t see the offenders return. The main thing needed is for more money to be invested to Probation and Parole. There are many things that are being studied foe the betterment of Probation and Parole. Innovations† in probation on July 2007 â€Å"Assessing New York City’s automated Reporting System†; New York City Department of Probation has successfully used the Kiosk System to focus its’ resourced on probationers identified as high risk through increasingly reporting and lower caseloads by assigning larger number of low-risk to high case loads. †(Department of Probation, 2008) This is just one of the many innovations that will help Probation and I recommend it. Parole is a tougher cookie to bite, because some of the offenders just aren’t going through the programs that they need to go through. The Parole Officer often wastes their time going after the bad offenders to get them to follow their program. There is nothing they can do if they’re not willing to help themselves; they will eventually commit other crimes. For these offenders the â€Å"three strikes you’re out† law will work well. You give them three chances and they fail them then their â€Å"out†, in other words they go back to prison to finish their sentence and on top they will serve for the new crimes they have committed; and should have a no parole policy after the â€Å"three strikes you’re out† law. On the other hand there are those offenders that are putting all their efforts to stay off drugs, remain sober and get a job. These offenders are ignored and forgotten because they’re too busy chasing the bad non-compliant ones. If they pay more attention to the ones that are ignored they can make a big difference by letting everyone see that it can be done , they can be turned to a self-reliant person that can go back into the community without fear of being treated as an outcast. Martin Horn, formerly head of New York State’s Parole Authority and Commissioner of Prisons in Pennsylvania. † †Horns notion is to reinvent Parole on the basis of a â€Å"personal responsibility† model. Released personnel would be given the equivalent of a parole voucher. For a fixed time-say two years-hes can use the voucher to seek education, job training, drug treatment or other services from state selected providers. If he wants to help himself, he can, if not heâ€℠¢s on his own. Do a new crime during this period-bite the hand that is offering you a way to help yourself and you do the time for the crime, plus a year or two. †(Dilulio Jr, 1997) This is also a notion that Horn had and O believe the only way to see if it works is to put it to the test. It’s the only way to know if this reinvention to Parole will work to improve what is now available in Parole. Just like the Kiosk System seems to be working, now Philadelphia Probation wants New York City Probation to help them create a Kiosk-Based Automated System just like the one they have in New York City Probation. Reference http://www.nyc.gov/html/prob/home.html