The Pros And Cons Of Mandatory Parole

However, all offenders eligible for parole are not automatically granted a release (Latessa & Smith, 2015, p. 106). Parole must be approved by the state or federal parole board which reviews the offender’s prison record to determine if they are safe to release back into society.

Mandatory sentencing is another form of structured sentencing, deserves special mention. Mandatory sentencing is just what its name implies: A structured sentencing scheme that man-dates clearly enumerated punishments for specific offenses or for habitual offenders convicted of a series of crimes. Mandatory sentencing, because it is truly mandatory, differs from presumptive sentencing, which allows at least a limited amount of judicial discretion within ranges established by published guidelines.

The mandatory minimum sentencing is about a fixed ruling of a crime that a judge is expected to deliver. Congress has enacted mandatory minimum sentencing laws. It was to impose the mandatory sentencing an offender would receive for crimes that were committed. The mandatory minimum punishment guidelines would require for judges to hand down judgement for a certain length of time. This would mean that for crimes that are committed there are criminal sentencing guidelines, this would give judges a certain discretion on how to proceed in sentencing an offender. These minimum sentencing apply to many of the crimes committed on society, such as violent, drug-related crimes and for those habitual offenders. In cases where the offender commits a crime and is a repeat offender then it should be left up the presiding judge to serve out justice. People who commit low level crimes should be punished but not to the extent of going to prison for a long period of time. Congress has enacted these guidelines so that the criminal justice system would not be burden with smaller crimes or be overwhelmed. Lengthy sentencing hearings seldom are necessary, the disputes about sentencing elements must be resolved with sensitivity concern and carefulness. A dispute exists about any factor important to the sentencing determination then a judge will use his discretion to hand down equal and fair judgement. Legislator statements during debates on mandatory

Parole is the release of a prisoner by the decision of a paroling authority (Mackenzie, 2002). The offender is then required to remain under the observation of a parole officer who monitors the offender 's obedience with rules of conduct that are imposed by the parole board (Mackenzie, 2002). Parole is actually regarded as a back-end program that works in conjunction with the community (Mackenzie, 2002). Parole is actually similar to probation in that it follows a term of incarceration (Mackenzie, 2002). There are specific conditions which parole can be applied. Violations of these rules may result in re-imprisonment forced to return to prison to serve out the length of their original sentence from the date of release (Mackenzie, 2002). There are currently over five million people who are being supervised by the criminal justice system in the United States (Bureau of

In a society where gender, race, sexuality and/or religion could unlawfully affect one’s sentence despite being convicted of a common offense, mandatory sentencing serves as the conciliator in the federal court of law. Mandatory sentencing is the preordained and identical sentences required to be imposed on all offenders regardless of the circumstances surrounding the offense or offender. Following its existence, there has been controversy surrounding the policy of mandatory sentencing. In fact, the controversial topic also lead to further movements such as, “No Justice, No Peace” or “Black Lives Matter.” The public policy issue of mandatory sentencing is constantly being modified as the result of historical, political and cultural factors to accommodate all parties, the public, the offender and the offended.

Once a parolee have served a minimum of a percent of their sentence they would put in for a parole hearing. An inmate may be granted freedom if the parole board determines so When it comes down to making a decision for a parolee, the decision is made on wheatear or not to release or not to release someone back into society. The second responsibility is that all parties must come to the agreement that the individual is ready for discharge providing supervision for the offender. This mean that the inmate is judged suitable for community release. This profound group of people that the community is relying on to make this decision is called the parole board. Which is made up of a group of qualified individuals who is either comes from the community

Mandatory sentencing has been a big driver in the large population of incarcerated individuals in the United States. District attorneys are more aggressive in how they file charges against the arrestee. While the country has seen a decline in crime, new

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.

It is common practice for judges to sentence an offender to one or a combination of these programs depending on the crime that they have committed. The overall goal of these programs is to limit the amount of people being sent to prison to avoid any further overcrowding. The second set of programs are known as back-end programs. These programs are implemented when offenders made improvements in compliance and behavior, as well as any treatment that they might have had. These programs primarily involve the reduction in restriction and supervision of an offender. Offenders are moved from higher levels of supervision and restrictions to lower levels of control to finish off the remainder of their sentence (textbook,132). The final category is known as trap-door or side-door programs. The primary function of these programs is to act as an emergency release option. These are not used as much as the other categories but this allows for non-violent offenders to be release on emergency circumstances only if they have done at least six months and is eligible for parole.

The United States is home to five percent of the world population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoner. There must be a change to the current prison system which is doing more harm than good in American society and must be reformed. Reasons for this claim are that American prisons are too overcrowded with inmates, which creates a dangerous and unhuman environment. The cost to run a prison has gotten too expensive for tax payer pockets, and lastly the prison system is more as a punishment instead of rehabilitation with about sixteen percent of inmates most serious offence being drug charges. Prisons fall short of reforming criminals and the government is obligated to completely reform the prison systems in the United States.

The typical parole practices that are used in today’s correctional system are supervision and rules for releases. When it comes down to it according to provisions of a statute (mandatory release/mandatory parole), there are many types of post-custody conditional supervision, or in other words the result of a sentence to a term of supervised release. (“Bureau of justice statistics (BJS) - community corrections (probation and parole),” 2016) “In the federal system, a term of supervised release is a sentence to a fixed period of supervision in the community that follows a sentence to a period of incarceration in federal prison, both of which are ordered at the time of

The available empirical evidence suggests that intensive supervision programs have not reduced the rates of re-offending (Paparozzi & Gendreau, 2005). This is partly due to the fact that these programs often target low-risk offenders, contrary to the research which suggests that high-risk offenders are most likely to benefit from intensive institutional and community-based correctional interventions (Paparozzi & Gendreau, 2005). I would like to note that although this may sound contradicting to what I have written prior about high-risk offenders, the program I am working with in Yorkton is geared towards high-risk offenders and that the research that I have found claims it is not. Even though there is research that suggests this, since I have started in the program, I have seen some major transformation with individuals. I did, however, find some evidence that this program has been effective. A 1998 report found considerable evidence to support the premise that a period of supervised transition from prison to the community enhances public safety and the rehabilitation of offenders. In particular, the process of selection for parole based on the assessment of risk to re-offend and

The procedure known as “parole” in the criminal justice system has been in practice in the United States since the late 1800’s when it was begun in a reformatory in Elmira, New York. It’s process provides for early conditional release from prison for convicted felons, after part of their prison sentence has been served, and they are found to be eligible for parole based on factors such as: conduct while incarcerated, rehabilitative efforts/progress, type of offense, and remorse for their crime. Its use has been expanded to many states, and today has become the primary way by which offenders are released from prisons and correctional institutions. Unfortunately, parole is not always rewarded to worthy

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

Community corrections is continually changing and has been for the past one hundred years. From the early to mid-twentieth century onward it has used three major models, the medical model, community model, and the crime control model. The major turning point for the American community corrections system that led to corrections as we know it today was in 1974 when What Works? - Questions and Answers About Prison Reform by Martinson was published. The system changed practically overnight across the nation. The notion of rehabilitating offenders was dismissed and a more punitive “lock them up and throw away the key” mentality took over. Presently the corrections system is still working in the crime control model, but professionals are trying to restructure how we deal with criminal offenders during and after incarceration. The difficulty in the restructuring is finding the balance between punishing criminal offenders proportionate to their crime, but also rehabilitating them to be productive members of society once they are released so that they do not recidivate.