Topic: Mass Supervision Probation and Parole
Probation and Parole are essential components to the criminal justice system. Probation and
parole in the United States was originally created in humanitarian terms for offenders to have a
second chance with an opportunity to change under supervision. Probation is defined as “a
sentence imposed by the courts on offenders who have either pleaded guilty or founded guilty
instead of being incarcerated offenders are placed on probation and retained in the community
under supervision with a probation agency”. (Bohm&Haley,2018). “Parole is the act of releasing
a prisoner before the expiration of a sentence of a promise of good behavior” (Law Advisory
2021). These programs were established, to reintroduce offenders back into society after severing
their sentence. While these programs were constructed to provide guidance education and
prepare offenders to be active citizens of the world and to reduce the chances of being in
recommitted.
When offenders are put on parole or probation there are consequences and conditions that
follow behind it. Defendants have freedom, but their freedom pays a price that comes with
limitations. According to “Probation and Parole” this article states that “there are two types of
probation formal and informal, Formal is referred to as supervised probation and requires the
offender to report to a probation officer. And the second type is referred to as bench probation
where it requires the offender to report directly to the court.” (Viogt,2019). Meanwhile being put
on parole is a decision, made by the courts to determine a defendant’s eligibility to be released on
parole. Both of these systems have conditions that pertains to defendants to report and require
and obey to all directives given my assigned parole officers. They involve paying supervisions
fines and fees and victim restitution, completing community serve work and abiding by the
court’s orders for a period of time. And if these conditions are violated, their eligibility for parole
will be provoked or arrested against and put into jail with more charges.
To question further, are the consequences of these practices helpful or problematic? Some
attributes about these practices are resourceful but these practices are more probation
problematic because there are more people recommitting crimes. According to, “Mass
incarceration the whole pie 2020” states that “every year over 600,000 people enter prison gates,
but people go to jail 10.6 times each year. The jail turns high because most people have not been
convicted while some others are too poor to make bail and remain behind bars until the trial.”
(Sawyer, Wagner 2020). Some people recommit crimes to avoid facing problems in their
communities that are in poverty, low economic status, mental illness and substance abuse and the
lack of resources. From the of lack resources, results in individuals to keep going back to jail
which become a bigger problem for incarceration facilities and takes away the attention needed
in these areas of the criminal justice system.
Sawyer, W., & Wagner, P. (n.d.). Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2019. Retrieved
from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2019.html
Probation and parole: Required conditions & consequences ... (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2021,
from https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/criminal/criminal-law-basics/probation-and-
parole.html
