The role of probation officers in the American criminal justice system

Parole

Some might describe America as being a nation of prisoners. There is no escaping the fact that our society produces many laws that result in many infractions of these laws which eventually result in many prisoners and court cases.

The role of probation and the probation officer in this chaotic mess we call the justice system plays a pivotal role in the effectiveness of a communities approach on crime. The purpose of this essay is to examine the role of the probation officer within the criminal justice systems and how probation as a means to solving our crime problem is succeeding or failing. In order to fairly address this subject, it is necessary to examine this idea from several viewpoints. First the essay will look at how probation is viewed by the general population and the larger picture in general. After summarizing the current status, this essay will argue that the probation officer and probation programs have definite ways of helping people and reducing the stress on our criminal and justice systems when the right principles are applied. This essay will conclude by offering suggestions for the future on how probation may be modified to serve society at an even higher and more effective level.

The Current Status of Probation

The landscape of American sentencing policy has changed significantly over the past decades. States have enacted a wide variety of sentencing reforms, most of them designed to increase the use of imprisonment as a response to crime. Three strikes laws have been passed to keep persistent offenders in prison for life. Mandatory minimums have been instituted to require imposition of a prison term for designated crimes. Truth in sentencing schemes have been embraced to ensure a long prison term for violent offenders.

Over the same period, states across the country have made a number of changes in one of the bedrocks of American criminal justice policy, the institution commonly referred as parole. Some states have abolished the role of parole boards in deciding whether and when to release prisoners from custody. Others have cut back on parole supervision, releasing more prisoners directly to the community. Some states have aggressively enforced the conditions of parole, thereby discovering more parole violations and sending more parolees back to prison.

During the same period, parole practices have changed significantly. Most parole agencies rely on drug testing as a way to determine whether a parolee has kept his promise to remain drug free. More states are allowing parole officers to carry weapons. A number of jurisdictions are requiring parolees to wear electronic bracelets to ascertain whether they abide by limitations on their movement. And the size of the parole population has grown substantially. In 1980, there were 220,000 individuals supervised by parole agencies across the country. In 2000 there were 725,000, an all-time high.

Gonczol (2005) finds this to be quite alarming compared to Europe and other westernized nations. He suggested that "in the U.S.A. there are over two million men, women and children in federal and state prisons and local jails. In 2001, it overtook Russia as the country with the greatest proportion of its citizens in confinement. The U.S.A. has just under 5% of the world's total population, but 25% of the world's prisoners. I agree with Nicole Fontaine, the President of the European Parliament who in 2000 said ' Within the EU Parliament, the voice of 370 million Europeans, a vast majority cannot understand why the United States is the only major democratic state in the world that carries out the death penalty'" (p.183). It is evident, by global standards that America's justice system is broken at many different levels.

Abadinsky (2009) explained this problem from the probation level-view. He wrote " in the absence of release by a parole board, when probationers or early-releasees generate negative publicity, new legislation curtails the use of these schemes, and in an endless cycle, either new prison building and staffing must ensue or additional schemes must be developed to reduce prison populations and achieve a semblance of equilibrium.

Getting lost in this often-simplistic approach to crime and criminals is any serious attention to the fate of persons released from prison who are uneducated, unskilled, unemployed, and now hardened by the prison experience. That such persons would resort to crime cannot be surprising, and the wheels of criminal justice continue to spin, generating heat but not light."

Criminal justice in America is an outgrowth of a fundamental distrust of government.

Authority is divided between centralized federal and state governments, and at each level power is diffused further, shared by three branches: executive, legislative, judicial, in a system referred to as the separation of powers.

In each state, authority is shared by governments at the municipal, county, and state levels. Thus, policing is primarily a function of municipal government, whereas jails are usually run by the county often by the sheriff. Probation may be a county or state function, whereas prison and usually parole systems are the responsibility of state government, although in some states (e.g., Iowa and Oregon), parole and probation supervision is a function of the county or judicial district. There is also a separate federal system of criminal justice that can and often does supersede local jurisdictions (p.6).

Of the three major components of a parole system the release decision, community supervision, and parole revocation, the decision to release convicted offenders back into society probably has seen more examination by policymakers and researchers and has more engaged the public than the other two components.

When the decision to release an offender from prison has been made, either by a parole board or mandated by statute the next step in the parole process is to determine who will be placed on community supervision after release. This legal status is commonly referred to as parole supervision. With conditional releases, former prisoners are placed on supervision in the community for a pre-determined period of time and must adhere to certain conditions of release. Typical release conditions include regular reporting to a parole officer, drug testing, maintaining employment, and no possession of weapons. Failure to observe such conditions may result in a return to prison. The term conditional release typically refers to parole, although a number of states have adopted other terms such as community punishment, supervised release, and controlled release. Unconditional releases are just that, releases from prison with no special obligations. Prisoners released unconditionally do not have a parole officer and limited if any restrictions on their movement and activities.

Recommendations

The picture is definitely complicated and complex for those wishing to make successful overhauling decisions into the probation element of the criminal justice system of America. What is most important however is remembering the human element in all of the exchanges. Too often, players within the system, including probation officers, are looking for personal gain and prestige perhaps to advance a career or earn more money. What needs to be reminded to all is that serving within this system is a sacrifice and an honor.

A country, city or small community is as only as strong as the weakest among them. Our justice and corrections systems demonstrate that we as a collective unit are failing at a massive level. The many differing and numerous sets of rules and regulations often hide what the real problem in our society is; fear.

Probation officers, along with all citizens need to reestablish faith and confidence in their actions or cease what they are doing. Half motivated attempts to fix this problem don't work, in fact they often exacerbate the situation. Setting the right example, especially for those who know no better, is most important. We should not expect people to act any differently than what we expect them to do.

Seih made some solid suggestions regarding solutions. He predicted that probation will become more interested in management information systems at the expense of the greater understanding of the offender if the situation was to remain on its current path. Rather we should reintroduce the human element of empathy and forgiveness back into society. The tendencies and proclivity for people and groups of people to hold long standing grudges against one another has created a fragmented society making repentance impossible.

The human condition is one of trial and error and eliminating the safety of failing in good faith creates the notion of the prison planet where mistakes are disallowed and perfection is expected in everything we do. Probation attempts to bridge a gap between severe and light punishment where much can be learned how we treat one another. Only when we include and remember dignity and respect in these types of exchanges should we expect anything but the same in return.