Goals and purposes of parole

¶ … Parole

List and explain the goals and purposes of parole.

Parole is the conditional early release from prison or jail, under supervision, after a portion of the sentence has been served. This practice assumes that the offender successfully demonstrated conformity to the rules and regulations of the prison environment and shows an ability to conform to society's norms and laws.

During the 1870s Zebulon Brockaway is credited with the passage of the first indeterminate sentencing law in the United States as well as introducing the first good time system to reduce inmates' sentences. However, providing adequate supervision once release had been granted proved to be a problem. By 1913, it was clear some independent body was required to supervise inmates in the community and by 1930 Congress formally established a United States Board of Parole. It appeared that initiatives and programs were developing that could make parole a viable and useful tool of the criminal justice system. In 1929, the Great Depression hit the United States. An immediate result was a sharp increase in prison populations. The high cost of maintaining prisons as well as a lack of available personnel to staff them made new construction prohibitive and contributed to the popularity of parole. While alleviation of the overcrowding problem is often cited as a secondary goal, the reality is that as a back-end solution, parole is vital to the maintenance of the correctional system (Cengage, 2003).

The fact that parole involves some incarceration suggests that the average parolee has committed a more serious crime than the average probationer and, hence, poses a greater risk to the community. Therefore, primary goals of parole must include crime deterrence and offender control. Given that most offender s will eventually return to the community, a rival goal is reintegration, or the facilitation of an offender's transition from incarceration to freedom.

The goals of parole include: 1) serving as a reward for inmates who exhibit good behavior while in prison, 2) contributing to a less violent environment within the walls of the prison by providing an incentive to behave well, thus making it safer for inmates, visitors, staff, and administrators, 3) providing parolees with supervision in the community and access to community-based treatment programs while serving out the remainder of their prison sentence, 4) helping an offender become a law abiding member of the community, 5) protecting the interests and safety of the public by incarcerating the offender and then providing community-based treatment to those who no longer need to be isolated from the community and 6) providing correctional services at a cost less than the cost of incarceration (Carlie, 2002).

Conclusion