Community Supervision Research Paper

Words: 1668
Pages: 7

Community supervision is a vital part of the correctional system. As I stated in my discussion post; without probation and parole, the correctional system would become overcrowded and tax payers would feel the blunt of the effects, due to increased taxes. Not only is community supervision vital to the correctional system, it is necessary for adults who are transitioning from prison to rejoining the general population. Probation is a form of community supervision that is typically used instead of incarceration (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2018). Parole is a form of community supervision that follows a release from prison (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2018). According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2018), the number of adults under community supervision rose …show more content…
The officers are overwhelmed by caseloads, understaffed and when someone breaks the rules, they are not really punished. Probation is meant to deliver a punishment without placing them in prison, because they can still function as a member of society. By reforming parole and preventing parolees from returning to prison, we have decreased the spending on prisoner housing. This would allow us to use some of the saved money to also hire more probation officers and retrain the ones who currently are employed. The system is broken from the bottom to the top and this needs fixed. If someone tests positive for drugs, they need to be fined and forced to take drug education classes. It is the same as if you get a speeding ticket and you take a driving class, if you do not show up for the class, you are charged for the ticket and it could effect your driving privilege. If a person does not attend the drug education coarse, they will be punished again but this time more sever. According to Kleiman & Hawken (2008), "swiftness and certainty of punishment rather than on severity would result in less crime and fewer people in prison"(para.