For shock probation to work, a judge has to be selective and really consider the merits of each individual defendant prior to determining whether shock probation is a valid option. Judges already do and should engage in cost-benefit analysis when making sentencing decisions; the scarcity of resources in the criminal justice system dictates that they do so (Branham, 2012)
"The typical amount of time spent in a correctional facility varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and case to case. A typical term of incarceration in a shock probation sentence is 30 days or less" (Broemmel, 2012)
Shock probation began in Ohio in 1965. This pilot program involved 4,014 prisoners who served only the initial 60 to 90 days of their original sentences (Pasquesi, 2012)
In the process they will avoid anything that is crime related and hence they will keep off crime. The offenders would want to get a good review which would prevent them from getting a sentence therefore keeps off crime by all means (Mead, 2012)
Probation and Recidivism Recidivism is the habit of offenders falling back to crime or misdemeanor after having been charged with offences or while still on probation. It is a new crime that is committed by a felony inmate or a probationer (Merriam Webster, 2012)
Even though such instruments tend to be different in some ways, they all place offenders in groups with a statistical probability of committing fresh crimes which are known or violation supervision conditions. As noted in the UC-Irvine Center for Evidence-Based Practices website (Joan Petersilila, and Richard Rosenfeld, 2007) need and risk assessment is among several techniques of evidence-based practices, such as motivational interviewing, case planning, principle of correctional intervention and cognitive-behavioral treatment
It is also very important to ensure that there are necessary safety precautions taken to protect officers given the substantial risks of the job. "Between 39 and 55% of officers have been victims of work-related violence or threats, according to surveys conducted in four States…Offenders sentenced to probation and released on parole commit more serious crimes than in the past, and more offenders have serious drug abuse histories and show less hesitation in using violence" (Gonzales 2005: 1)
Recidivism of Those on Parole Probation and Recidivism Recidivism can be referred to as the tendency of offenders getting back to crime after charges have been pressed against them or even while still serving their probation. It is categorized as a new crime that a felony inmate or a probationer commits (Merriam Webster, 2012)
Of course, this is true of the quantitative portion of the study which is not as objective as the qualitative portion. On the qualitative side of the picture a recent article states "we argue that emerging practices such as reanalysis of qualitative data and revisits to research sites offer the same opportunity for qualitative researchers to confirm and extend their analyses as replication does for quantitative researchers" (Camfield, Palmer-Jones, 2013, p
An additional variable is that the study will be self-reported, and certainly that could lead to a study that is very self-serving for the participants. Another variable would be the validity and reliability of the study, and as a recent study found "it should be a prerequisite for making substantive contributions to an area of work, so that not only is the validity of previous relevant work established (or not), the work is thoroughly understood" (Duvendack, Palmer-Jones, 2013, p
But as Pollock notes, if the probation officer offers her this ethical way out of her dilemma, and she refuses; indeed if she "…chooses the man over her freedom and children" the probation officer can feel as though he or she did the best possible thing for the client by offering her a way out of a return to prison (366). Discretion -- How does it Work in Probation Departments? Authors Tony Evans and Antony Evans pose the question, who decides when it is the proper time for the probation officer to "shift" from discretionary judgment to procedures? (Evans, 2010, 60)
Hence, the relationship between the probation officer and the manager in the office will, in the end, determine the amount of discretion the probation officer will be able to utilize with any given client. Revocation and Discretion in Probation Work Professors Lior Gideon and Hung-En Sung -- in their book, Rethinking Corrections: Rehabilitation, Reentry, and Reintegration -- assert that a "substantial number of probationers fail to comply with release conditions" and hence find themselves back in prison (Gideon, et al
What should be done? One, the probation officer could revoke her probation based on her association with a known offender; after all, she is technically in violation of the rule of "no-association" with criminals albeit she has not committed a crime. In many probation departments, the officer is expected to write a "violation report" when there is a violation he or she becomes aware of; but in many instances, unless the violation is serious, the officer has the discretion to not write a violation report because in this case, for example, he really doesn't want to see her go to prison which a judge might do upon receipt of the violation report (Pollock, 366)
Potential Ethical Conflicts in the Field of Probation Mitchell Silverman writes in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology that there are two potential conflicts that emerge from the two "major roles" that are typically given to probation officers. First, the probation "agent" is trained to help offenders get on their feet socially (which can create a conflict of interest if the agent becomes too close as a friend to the offender); and secondly, the probation officer is sworn to enforce all legal conditions associated with his or her assigned offender, and there can be no compromise of ethics in that role (Silverman, 1993)
Two writers note just how many inmates the parole board has to keep track of each year. They write, "Of these, 10,500 inmates were released from Pennsylvania state prisons and the number of inmates leaving Pennsylvania prisons has grown by nearly 15% since 1997" (Beard, and Gnall)
A person sentenced to probation has some sort of sentence suspended on the condition that the person stay out of legal trouble, pay fines and restitution, do community service or fulfill other conditions set by the court. If the probationer violates the conditions of his probation, he can be brought back into court and have some or all the suspended sentence imposed (Boyd, 2010)
Traditionally, jails have sought to control inmates' solely through physical containment, namely, hardware such as locks, steel doors, security glass, and alarm systems. The safety of the staff was believed to depend on preserving physical barriers between staff and inmates (Hutchinson, Keller and Reid, 2009)
During roughly the same time period, a shoemaker-philanthropist in Boston, named John Augustus, began the practice of bailing offenders out of court and assuming responsibility for them in the community. Regardless of whether the origins of probation are traced to judicial reprieve or to the work of John Augustus, it is clear that the guiding philosophy of probation was rehabilitation (Probation and Parole: History, Goals, and Decision-Making - Origins of Probation and Parole, 2010)
Privatized prisons often provide better services and conditions for inmates: A prospective study of prison privatization in Alabama concluded that "private construction would create more prisoner bed space faster, thereby relieving overcrowding. Private construction could replace many aging facilities in Alabama with more efficient, state-of-the-art prisons (Ciamarra, 2006)
A 2003 study by the New Mexico-based Rio Grande Foundation showed that New Mexico spent $9,600 less per prisoner in 2001 than did states with no prison privatization programs. The state saved more than $50 million in 2001 over the previous year without prison privatization by contracting out for management of less than half its prison system (La Faive, 2004)