| Chapter 15
Covering Community Corrections: Probation, Parole and Beyond
By Jenifer Warren
Nuts and Bolts
Probation
The vast majority of offenders supervised in the community are on probation or parole. The two practices share some common elements but are distinctive in one important respect: in general, probationers remain in the community in lieu of prison, while parolees have served time behind bars. [Some “split sentences” involve incarceration that is followed by probation.] Because of their extensive use, and because they are often misunderstood by the news media and the public, probation and parole deserve a careful look.
Probation is a court-imposed punishment that allows a convict to remain free in the community under a suspended sentence. Offenders placed on probation— derived from the Latin word probatum, for the “act of proving”—typically have committed lower-level crimes and are required to meet certain conditions and standards of behavior while reporting to a probation officer.
These conditions vary according to the offense, but may include drug testing and treatment; regularly scheduled meetings with a probation officer; mandatory employment; payment of restitution to crime victims; community service; rules limiting travel outside the jurisdiction, and participation in anger management or domestic violence classes.
The probation process starts when a defendant pleads guilty or is found guilty by a jury, when a probation officer prepares a pre-sentence report. This is based on interviews with the defendant, his family members, and others who can offer background on the defendant’s skills and health issues, among other things. The officer also does a thorough criminal record check. If the penalty isn’t set by state sentencing guidelines, the report may include a risk assessment and will recommend whether probation should be granted.
Judges have significant discretion in imposing probation, and generally make their determination after considering the nature of the offense and the offender’s criminal history. In ordering probation, a judge implicitly threatens the imposition of more serious sanctions—either more stringent conditions or a term in custody—should a probationer violate the terms set by the court.
Probation’s origins in this country date to the mid-19th century, and are generally linked to a Boston boot-maker and philanthropist named John Augustus. Augustus, often referred to as the nation’s first probation officer, appeared as counsel for defendants in Boston police court and also provided bail and found housing for the accused. A pioneering figure in the correctional field, he conceived the ideas of supervision conditions, social casework, reports to the court and revocation of probation.
Eventually, probation spread to other states and to the federal justice system. Ultimately, the humanitarian approach put forth by Augustus—whose principal goal was behavior reform and guidance of offenders toward a law-abiding existence—came under challenge by those who emphasized more of a law enforcement model. As criminologist Todd Clear of John Jay College of Criminal Justice has written, “The strain between the so-called law enforcer role of probation, which emphasizes surveillance of the offender and close controls on behavior, and the social worker role, which emphasizes provision of supportive services to meet offenders’ needs, remains today – with no resolution in sight.”
Either way, probation is a highly popular sanction within the criminal justice system – and not just for misdemeanants. Nationally, about 28 percent of felony defendants in state courts were put directly on probation as of 2004, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) said in this report: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fssc04.pdf
More recent BJS numbers show that nearly 4.3 million American adults were on probation at the end of 2007. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ppus07st.pdf
Almost half had been convicted of a felony. The most common offenses committed by probationers were drug and property crimes, followed by driving while intoxicated and other criminal traffic violations.
Probation numbers and practices vary greatly from state to state. A BJS report showing data as of year-end 2006 showed that the numbers on probation per 100,000 adult population ranged from 6,059 in Georgia (including cases assigned to private agencies) to 450 in New Hampshire.
Most adult probationers share characteristics such as low educational attainment, limited employment history or job skills, mental illness, or gang involvement. Studies show that about 70 percent of probationers have used illegal drugs, and about half were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of their arrest.
While most probation departments are operated at the state level, often in combination with parole, in a handful of states, including California, probation is a county government function, while parole is operated by the state.
Parole
Parole derives from the French term parol, meaning "word,” as in word of honor. Parole is similar to probation in that offenders promise to meet certain conditions in order to stay free in the community. Unlike probationers, parolees have spent time in prison and are released to serve the remainder of their sentence under supervision by a parole agent.
Parole supervision generally lasts one to three years, though it can stretch considerably longer in some states. Figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show more than 824,000 American adults are on parole, nearly all of them set free after serving at least one year in prison.
The most common type of offense among parolees? Drug crimes.
Parole’s early development is usually credited to Alexander Maconochie, who ran the English penal colony at Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia, beginning in 1840. Described as a visionary, Maconochie believed rewards for good conduct, labor and study would motivate prisoners, and he established a system to gradually prepare them to reenter society. Prior to that time, prison sentences were all stick, no carrot. “When a man keeps the key of his own prison he is soon persuaded to fit it to the lock,” Maconochie reportedly said.
In the United States, Michigan penologist Zebulon Brockway became the first to introduce a system of indeterminate sentencing and parole release, at a youth reformatory in New York, criminologist and parole expert Joan Petersilia of the University of California Irvine writes. The dual concepts spread quickly across the country, and by 1927, Petersilia says, all but three states had established a parole system.
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