The justice system is designed to guarantee security to citizens, protect them from criminals, and manage people who have already committed a crime, and demand supervision. For this reason, such phenomena as probation and parole are topical today. Moreover, the growth in the number of illegal actions every year and significant recidivism rates contribute to the excessive caseloads. Courts have to deal with a significant number of cases every day, meaning that their effectiveness might reduce.
Thus, probation and parole might influence proper supervision and re-entry programs, meaning that the further increase in excessive caseloads should be managed to help communities and clients. It is vital to ensure that all individuals with the experience of detention have the chance to resocialize and become society members; otherwise, the problem will remain topical, and citizens will suffer from crime and problems associated with it.
Today, the rate of excessive caseloads in probation and parole remains high. The problem is that failure rates are high as only 46% of all parolees complete the term successfully, not violating the major conditions of release or committing a new crime (BJS, 2020). It means that more than half of all parolees have issues that should be viewed by the court and are considered excessive ones (BJS, 2020). Furthermore, the situation with probation remains similar as a bigger part of individuals violate its terms (BJS, 2020). It contributes to the growing number of new crimes.
The statistics show that every year about 650,000 individuals are released from prisons, and 80% of them are released to supervision in the community (BJS, 2020). Parolees have to spend about 26 months under control, meaning that there are nearly 750,000 persons on parole and about four million on probation (BJS, 2020). Considering the high failure rates, it contributes to excessive caseloads and decreased effectiveness of supervision. Special officers cannot handle the constantly growing number of offenders and fail to resolve the problem (BJS, 2020). For this reason, there is a need for an effective and relevant solution to enhance the situation.
The resolution of the problem demands some radical change in the existing policy to help communities and individuals affected by them. First of all, it is vital to reduce failure rates and ensure that the bigger part of parolees can successfully complete the term. Research shows that engagement in various activities, work, and participation in social projects help former criminals to avoid new attempts of committing a crime or violating the terms of their release (Arai et al., 2021).
Under these conditions, it is vital to provide this cohort with a chance to engage in a particular activity necessary for resocialization and re-entry. It will also help probation/parole officers to reduce the stress, workload and ensure they will perform their tasks with the increased effectiveness levels. Furthermore, working in different community projects, ex-criminals will acquire the chance to find new friends or avoid thoughts about returning to the prison, which is also vital for such cases. Under these conditions, the proposed policy should presuppose better chances for employment and cooperation with different groups.
Speaking about parole and probation, it is critical to mention reentry programs that are the part of the modern justice systems. These are incentives designed and created with the primary goal to help returning citizens reenter communities soon after their incarceration (Turner et al., 2016). This central goal of such actions includes reducing recidivism, better public safety, and saving money as incarceration, including trials cost a lot for the government. In such a way, the major advantage of such re-entry programs is their ability to ensure that all parole or returning citizens will have the chance to avoid committing new crimes and become members of a particular community (Reese, 2020). It is a significant achievement that cannot be disregarded. At the same time, some issues should be mentioned regarding the topic.
First, re-entry programs might still be ineffective as there is a deficit of offerings for people with a criminal past (Reese, 2020). Moreover, some proposals might be irrelevant or unattractive for such people, meaning that they might prefer to engage in other activities (Arai et al., 2021). For this reason, they should be improved to help returning citizens overcome the major challenges, such as prejudiced attitudes, lack of trust, and employment problems (Arai et al., 2021; Turner et al., 2016). Only under these conditions the positive change can be promoted.
Altogether, excessive caseloads and ineffective reentry programs remain important problems that should be resolved to help both officers and communities. It is recommended to introduce policy change to ensure that all returning citizens have a chance for employment or engagement in specific activities that will help them to resocialize and become community members. Speaking for re-entry programs, they should be supported with available community resources to help ex-criminals find their place in society, overcome stereotyped attitudes, and find a source of income. The proposed change will help to improve communities’ lives, their safety and contribute to better problem resolution. It is vital to help the justice system to cope with this challenge.
References
Arai, M., Gartell, M., Rödin, M., & Özcan, G. (2021). Ethnic stereotypes and entry into labor market programs. ILR Review, 74(2), 293–320. Web.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). (2020). Probation and parole in the United States, 2017-2018. Web.
Reese, R. (2020). The Reintegration Academy for parolees. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education. Web.
Turner, J. R., Hemmens, C., & Matz, A. K. (2016). Is it reasonable? A legal review of warrantless searches of probationers and parolees. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 27(7), 684–701. Web.