Probation: What You Need to Know About This Prison Sentence

Probation is a prison sentence ordered by the court that is suspended on the condition that the offender follows specific directed rules, and no more crimes are committed. The offender should practice good behavior throughout the given period. He happens to remain an intrinsic part of the community and maybe slightly acceptable in society (Fuller, 2014) . On the other hand, parole is where an inmate is temporarily or permanently released from prison under supervision. According to Fuller (2014), the defendant must follow certain conditions that may include the continuation of fine payment and other financial obligations and staying in a halfway house. The person under parole mainly faces segregation from society. In both probation and parole, the party is under the supervision and expected to follow specific rules. To parole an inmate, the authorities consider some factors. First, the time served by the inmate is considered. The inmate should either have completed his or her imprisonment period or be left by a small fraction for completion may be due to good behavior or other reasons (Fuller, 2014) . Secondly, authorities consider the number of criminal cases on hold to have a precise figure of the most inmates they can parole to prevent overcrowding in the prisons. The prisoner waiting for parole should also have bright plans, not criminal based, on the new society after spending some years locked up. Good responses should be given during interviews with the intention of not committing more crimes after the release. Finally, a victim-impact statement is also considered by the authorities (Fuller, 2014) . It provides an opportunity for the victim to express the undergone experience as a result of the crime, which determines the parole chance. It includes a financial loss statement, physical damage, emotional damage, and the victim’s view to allow the parole board to assess the crime’s impact on the victim; this allows the authorities to decide if the victim will be released. Inmates confront several obstacles when they try to re-enter society. They are highly stigmatized individuals since they are seen as a disgrace in society. They are segregated by most people in the area and set aside in community involvement, which might interfere with their functioning and might lead to maladaptive behaviors and poor mental health (Fuller, 2014) . They also experience weakened social ties since the world they left behind has become different from the current one. Inmates who have completed long terms have a tougher time to get along with the people outside. They tend to have other weird characters adapted to their survival in prison, which are not conducive to get along in society. Intermediate sanctions are criminal penalties that offer an alternative to imprisonment and probation. They are less restrictive than ordinary confinement and more stringent than probation or parole. They make judges more flexible when directing sentences to offenders, reducing overcrowding in correctional facilities, reducing costs of managing them, and reducing crime. They include drug testing, intensive-supervision probation, fines, boot camp prisons, shock probation, house arrest, and electronic monitoring (Fuller, 2014) . In my opinion, drug testing, electronic surveillance, and fines are ineffective. An offender might be clean during the drug test but might be very dangerous when it comes to committing other crimes. Fines are ineffective because the offender could have been a criminal with many investments; being fined could not be a problem since he/she might embark on his illegal deals to compensate for his loss. Electronic monitoring, commonly used as an intermediate sanction, is not appropriate since I find it too lenient on criminals. Some criminals tend to outsmart this equipment and continue to commit more crimes. Electronic monitoring makes it a tool of the state to confine more offenders having in mind that the consequence behind it has no harsh punishment. The three goals of the criminal justice system are incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation. An incapacitation is a form of punishment faced by criminals whereby they are restrained and locked up to prevent them from committing more crimes. We also have rehabilitation, which refers to a way of preparing an inmate for a better and productive life after their release. Finally, we have retribution, which is the response to criminal action that focuses on punishment given to the guilty and compensation to the injured party. The main challenge the criminal justice system experienced is making the system used in prisons and associated processes to deal with the inmates more effectively and efficiently. Preventing crimes requires citizens' effort too. The arising problem is that there are people who come from poor backgrounds since poverty strikes them hard; they find themselves committing crimes like stealing for their survival. Such problems hinder the achievement of these goals by the justice system. 

References 

Fuller, J. R. (2014). Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents (Third ed.). Oxford University Press.