Community Corrections Over Time, Essay Example

While many individuals are important to the development and implementation of the parole process, John Augustus in addition to the collaboration of Alexander Maconochie and Sir Walter Crofton were integral to the establishment of this practice. John Augustus, a Boston native, is well known for being the father of probation. He was active during the Prohibition movement and acted to rehabilitate alcoholics that were causing damage to the community. Augustus would volunteer at the Court and agree to intervene to rehabilitate criminals so that they would not be locked away in prison. Using this method, he helped find these individuals jobs and support systems that would be able to reintegrate them into society after helping them cease their illegal behaviors. While Augustus was doing this of his own charitable will, the model that he employed is very similar to the rehabilitation system implemented in society today.

Alexander Maconochie and Sir Walter Crofton were in charge of the penal systems in distinct areas of the world. Maconochie was in charge of Norfolk Island, while Crofton was a prison director in Ireland. Together, they created and refined the “ticket-of-leave” concept, which allowed convicts to earn wages for work while imprisoned in exchange for good behavior. Work is one of the major facets of modern rehabilitation programs and it is necessary to consider that through hard work, many criminals are able to reverse their negative behaviors and become functioning members of society. Modern law enforcements considers the contributions of John Augustus, Alexander Maconochie, and Sir Walter Crofton in the modern penal system. As a consequence, corrections officers are more able to rehabilitate criminals, thereby effectively reducing the prevalence of crime in society.

Two important developments in community corrections that were important after the 1960s includes the fact that the risks and needs of the penal system were addressed in Wisconsin in 1979 and intensive supervised probation was brought to Georgia in 1983. These were considered important contributions to community corrections because these two systems served as models for correction for other states, and these models were quickly adopted by other state government shortly after. Probation served as a reasonable alternative to imprisonment because this reinforced the concept that the punishment for a crime is related to its severity. Therefore, only individuals that could be considered a clear threat to society should be locked away, while others should be rehabilitated and monitored to both make them understand the errors of their ways and to ensure that they will not commit additional crimes while trying to cover. Individuals in probation are not given complete freedom, but this monitoring is necessary to ensure that they remain on the right track.

Overall, corrections developments after the 1960s have been important because these actions and decisions have shaped our modern legal system. Many states preferentially utilize rehabilitation and probation methods over imprisonment because they are both more effective in reducing crime in society and they are more cost effective as well. It is likely that states will continue to refine their corrections approaches over time, but as evidenced from the evolution of approaches throughout history, they will likely be based on corrections techniques that have already proven effective. As such, it is likely that the corrections system will continue to improve significantly over time, which will benefit criminals and civilians alike.

References

Hanser RD. (2014). Community Corrections. Sage Publications, Inc.