Administration of Justice

Antonia Marro

AJ 12

Nancy Bengoa-Beterbide

21, October, 2016

AJ 12 Final

        Throughout the course of this class I have been introduced to many different types of views on probation, paroles, and different types of corrections. With this knowledge I have been able to see the good and the bad ways these affect our society and the inmates that go through the justice system. Some of these issues may seem minor at the time but may lead to lifelong consequences and disabilities. I believe that with a few changes that the correctional system may be able to limit those lifelong consequences and disabilities, which in return will hopefully help cut the percent of inmates who come and who return to prison and also cut the cost it takes to run some of these correctional facilities.

        Through probation an inmate is allowed to be released into the community but has to be watched and monitored be a probation officer. (Exploring Criminal Justice) There are many types of probation such as intensive probation which requires close contact from the officer to the client but only when the officer has a small case load. In 2008 there was approximately 2.4 million people out on parole.(Exploring Criminal Justice) A smaller counties parole officer may have only 15 clients where as a larger county they can have up to 200 clients. I believe that this is one of the issues of our justice system, how can one man or women keep in close contact with 200 hundred people who are doing many different things? Not only does this require an extensive amount of time but they also want the officer to talk to the clients family and close friends to find more out about them as a person so they can recommend them to a court to even qualify for probation, this requires even more of the officers time. In reality the officer would not be able to perform all if his duties fully and accurately which in result could lead to case involving Dano Sonnex. Sonnex was on probation when he brutally murdered two students, along with 105 other murders and 94 rape cases in a matter of two weeks committed by people on probation. (Criminals on prabtion commit a murder and rape a week) I also have discovered that it is cheaper to put inmates on probation then it is to keep them incarcerated. (Exploring Criminal Justice) I believe that the system is not taking the adequate time and percussion of actually making sure that the inmate is a good fit to be released back into city and they are just focusing on the fact that it is saving them a bit of money. I also believe that they are expecting a parole officer to perform a lot of different tasks that are very important and need to be evaluated thoroughly not quickly decided and move on to the next case. I think that one way the justice system could limit cases such as Sonnex is by limiting the duties of probation officers or giving fewer clients to an officer and just higher more to take on more cases. I believe that with these minor changes that it could potentially help limit some of the murders and crimes that probationers commit while out in the community.

        Unlike probation, parole requires the defendant to serve a portion of their sentence but like probation parole is cheaper then leaving the defendant incarceration. “A system relying on swiftness and certainty of punishment rather than on severity would result in less crime and fewer people in prison”.  (Issues in Science and Technology ) In the article “Issues in Science and Technology” the author talks about the idea of quickly issuing punishment to a defendant that is on parole who violated their terms, the author also speaks of giving the full punishment and not allowing the defendant to serve only a portion of their time. I believe this is a very effective way that the justice system should handle cases of paroles breaking their agreements especially when parole is ineffective in reducing the likely hood of the defendant recommitting the crime. (Exploring Criminal Justice) If the justice system thought more like the previous author then I believe that parole would be more effective. Sex offenders are also a major issue in the parole system because although they are required to notify police that they are sex offenders when they move into an area they sometimes do not, which in turn may result in the case of Megan Kanka. I believe that one way this could be fixed is requiring the prison to notify the police station that the defendant is from or going to that they are a sex offender. This cuts out any possibility that the community is not aware of the sex offender which in turn could limit cases like the Megan Kanka case.

        In the colonial time the jails based their system on their inmates relying on their family and friends. The inmates were forced to buy their food unlike the jails today where their meals are given to them free of charge. Jails hold many issues that seem inhumane to the outside world, such as the overcrowding. Jails are forced to shove as many prisoners as they can into tiny cells and because of this there has been many cases of violence, rape, and many different types of sicknesses. (Exploring Criminal Justice) Another issue is the number of staff jails have, there tends to be a significant number of inmates to officers which in result lead to a high increase in suicide and homicides. One way the justice system thought to fix this was to add new generation jails which allow the staff to work inside of inmate housing which in turn will allow them to keep a better eye on the inmates and their activity. However I believe that this will cause more problems than it will actually solve because I think that having the guards with the inmates constantly will result in more injuries to the guards due to irritation from the inmates. I also believe that a lot of the prisons issues begin with the defendant in jail. I believe that there should be at least one psychiatrist at every jail, this would help limit the inmates that go into prison. If there is someone who can legally deem a person as mental unstable or with a disability and could recommend them to a mental hospital or even prescribe them medication I think it would help cut down crime in prisons.