Parole Board

#Parole is the system that determines if a convicted person can get out early from prison. Now there is a call to get rid of Parole all together. There are two sides to this argument. On one side people want to keep it in place so that released convicts have a reintegration back in to society. On the other side there are many Victims rights activists who are worried of the potential risk and further victimization from someone released on Parole.

The first article I found on this topic goes into the history of parole and landmark cases for both sides. The article discussed both ends of the argument. On one side the victim's rights groups and many conservatives are leaning to abolish Parole due to the fact that any person at any time can be harmed by a person who got out early on parole. This relates an unnecessary risk to the general community that is inexcusable. Why take the risk of letting them out of prison. Then there are the medical model people who believe that rehabilitation is for everyone, and long term prison sentences will actually greatly hinder their ability to become model citizens. Everyone has the ability to better themselves, so why deny anyone the opportunity to become a better person. As well, prison is not a friendly place. Even a person who is not totally criminal will give up hope after the constant paranoia and vile things that happen behind bars. Finally when an inmate does get out of prison after a long sentence without parole there is no one to watch them, or help the transition for prison to community. With Parole there is "Big Brother" watching them and helping them.

This article touched on both ends, but it was for keeping parole because of the rehabilitation factors and helping in the transition from prison to life.

The second article is actually a statement made by Gov. George E. Pataki. This was a newspaper article by the New York Times regarding a political strategy. The main point of the article was about reforming Parole so that Judges would have more discretion on actual sentence lengths. Pataki proposed that the judges should decide weather parole is granted. This in turn takes away the discretion form the Parole Board. The opposition stated that this is a "Tough on Crime" strategy to lengthen prison sentences and not to actually enhance the policies. Pataki believes that the current Parole system needs to be reformed

"We will not tolerate violence, and if you commit a violent crime, you will stay in prison until you're too old to commit another one." This is the quote make by the Virginia Parole Reform. This is a Bill passed in Virginia to disband Parole. Supported by statistics like "Three out of every four violent crimes--murder, armed robbery, rape, assault--are now committed by repeat offenders." This new Policy gets rid of most good time. The only early release program that they have is 54 days per year. This is done to impose "Truth in Sentencing". The belief is that the only way to make sure that repeat offenders are not committing crimes is to place them behind bars. Longer prison sentences means that by the time convicts get out they will be too old to commit other #crimes. The only way to deter crime is to impose a great amount of punishment. This #will deter the criminal as well others who might want to commit in the future. As long as people feel that they are punished they are less likely to re offend, and the longer they are punished they are even less likely. In response to the question of where all the prisoners will be staying the Governor says that more prisons need to be built. He says that education and crime prevention are good but more money needs to be put in to building prisons. So with longer prison sentences, the abolishment of parole and more prisons to house them the crime rate will subside, and there will be no more crimes committed by parolees.

Why is there crime? What is the cause of violent crime? In the article "More Imprisonment Is Needed" believes that broken families is one of the