great info

Rehabilitation does not work. In my years of experience in the system, the recidivism rate of paroled offenders seems extremely high and most of them violate their parole and end up serving their time anyway. Flat time seems to be the more economical way to go as most of these guys never seem to learn. And the parole restrictions are ridiculous anyway. Go flat time and reduce the sentencing terms for non-violent crimes and petty drug offenses that guys are getting slammed for. When you’ve got guys doing more time for drug offenses than for murder and rape, something is broken.

Maybe the 3 strikes and your out law would strike fear enough into them to straighten their act? Anyone have any statistics on how the crime rates have been affected in the states that have enacted this?

I’m just starting out, in fact graduating from academy this week. Throughout my training, the emphasis is on rehabilitation. A child isn’t locked away forever because they got into the cookie jar! The field is developing programming to assist offenders to de-institutionalize and to benefit on the outside. My state starts the process as early as 18 months (I believe) before the offender “out-date”. They are required to go to classes, many obtain vocational skills long before Re-Entry, and help assist them in finding the opportunities once released. Parole is a vital step in assisting offenders remain productive in the community and to mentor them away from returning to prison. Parole, when properly done, can be like showing a child that they aren’t going to be punished forever for getting into that cookie jar. Don’t know if that really helps your paper, but I hope some veterans can add to it. Good Luck and another GREAT site to look into would be the American Correctional Assoc.. They are the governing body over all corrections departments. The site is www.aca.org. They might have useful stats on parole success.

I have an assignment for my Contemporary Issues class that deals with the topic question. Right now I am for parole, but for non-violent offenders becuase 72.1% of inmates in federal prison are non-violent offenders (The Sentencing Project).

The other problem though is that among non-violent releasees, about 1 in 5 were re-arrested for a violent crime within 3 years of discharge (Bureau of Justice Statistics Fact Sheet 2004).

So what do you all think, place people in jail so they serve their full time or put them on parole so there will be more room in prisons?

Bureau of Justice Statistics Fact Sheet. (2004). Profile of Nonviolent Offenders Exiting State Prisons. Retrieved May 5, 2007, from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/pnoesp.pdf

The Sentencing Project. (2004). The Federal Prison Population: A Statistical Analysis. Retrieved May 5, 2007, from http://www.sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/inc_ federalprisonpop.pdf