Final Community Corrections

Community Corrections

Community Corrections is a group of programs designed as an alternative to incarceration. Programs such as community service, group service, drug court, restitution monitoring, parole, and probation are to name a few. Community service allows offenders to be placed in non-profit agencies to perform a given amount of hours without pay that will benefit and improve the community. Group services place inmates in self-improvement groups such as anger management classes, shop lifting prevention, substance abuse classes, and domestic violence classes depending upon offenders charges given. Drug court is an intensive treatment and probation supervised program in which offenders must meet strict criteria. Restitution monitoring forces the offender to make monitored payments to the county financial department, who in return, pays victims of the crime committed. Parole and probation is a sort of babysitting system in which offenders are closely monitored. They both carry the same concepts and even share rehabilitation programs and sanctions; however, probation is usually given as an alternative to incarceration where parole is granted after a specific amount of the sentence has been carried out.

Community corrections affect the society in which they are practiced by pinpointing areas that assist offenders in steering away from their former behavior thus reducing repeat offending. Community corrections also add a small solution to jail and prison overcrowding issues allowing those offenders an alternative to incarceration, not mention saving the community of their tax dollars. Community corrections and their overall effectiveness within the correctional system can be argued to have mixed results, although, these results lean heavier toward the positive. With public safety being the number one objective followed by lowering repeat offending and tax reduction the effectiveness among the community is thus improved. Society may feel safer with community corrections because the programs are designed to improve the offender’s behavior and mindset.

Foreign countries and their prison systems can be considered out of date, severe, and unjust. Not every country would fall under this scrutiny, but a majority does. Some countries seem too lenient in some instances such as juvenile offenders and drug related offenders. The United States seems to have almost tripled the amount of prisoners versus foreign countries; however, punishments may not be as severe. There are countries who will execute a prisoner for an offense that may only produce a one year prison term for a United States prisoner. Some offenses such as adultery, sodomy, armed robbery, and corruption are punishable by death in some countries