The Criminal Justice: Probation and Forms of Punishment

Probation and punishment in the form of staying in the correctional facility can be discussed as the effective measures to punish the criminals under specific conditions. To guarantee that defendants can avoid recidivism and develop potential for their future life, it is necessary to create the positive conditions for probation, provide the effective supervision, and to create the specific environment correctional facilities (Gibson & Cavadino, 2002, p. 24). Nevertheless, all these options and approaches are associated with a range of conditions which should be discussed in detail.

Probation can be discussed as the effective choice of the punishment in order to guarantee the defendant’s further successful adaptation to the social life. From this point, the choice of probation responds to completing the punish-and-protect mission (Samaha, 2005, p. 409). Having reviewed Kris’s file, it is possible to note that Kris has potentials to complete the probation successfully and to avoid recidivism under the certain conditions because of his marital status and orientation to the further personal, educational, and career progress. Thus, it is possible to agree with Robert Donovan’s discussion of Kris’s potentials and perspectives. Donovan’s vision of Kris’s perspectives for probation based on his marital status and absence of the adult probation history is rational. However, it is rather difficult to agree with Donovan on the point of controlling Kris’s drug abuse and his relations with the band because it is necessary to pay more attention to Kris’s activities which can lead to recidivism. Although Kris’s individual’s rights should be met, he should pay more attention to following the probation conditions.

Referring to the analysis of Kris’s profile, it is possible to develop the profile of the ‘perfect candidate’ to participate in an intensive supervised probation program. The first attribute is the person’s marital status. It is important to be sure that the defendant has the family and orients to the further personal development. The next aspect is the person’s criminal history. It is preferable that the defendant has no the criminal history, even including the juvenile cases. One more point is the person’s education and potential for career development to state about the defendant’s motivation for completing the probation successfully. The perfect candidate should have not only education, but this person should not suffer from any type of addiction which reduces the chances for effective probation. This candidate should be people-oriented, and the offence should be the unique event in his life.

There is a debatable strategy to place persons in different correctional facilities according to the nature of the crime and person’s criminal history. It is possible to defend this strategy because the range of correctional facilities such as jails, camps, minimum and maximum security facilities provides the authorities with the opportunity to propose the punishment which corresponds to the severity of the crime and meets the criminal’s demands. Each criminal is treated individually that is why the choice of the correctional facility should also be realized with references to the individual approach in order to provide the defendant with the opportunity to reform oneself and to be punished according to the severity of the case. For instance, it is inappropriate to treat the killer who murdered five or more persons for the significant sum of money and the young boy who stole expensive goods in order to support his family. These persons need different approaches in relation to their punishment, and only different correctional facilities can provide the conditions for the effective realization of the punishment program. While deciding on placing the person in a certain correctional facility, it is necessary to take all the aspects of the case into account and concentrate on the criminals’ motivation, the criminal and personal history. Thus, it is more effective to place killers in maximum security correctional facilities and corporate criminals in the medium security correctional facilities. Furthermore, there are many situations when defendants should wait for the decision about their imprisonment, and jails are the good places for such individuals.

It is also important to pay attention to the fact that there are situations when prisoners need the additional help of supervision that is why money and time spent on improving the jails and other correctional facilities can be discussed as the good choice to contribute to the development of the whole system of the correctional facilities. The programs and amenities developed to make the prison life more effective are necessary because they can contribute to providing the prisoners with the opportunities for their further adaptation and their rehabilitation as criminals (Kemshall, 2003, p. 109). In spite of the fact that the focus on additional therapies or hiring more officers can seem to be the expensive initiative, it is necessary to pay more attention to improving the correctional facilities in order to improve the punishment programs.

Probation and different types of punishment should be in the focus of criminologists because the improvement of these approaches can lead to the improvement of the whole legal and punishment system in the country.

References

Gibson, B., & Cavadino, P. (2002). Introduction to the criminal justice process. USA: Waterside.

Kemshall, H. (2003). Understanding risk in criminal justice. USA: McGraw-Hill International.

Samaha, J. (2005). Criminal justice. USA: Cengage Learning.