Probation and Punishment

PROBATION AND PUNISHMENT Name Institution Affiliation Course Date of Submission Probation and Punishment Every community encounters criminal activities at one time or another. Depending on the case or the situation, criminal activities have been and will always be amongst us for the next years to come. It is the duty of the police and the law enforcement agencies to maintain law and order and keep the world full of piece and a better place to live in. The courts have the responsibility of placing these offenders in respective correctional facilities in a certain region. However, not all offenders are sentenced to a time in prison or jail but some punishments involve probation. This is where an offender has been ordered by a court judge to be retained in a given jurisdiction for a period of time under specific supervision by a probation officer (Mendicino, 2010). These efforts happened when individuals exempted from further criminal processing and are placed in probation as an alternative program. The act of putting some individuals in probation and others in jail helps to cut cost of the government, especially in the USA. Probation can be pre or post trial depending on the situation at hand. A historic context of probation dates back in the 17th and 18th century. It was the effort of John August that leads to the modern day probation that takes place. Even though he was a shoe maker, he was considered to have jump started probation between the periods of 1840 to 1859. He had volunteered to stand bail and be responsible for the selected few who could get the judge deferred sentence. In his capacity, he was to check on the activities of the selected offend ant and report back to the judge on how they were performing in the society. The judge`s final decision depending on whether their performance was positive or negative. How probation is carried out varies between the counties as every stat...