Pros and Cons of Community Corrections

Pros and Cons of Community Corrections
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Pros and Cons of Community Corrections
Community correction refers to programs that manage and supervise offenders in a society where they serve court-imposed orders instead of imprisonment (NIJ, 2014). They constantly report to their community corrections officers and sometimes engage in unpaid community services. Community corrections promote community security by providing rehabilitation to offenders and breaking the rhythm of reoffending by preventing prison time for low-risk offenders. The two main community correction programs are probation and parole. The court places adult offenders under supervision in society through a probation agency. Probationers have various supervision statuses, such as active and inactive supervision (Gov, 2022). On the other side, parole refers to the conditional release of criminal offenders from prison to serve the rest of their sentence outside prison. A parole board releases prisoners through various post-custody conditions. The paper denotes the advantages and disadvantages of community correction in society.
Advantages of Community Corrections
Community corrections play a crucial role in addressing the problem of overcrowded prisons. Probations and parole help reduce the prison population by allowing offenders to stay away from jail. Offenders on community corrections are usually nonviolent criminals. However, some community corrections offenders are considered violent criminals, but they are not released until the agencies involved consider the dangers of releasing them to society. Community corrections free up prison beds to host violent criminals, benefiting society. Also, community corrections help save taxpayers money (Gov, 2021). Probations and paroles are less expensive than housing law offenders in prison. Probationers for their supervision costs in many jurisdictions; hence taxpayers do not conduct any payments. Efficient management of community corrections is necessary to ensure the community benefits from its cost-saving. However, safeguarding the community is policy makers’ main objective, and community corrections belong to offenders that do not threaten public safety.
Community corrections provide multiple offenders, particularly drug offenders, an alternative to imprisonment. As a result, families remain together while parents work and remain relevant in their households. Community corrections programs change the offenders’ behavior through various practices. For instance, a probation department can rehabilitate the offender through multiple social activities, life skills lessons, and alcohol treatment. The social services minimize the chances of future crimes by the offenders and prevent them from being career criminals. Segregating probationers from chronic offenders in jail prevents them from embracing the criminal lifestyle (Miller, 2018). Many prisoners commit harder and more sophisticated crimes after leaving prison since they find it difficult to fit into a free society as ex-convicts. Probationers do have to spend time in prisons incurring taxpayers’ money for their maintenance; they can pay rest...