Alternative Opions to Incarcerations

The Challenges of Incarceration



The challenges going through the penitentiaries, prisons, juveniles, and generally the correctional facilities are explicitly evident. As such, it is no surprise that reviews of the national studies established that about 70 percentage of people released from the correctional facilities get re-arrested inside the two to three years. Incarceration from other perspectives negatively affects a positive group of individuals including these with mental challenges as well as behavioral health needs. Thus, the correctional services have failed and remained ineffective even after the long-term rehabilitation recommendatins. Besides wasting the taxpayers’ money, incarceration nonetheless impacts the households as well as the societies. The probable greatest chance lies with the public safety when such people return to the society or community. This paper, therefore, aims to report on the identified alternatives to incarceration by focusing on literature sources that delve in the topical issue.



Alternatives



Community corrections or Probation is an alternative to incarceration where the offender is given the opportunity to continue living in the community. However, he or she remains under strict supervision and that they only get to enjoy limited freedom and obligations. Probation is one of the most recommended among other alternatives to incarceration because it has many conditions that can ensure installation of positive change in an individual (Frana, and Schroeder, 9). For instance, the offender put on probation may be required to adhered to certain conditions including reporting regularly to the assigned probation officer, ensure that he or she stays under house arrest for the durations of the day recommended, agreeing to voluntarily be tested for substance use, participating in the assigned community works. If in any case, the offender violates part of the regulations, then he or she may be subjected to more drastic measures. Recommended community correction measures hence, comprise intensive supervisory probation and parole and halfway houses.



Electronic Home Monitoring or Home Confinement according to (Tonry, 6) is commonly known as house arrest. This type of incarceration alternative ensures that the offender stays in the recommended homes with an exception to certain areas as pre-approved by the correctional officers in charge. The pre-approved areas include court or community work facilities and environments. Home confinement through the integration of electronic monitoring which the offender is required to put on at all times ensures that the offender stays under confinement and does not divert to any neighborhoods. The monitoring process is made successful by an alarm system that is automatically triggered whenever the offender attempts to go past the recommended places within the homestead. Hence, the device is a simple bracelet worn at all times by the offender on the ankles, wrists or neck until the sentence is completed. Home confinement like other community corrections or probation nonetheless comes with regulations and conditions that must be observed by the observer. For instance, he or she is expected to participate in regular drug tests and report to the supervision officers assigned to them for continual assessments. According to (Chamberlain, Patricia, and Reid, 4), many world jurisdictions prefer the alternative to be implemented on an offender with the approval of jail officials in coordination to courts.



Fines and restitutions are an alternative to incarcerations that require an offender to be committed to paying fines and court expenses equivalent to the independent punishments or as recommended additional charges. For example, fines and restitutions can be implemented in the perspective of "tariff fines" that an offender is obliged to pay for committing a particular crime. The tariff fine is paid irrespective of the offenders’ social status and ability to pay (Miethe, Terance, Emily, and Timothy, 10). However, the fact that the restitutions or fines are fixed imply that there could be some level of unfairness since to the offenders hailing from the wealthy families can afford to pay it with ease contrary to the poor offenders whose failure to make payment of such fines can take to jail or prison. Fortunately, there are additional procedures that the courts or correctional facilities follow to subject the respective offenders to the best incarcerations alternatives that can guarantee an offender total positive change.



Correspondingly, it is preferable that the fines are not compensated for through paying cash but being involved in community services work that is equivalent to the value of the payable fines. The intent is to instill value in an individual hence the need for community service work. Through the community world, the individual is exposed to different challenges that the community members could be experiencing hence instead of a being a source of danger, would be moved to change for the better and right the wrongs.



Conclusion



Concisely, the alternatives as substitutes to jail terms, prisons or generally the correctional facilities are nonetheless not simple punishments. They are demanding and the offenders at all times have to report to the authorities and commit to fulfilling obligations assigned to them. Change can be expected from an individual only if they are given the opportunity to learn from their mistake and see the harm they cause to the community by being part of them and given responsibilities to accomplish.



Work Cited



Chamberlain, Patricia, and John B. Reid. "Comparison of two community alternatives to incarceration for chronic juvenile offenders." Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 66.4 (1998): 624.



Frana, John F., and Ryan D. Schroeder. "Alternatives to incarceration." Justice Policy Journal 5.2 (2008): 1-32.



Tonry, Michael. "Community Punishments in a Rational Society." (2017).



Miethe, Terance D., Emily I. Troshynski, and Timothy C. Hart. "Social conditions and cross-national imprisonment rates: Using set-theoretic methods for theory testing and identifying deviant cases." Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (2017): 1043986216688815.

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