The punitive approach taken by community corrections agencies around the U.S. has made them major drivers of mass incarceration, a New York conference on justice reform was told this week.
Releasing more individuals under supervisory conditions of probation or parole was meant to reduce America’s high prison population. But insufficient funding, over-zealous officers, and bureaucratic red tape have produced the opposite result, according to participants in a panel at John Jay College’s “Smart on Crime” conference, which ended Wednesday.
Violation of any one of the supervisory conditions—ranging from prohibition against firearms possession to travel restrictions—can result in re-incarceration, said Vincent Schiraldi, who served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation between 2010-2014.
“That’s why 40% of people get arrested on parole,” he told the panel. “Half of the intakes to prison are violations of parole and probation.”
Making things worse, the lack of funding has forced some agencies to assess fees for their services—which further complicates the lives of those under supervised release, the panel was told.
“The payment (request) is dangled in front of your face like a carrot,” said Cheryl Wilkins, a former parolee.
“For instance, say you want to get a driver’s license (which you need) to help you stay out of prison —you would have to pay your supervision fee regularly.”
Paying fees while under supervision by community correction agencies is “absurd,” said Wilkins, who now serves as Senior Program Manager at Columbia University’s Center for Justice).
“These (corrections) systems hinder your progress.”
Schiraldi, who recently left a research fellowship post at Harvard to join the Columbia center, agreed that such fees and other red tape “skew incentives” for the formerly incarcerated to qualify for early release.
“If you were a black man facing three to four months of parole as opposed to a year in prison, you would take the year in prison,” he said.
Nevertheless, the number of Americans now under some form of community supervision—about four million—is twice the number of those behind bars, Schiraldi pointed out, adding that this should make reform of the system a priority.
“If we didn’t exist, no one would invent us,” said Schiraldi.
Bruce Western, departing faculty chair of the program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, agreed.
“Incarceration should never be the fault response to violations,” he said. “It should be eliminated for violation of parole.”
Community corrections agencies’ power to arrest people should be used minimally, advised Western.
“If you have power, you are at risk of the abuse of power,” he said.
John E. Wetzel, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Corrections, noted “the pretty damn low bar” society has for formerly incarcerated individuals.
Instead, community corrections agencies use spurious concerns about “public safety” as excuses to send more individuals back to prison—especially poor people and people of color, he said.
Megan Hadley is a news intern at The Crime Report. She welcomes readers’ comments.
3 Comments
Georgia is the leading state for people under some form of probation or parole. This model is not sustainable our department of community supervision does not have the funding or resources to properly manage the tens of thousands of people that they supervise. Add to that the overcrowded jails and overburdened court system. This is a for a recipe for disaster.
The “probationary sentence,” as well as “Community Corrections,” are nothing but a one-way ticket to actual incarceration in prison. The Probation Officers and Community Corrections Officers have the attitude their job is to “violate” people and get them sent off to prison “where they belong.” Unless this attitude changes to one of “helping the probationer/Community Corrections inmate to stay OUT of prison,” nothing is going to change. Parole Officers are, for the most part, the same way…their attitude is “how can I violate this man and send him back to prison.” They actually have contests to see which P. O. can violate the most people each month…which shows exactly what their attitude is. I have seen men sent back to prison for doing nothing more than changing apartments within the same apartment complex “without permission,” and end up serving YEARS in prison due to this kind of idiocy. The “system” is broken, and needs to be revamped from the top down, and staffed with people who understand it is their job to actually HELP people stay OUT of prison, rather than coming up with ways to send them TO prison.
I completely agree. The terms of probation, parole and Supervised Release haven’t changed in 50 years and no longer are realistic ( if they ever were). Many conditions actively PREVENT those on Supervision from obtaining decent employment, from moving up in a career by requiring disclosure to the employer or doing site visits without discretion and by disallowing travelling when it is job related. If the person under Supervision gets a promotion out of State…good luck ever getting permission to move. Those under electronic supervision often have curfews that prevent them from working late or taking night classes and the poor probationer or Supervisee who has a hefty court fine can be reincarcerated over fine payments due or..as I was pushed into bankruptcy . I had 10 years of Supervised Release AFTER a 10 year Federal sentence. I made it 8 years…managed to become Executive Director of a large Social service non profit only to get a technical violation that returned me to prison for 4 months, cost me my new career, my pension and forced me into bankruptcy…What I NEVER received from Federal probation was any useful advice, any referals to anything besides mandatory AA and group therapy and any CORRECT information especially about rights etc…I was told I couldn’t vote ( not true in Mass.) I was told I couldn’t get food stamps or assistance ( not true in Mass.)…..What a joke…a bad joke