Probation - Intermittent Sentence, Fine, Imprisonment - Research Paper Example

? Introduction Probation is nature under which a defendant, after sentence and conviction, is free and the court imposes some conditions where a probation officer will be supervising the defendant. It refers to where the convicted offender is given liberty in the time of the sentence suspension, where their good conduct will stipulate their liberty. During this period, a personal supervisor attempts to support them to uphold a good conduct of behavior (Goodwill Trading Co., Inc., n.d). According to Mcscs.jus.gov (2011), probation is a court disposition that authorizes an offender to live at the large community but must follow the laid conditions that are in the probation order. It further indicates that probation can be prearranged by way of suspended sentence or a conditional discharge. Probation can include disposition such as intermittent sentence, fine, imprisonment for term not more than two years and conditional sentence. A probation order comes in on the day it is made and if it is to follow incarceration, it is made on the finishing term of the prisons. Probation order comes into effect at the conditional sentence expiration. Probation orders cannot be made to run consecutive to another order. Again, it cannot remain in force for more than three years and can only end on the expiry date unless there is termination or revocation of the order by the court. According to Mcscs.jus.gov (2011), breach of probation by the offenders without logical excuse, is termed as an indictable offence and can fetch a maximum penalty of not more than two years and also the offence is punishable on conviction summary and jail penalty not exceeding 18 month or a fine not exceeding 2,000 dollars. The suspension of the sentence permits an appositive action to be taken may be either the execution of the sentence of suspension or imposition of the sentence of the suspension. The two methods of suspending the execution of the sentence and suspending the imposition are the most used method in the United States. According to Goodwill Trading Co., Inc., (n.d), when a judge imposes a sentence, the sentence execution is suspended, and the offender violates the probation, the judge then orders the execution of the original sentence. In case of violation of probation, the judge usually suspends sentence imposition and the judge looks for additional material of information on which to base a decision regarding the imposed sentence. There are conditions of probation which are laid where a probation officer has authority to supervise a person who has been put on probation with a reporting condition. Mcscs.jus.gov (2011) states that form of reporting and frequency are outlined by the court. Where the condition is phrased as “report as directed” and a reporting schedule is outlined, the probation officer completes a comprehensive assessment to determine frequency and intervention of reporting based on the offender’s analysis risk to re-offend and need in areas linked with conduct of the criminal. Hough (2006) states that probation is explicitly people-focused compared to other mixed value system at officer level in the prison services. People-focused values often coincide with those liberal values towards enforcement, punishment and the number of times that an offender should be given when their lives are in chaos. In probation services, the government’s assumption is that the senior management has more control and that they have what is needed to secure judicial and public confidence. Although there have been problems in the early and mid 1990s with the primacy given to probation staff to the expense of control and with failure to enforce the conditions of probation orders with acceptable rigors; national association of the police organization (NAPO) has dealt with these cases pretty decisively. Since then, energy for probation enforcement has improved continuously and the role of probation in the community for delivering punishment is now an accepted fact. However, in the process, the workforce resilience appears to have suffered and its morale has fallen. Probation in its present state has a clear risk and it would be incapacitated rather than energized by the contestability of tension that would be injected in the system. In the probation service, there are unresolved issues concerning how poor performing performers are dealt with when overloaded courts, high caseloads and the overcrowded prisons are the substance of every day life (Hough, 2006). Goodwill Trading Co., Inc., (n.d) indicates that probation rationale is commonly known as taking some risk knowingly to the public for further criminality in order to save an offender from prison’s contaminating influence, and to provide the offenders with flexible means with a more individualized treatment and approach program than it is possible in the prisons. The main aim is to provide more effective through rehabilitation control, casework and surveillance. The personal relationship between the probation officer and the probationer is referred to as probationary supervision. This personal relationship requires the probation officers to exercise legal authority and for the protection of the probationer from misusing personal freedom and more importantly, it implies extension of guidance and educational assistance, rehabilitative or therapeutic at the same time. Depending on the special characteristic and personal circumstances of the offender, it is constituted in the probation treatment, from the unskilled or counseling assistant of volunteer probation officers to professional social casework. The offender release provided for in this definition makes it possible and signifies treatment in the community and in freedom. Probation therefore gives an allowance to the offender to maintain a normal relationship and social contacts with friends, family as well as pursue other occupations (Goodwill Trading Co., Inc., n.d). According to Whitehead (2010), probation’s goals and purpose are to ensure that offenders are aware of the effects of the crime on victims, rehabilitation, punishing the offenders in the society, public protection and reduction of offenders. After more than a decade of reforms modernization including punitisation of probation, the key word used by clerks and magistrate was rehabilitation. Rehabilitation concept has a long association with police system and means a state of law-binding return. Further, Whitehead (2010) argues that the purpose of probation report is to conduct a brief interview before delivering verbal feedback and ring conclusion to an expedited sentencing. The current purpose of probation is that continuity of contact between the probation officers and the offender seems to have helped to reduce re-offending and the projects designed to achieve an integrated service and achieve interagency cooperation have managed to do so. Continuity of contact with a helpful service broadly has contributed to offenders to stop offending. Collaboration between probation and prisons and voluntary organization can be effective but difficult to achieve. When contact was maintained, continuity seemed to be achieved with the same people during both custodial and post-release phases. According to Hough (2006), the achievement of effective case management and the reduction of re-offending and demonstration of research depends more on the motivation quality of staff than the particular organizational case management or structure within which they work. Staff skills and motivation sustenance and morale at a time of major change of organization and under the shadows of imminent exercise are vital. Conclusion Apparently, the law gives more importance to the offender and not the crime in probation. The question is more on whether probation will help the offender be in the lines for the reasons established by the probation system, such as giving second chance to a first time offender to maintain their place in the society through reformation process. This process is better achieved when one has not committed a serious crime and has not mixed with other hardened criminals. Giving an offender a second chance of continuing cordial and peaceful association with their fellowmen advances reformation process, rather than retarding it. For those who commit a second crime after they are released or commit an offence that manifest gravity, they must serve a long-term prison term to protect the society. A judge can deny a probation petition if the petitioner is not a penitent offender and by innocence protestation even after his conviction by the trial court. References Goodwill Trading Co., Inc. (N.d). Handbook on Probation. Manila, Philippines: Goodwill Trading Co., Inc. Hough, J.M. (2006): Reshaping Probation and Prisons: the New Offender Management Framework. London: The Policy Press. Mcscs.jus.gov. 2011. Community Services. Retrieved from http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/corr_serv/comm_corr/probation/probation html Whitehead, P.2010: Exploring Modern Probation: Social Theory and Organizational Complexity. London: The Policy Press. Read More