Community Corrections Paper - Essay Example

This is the management and supervision of offenders within the community (Alarid, 2013). These are offenders who are serving court-imposed orders either as an alternative to imprisonment or as a condition of their release on parole from prison. This means they must report regularly to their community corrections officer and may have to participate in unpaid community work and rehabilitation programs. Community corrections program is generally operated by probation and parole agencies. This programme is meant to put the offenders within the free world social environment with the people so that they can see it as a rehabilitation rather than punishment.

The community in which this programme is carried out is likely to develop discriminatory approach towards such offenders due to the inherent risk of falling victims to their bad criminal nature. Taking the case of juvenile offenders, some children may be influenced by hardcore offenders who are always vulnerable to reoffending thereby spreading the rot in the community (Alarid, 2013). This programme is vital in ensuring the safety of the community by rehabilitating offenders and diverting low-risk offenders from prison which helps to break the cycle of reoffending.

They equally provide labor to the community thereby serving as an open example to potential offenders hence, saving the community where it’s practiced a great deal. . In foreign prisons, the only aspect of liberty denied is freedom of movement otherwise they have initiated reforms that have seen human treatment of prisoners in their territories. Take the case of Norway in Europe where the prisoners have recreational facilities installed for them with longer time of interaction in the compound (O'Leary, 2010).

The penal structure of US is still relatively inhuman as far as prisoners’ treatment is concerned. While US still practice harsh treatment of prisoners with longer holding hours and in isolated cells, other countries are shifting towards a human rehabilitation approach in prisons despite basic incarceration. Most countries view imprisonment as a way of rehabilitating unacceptable character and changing offenders to be productive members of the society if well managed and moderately punishment.

To achieve this, European countries for instance have been altering the penal code to ensure prisoners enjoy some liberty by accessing recreational services; stay locked in cells for a short time and have fun days to reconnect with family members as a way of positive rehabilitation. The US prison system needs to adopt the contemporary prisoner rehabilitation approaches which would significantly mitigate reoffending. This would also initiate easy integration of the freed ex-prisoners to the society.

Allowing prisoners to access basic recreational facilities like television among others would help them learn psychologically on the better side of life and take up positive traits that would make them become more responsible members of the society (Roth, 2006).US should to enable prisoners to lead a life of social responsibility