Parole Release in the United States - Essay Example

Parole boards require accused persons to take responsibility for accusations, whether or not the accusations are true. This means that both the innocent and the guilty are occasionally expected to admit guilt before being released on parole. However, legally, admission of guilt does not necessarily lead to a conviction. Admission of guilt is like insurance taken by the justice system before releasing an otherwise innocent or guilty prisoner. Therefore, prisoners, even the innocent should be required to admit guilt to get paroled.
Gaining parole through the admission of guilt saves innocent prisoners from being unnecessarily subjected to harsh conditions while inside prison systems and helps in early release. Incarceration facilities are characterized by physical violence, bullying, drug abuse, and occasionally rape. Fernando Bermudez mentions that one of his innocent friends who failed to admit quilt died in prison after the parole committee denied him release (Bermudez 01). In addition, Bermudez mentions that innocent convicts easily turn to drugs as a means of numbing their emotional pains for wrongful convictions. In this context, many innocent persons undergo physical and emotional torture while defending their innocence as they are still in prison. According to Paul Cassell, there is only a small percentage of innocent prisoners who can be saved from the ordeals of prison environments through the admission of guilt during parole hearings (Cassell 01). Primarily, the U.S. justice system maintains that one way of avoiding torturous ordeals inside correctional facilities entails admission of guilt. However, an innocent prisoner’s conscience might put the prisoner in a moral dilemma. At the same time, research evidence shows that at parole hearings, the jury or the judges “do not always effectively sort the guilty from the innocent” (Medwed 495). Moreover, without the resources to prove innocence during the parole trial, the prisoners who are wrongly convicted, if they choose to cling to innocence, will only be refusing release and freedom. The jury considers denial as a refusal to take responsibility for one’s actions (Medwed). Accordingly, denial of guilt can also result in refusal of parole. To overcome the dilemma, the prisoners who consider not guilty, prisoners could consider their act of admitting guilt only as a namesake expression of remorse and not a true acknowledgment of guilt. Reports show that professing innocence only ends up closing the doors to freedom (Eifling 2). Taking into consideration the disincentives of refusing to admit guilt, the innocent ones should take the better recourse that is, admitting guilt as a way of gaining their provisional freedom through parole.

Admission of guilt is a positive gesture that indicates rehabilitative progress among guilty prisoners and signals readiness for re-entry into society, the main purpose of the American justice system is to judge and correct offenders. In the psychology of correction, the first step towards improving oneself is an admission of one’s flaws and shortcomings. Otis (01) observes that a substantial portion of the prisons’ population comprises of guilty prisoners. He argues that parole allows inmates to acknowledge the importance of lawfulness by admitting that they have contravened certain laws. Research shows that admitting guilt is a precondition to getting parole because penitence is what is expected of prisoners requesting parole (Medwed). According to Eifling, refusal to acknowledge guilt could signal recidivism and mental immaturity according to the psychologists. Therefore, admission of guilt could testify to successful rehabilitation and prove that the prisoner has become a “reformed person”, which is the original intent of parole (Medwed 497). Whatever the case, parole is the only way to ensure that convicts are cognizant of rights and wrongs and that they will conduct themselves correctly after being re-integrated into their respective societies.

All in all, parole is a necessary tool first of all for the decongestion of prisons. However, one of its requirements is a prisoner’s admission of guilt. Even though some may be truly innocent, they should be even happier to admit guilt. The first reason is that one cannot be paroled without doing it, meaning that it is like the language of the parole system. Secondly, the fact that a person is innocent (actual innocence) happens not to be sufficient evidence for a prisoner to be released by the justice system. Additionally, after the court has made a verdict, the court rarely considers evidence of innocence whose presentation could have been made during the original trial. For guilty prisoners, it is the best option for them to admit quilt since it is the only way to show responsibility and acknowledgment of the law they broke. It is an indication of rehabilitative progress as well. Prison life is harsh hence parole is a great favor for prisoners. Read More