The start of the parole system - Research Paper Example

His release is conditional, contingent upon satisfactory behavior. He is under supervision and treatment by a person trained in parole work. Englands contribution to what later metamorphosed into parole was its program of transportation to the American colonies, a program motivated, not by humanitarian considerations, but by economic pressures. In the sixteenth century, Englands economy was in a decline. There was much unemployment. The labor market was overcrowded. In the colonies, on the other hand, there was need for cheap labor.

The British government decided to grant reprieves and stays of execution to convicted felons physically able to work so that they might be shipped abroad and impressed into service. This system of deportation is part of the history of parole in that it involved mitigation of penal sentence and placement of the erstwhile prisoner in the free community. As in parole, the individual was not an altogether free person. The first English transportation law was proclaimed in 1597, authorizing deportation of rogues.

In 1619 one hundred "dissolute persons" were ordered to Virginia. The government paid a contractor, usually the shipmaster, about five pounds for each prisoner so shipped. In Virginia, the offenders were put up at auction, the highest bidder winning them as indentured servants. The British government thereafter exercised no further responsibility for the welfare or control of the former prisoners, so long as they did not return to England. If they returned without authorization, they were subject to death.

Boatloads of felons came over, but were not sufficient to meet the demand. Virginia thereupon began to import Negro slaves. The labor shortage eased, but the white exiles, despising their lot, fomented unrest among the blacks. This caused consternation among their masters, who could now get along without the transported convicts. Minus the white trouble-makers, they could keep the slaves