MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

By NORVAL MORRIS, MICHAEL TONRY

Across the country prisons are jammed to capacity and, in extreme cases, barges and mobile homes are used to stem the overflow. Probation officers in some cities have caseloads of 200 and more--hardly a manageable number of offenders to track and supervise. And with about one million people in prison and jail, and two and a half million on probation, it is clear we are experiencing a crisis in our penal system. In Between Prison and Probation, Norval Morris and Michael Tonry, two of the nation's leading criminologists, offer an important and timely strategy for alleviating these problems. They argue that our overwhelmed corrections system cannot cope with the flow of convicted offenders because the two extremes of punishment--imprisonment and probation--are both used excessively, with a near-vacuum of useful punishments in between. Morris and Tonry propose instead a comprehensive program that relies on a range of punishment including fines and other financial sanctions, community service, house arrest, intensive probation, closely supervised treatment programs for drugs, alcohol and mental illness, and electronic monitoring of movement. Used in rational combinations, these "intermediate" punishments would better serve the community than our present polarized choice. Serious consideration of these punishments has been hindered by the widespread perception that they are therapeutic rather than punitive. The reality, however, Morris and Tonry argue, "is that the American criminal justice system is both too severe and too lenient--almost randomly." Systematically implemented and rigorously enforced, intermediate punishments can "better and more economically serve the community, the victim, and the criminal than the prison terms and probation orders they supplant." Between Prison and Probation goes beyond mere advocacy of an increasing use of intermediate punishments; the book also addresses the difficult task of fitting these punishments into a comprehensive, fair and community-protective sentencing system.

Oxford University Press, Sep 12, 1991, 294 pages

Edited by Rui Abrunhosa Gonçalves

This book provides international perspectives on corrections, correctional treatment, and penitentiary laws. Although its focus is on African and South American countries, the information provided can be easily expanded to North America and Europe. The chapters present legal frameworks and applied research on prisons and their potential to deter crime and reduce recidivism rates. The book puts the human rights agenda at the forefront and is a useful resource for those who work in corrections, including prison, education, and probation officers.

London: InTechOpen, 2023. 146p.

By Nicola Carr

The Council of Europe recently issued Guidelines Regarding Recruitment, Selection, Education, Training and Professional Development of Prison and Probation Staff, in recognition of the need to provide a set of standards that will apply to all Council of Europe Member States. The guidelines were developed by the Council for Penological Cooperation (PC-CP) and approved by the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) in April 2019. The guidelines outline a number of key principles relating to the recruitment, education and training, and professional development of prison and probation staff. In some countries prison and probation staff are employed by the same agency, and there are some areas of the guidelines that pertain to both. The guidelines also set out the educational entry standards that should apply for probation staff working directly with suspects and offenders (this echoes the terminology used in the European Rules on Community Sanctions and Measures), and some of the core areas that should be covered in subsequent training. …

Academic Insights 2020/02 . Manchester: HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2020. 12p.

By Kelly Lyn Mitchell , Erin Harbinson and  Lily Hanrath

  Executive Summary The study is a collaboration between the University of Minnesota, Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, and Hennepin County, funded by a grant from the University of Minnesota's Driving Tomorrow Grand Challenges research initiative. The project used a mixed methods approach examining data on healthcare use and healthcare claims by people on probation, interviews with medical providers, a survey of probation officers, and a survey and interviews of people on probation. The Robina Institute led the survey of probation officers, which was aimed at learning about probation officer attitudes and beliefs about the links between probation and health, and how they saw their role with regard to the health of people on probation. This report summarizes the findings of the survey and suggests potential policy interventions that could be implemented to improve the health and probation outcomes of people on probation.  

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. 2021. 27p.