Less is More: How Reducing Probation Populations Can Improve Outcomes
"In this new report, co-authored by Michael Jacobson, Vincent Schiraldi, Reagan Daly, and Emily Hotez,
the authors discuss the consequences of the tremendous growth in
probation supervision over the past several decades in the United States
and argue that the number of people on probation supervision needs to
be significantly downsized.
The authors find that probation has often not served as an
alternative to incarceration, but rather as a key driver of mass
incarceration in the United States. Despite the large numbers of
individuals under supervision, probation is the most underfunded of
agencies within the criminal justice system. This leaves those under
supervision, often an impoverished population, with the responsibility
of paying for probation supervision fees, court costs, urinalysis tests,
and electronic monitoring fees among a plethora of other fines. These
financial obligations have incredibly detrimental implications on the
mental and economic state of those under supervision and is argued to be
an unjust and ineffective public policy.
Using New York City as an example, the authors outline how the probation
department there was able to see a two-thirds decline in the number of
people under community supervision from 1996 to 2014. At the same time
that this decline happened, the city’s rate of crime and incarceration
both decreased precipitously, showing that jurisdictions can experience
fewer people on probation, less crime and less incarceration."
View the Report
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