Essay On Alternatives To Incarceration

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Alternatives to Incarceration
Currently, prisons and jails are overcrowded and expensive for society. In 2016, there were 1,505,400 prisoners in the United States of America (Carson, 2016). There are many alternatives to incarceration, for example, drug courts saved an average of 700,000 per year, according to, “Alternatives to Incarceration: An Evidence Based Research Review” (2004, p. 6). Other programs are community service, day reporting centers, electronic monitoring, forfeiture programs, home detention, intensive supervision probation, substance abuse treatment, and work release. These programs offer cost savings to society, and the programs offer rehabilitation to offenders. Alternative programs to incarceration help control cost and …show more content…

In some cases, probation can be a combined sentence of incarceration followed by a period of community supervision. Parole is a period of conditional supervised release in the community following a prison term. It includes parolees released through discretionary or mandatory supervised release from prison, those released through other types of post-custody conditional supervision, and those sentenced to a term of supervised release (Herberman, Ph.D., Bonczar, Ph.D., 2015, p. 2).
Simply, probation is granted by the court, and parole is granted by the parole commission for people in prison.

Conclusion
In conclusion, alternatives to incarceration with probation and parole save money and lessen overcrowding of jails. Probation and parole are crucial for the offender’s integration back into being a productive member of society. Alternatives to jails such as drug courts, community service, day reporting centers, electronic monitoring, forfeiture programs, home detention, intensive supervision probation, substance abuse treatment, and work release combined with probation and parole are a proven solution to overcrowded and expensive