Legal Research

As Kansas Leads, States Seek to Make Parole More Efficient

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, May 19, 2008.

"Kansas has become a leader in a spreading national effort to make parole more effective and useful - to reduce violations and reincarcerations as it protects the public and seeks to help more offenders go straight, reports the New York Times. A similar transformation of the parole system has begun in several states including Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York and Texas. It has been prompted in part by financial concerns: more than one- third of all prison admissions are for parole violations, helping to drive an unsustainable surge in prison- building. It has also been driven by evidence that conventional parole supervision is often a waste of resources."

"An influential study in 2005 by the Urban Institute concluded that parole supervision had little effect on the rate at which ex-prisoners were re-arrested. As part of a get-tough spirit, a number of states in recent decades adopted mandatory sentences and ended the historic discretion of parole boards over release dates. Yet every state still has post-release supervision for most offenders, averaging three years with stiff conditions like not consuming alcohol, having urine tests, abiding by curfews, holding a job and meeting regularly with a parole officer. The most widespread change is the use of risk assessments that help officials concentrate on those deemed most likely to commit new crimes."

New York Times

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).