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History of Probation and Parole

Sometime probation and Parole are confused as same community correction measures due to similarities in their actions in the history of probation and parole .

Early release of an offender from a correctional institution or prison to the society after a certain period of time but before expiration of sentence on certain conditions like friendly attitude, obeying conditions during supervision is called parole. The concerned board is a legally established but an independent authority. They set some conditions before the offender considered for parole and the concerned person has to follow them strictly under the supervision of a probation officer.

In contrast, the Probation is imposed by local judges with some conditions for a definite period of time under the careful supervision of a probation officer recruited by the authorized body. The probationary period can be varied from few months to even many years depending on the nature of offence. The court and the probation officer have the ultimate authority of supervision. If the probation officer notices that the offender is violating the conditions then he may write to the governing body and the probation period can be minimized or even terminated completely for the offender and re-sentence.

The practice of both probation and parole has a long history. Researches indicate the evidence of probationary practice in 1830 in Boston and 1894 in a New York state court in the history of probation and parole .

In 1830 a woman was found guilty for stealing from a house. But after listening carefully to her friend's pleads, the court allowed the woman to go for her recognizance for her own appearance. But again in 1831 she was accused of another offense of larceny brought in the same court and was sentenced for the crime of 1830. This is possibly the first documented case of probation and comes up as the example that a person can be given a chance of rejoining the society but in case he or she get accused of another charge(s) then the court may punish the person for the previous charge.

A person named John Augustus is recognized as the "Father of Probation". He was the first probation officer in the history of probation and parole. He was from Woburn of Massachusetts (born in 1785) and had a shoe-making business of his own. He helped the offenders not only by providing them bail but also with job and medical assistance. Such noble practice of John Augustus had created a golden chapter in the history and forced the Massachusetts legislature to hire a probation officer legally in 1878 and this practice of rehabilitation is been successfully continued till now.

In the mid of nineteenth century, offenders were punished with specific works to perform in the prison based on the nature of their offence and this has created a lot of crowd in those prisons and the administrator had no idea that how to get rid of such situations of overcrowding. This need forced them to develop a new system. The persons can be credited for developing the parole system are Captain Alexander Maconochie, and Sir Walter Crofton in the year of 1840. The notorious English criminals designated as "twice condemned" were transported to Australia and sent to Norfolk Island during that time. Mr. Maconochie started his work by eliminating the sentence structure and introduced a novel marking system where an offender had to earn marks by hard work and good behavior. These earned marks were used for either buying an item or reduction of sentence period and even freedom also. Prisoners had to pass through lot of stages (designed by Mr. Maconochie) to earn marks for their freedom.

Sir Walter Crofton was the administrator of the Irish Prison System in the year of 1854. He had a personal belief that the sentence should have relation with rehabilitation. He introduced a new system having a classification of penal servitude as strict imprisonment, indeterminate sentences, and tickets-of-leave. These were also based on a marking system where the prisoners had to earn marks by their activities to get the final award "the ticket-of-leave".

Like Alexander Maconochie, and Sir Walter Crofton, there was another person named Zebulon Brockway (a Michigan penologist) credited for initiating parole release in the United States. He also believed that prisoners should be given a chance to rejoin the society after performing some imposed role by the court as a chance of rectification. Their span of sentence should vary as per their behavior, nature of work in prison. This practice can help both the administration and the society. The crowd can be minimized by releasing the prisoners and the society will have a better chance of survival by having good people. His practice was approved in 1876 when he became the superintendent of Elmira Reformatory for young offenders in New York. The volunteer guardians had the authority to supervise the offenders and submit a written report to the authority each month.

Today, all countries offer both juvenile and adult probation; however, the administrative structure of probation differs from state to state. In some places combination of probation and parole are also found.

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