Offender Supervision

Technically, offender supervision includes all forms of correctional supervision, including incarceration. Typically, however, the term refers to community supervision. Community-based supervision attempts to control the behavior of offenders while allowing them to remain in the community. The premise is to promote law-abiding behavior, either by continuing or creating prosocial roles, while monitoring for a return to criminal activities. It is a least-restrictive response to criminal behavior and saves a significant amount of money for taxpayers. Not only is society saved the tremendous cost of incarceration, but offenders are often required to pay for supervision expenses. Furthermore, the government benefits from payment of taxes on their earnings, and victims are more likely to receive restitution. However, community supervision is not warranted for chronic or violent offenders.

The concept of community corrections is not without controversy. Many believe that it is too lenient as a response to criminal conduct. However, the presumption with community-based offender supervision is that it is advantageous to both offenders and society not to disrupt prosocial activities, such as employment and social support networks (such as those with partners and children). It is also widely thought that community-based offender supervision benefits offenders by not exposing them to prison and hence the large group of criminals there who might prompt them to commit additional or more sophisticated crimes.

Probation is a judicial action in which the court mandates supervision in the community without a period of incarceration. A prison sentence is determined and then suspended during the supervision period. However, if the probationer violates the terms of supervision, the prison sentence is imposed. Public perception to the contrary, some offenders regard supervision as more onerous than prison, because of the conditions and requirements that accompany community supervision.

Parole is a form of early release, before the completion of the court-ordered prison sentence. Parole is a period of community-based supervision following positive adjustment during incarceration. Parole typically includes court-mandated conditions, such as no contact with felons and treatment for substance abuse. If the offender violates the conditions of parole or commits a new criminal offense, he or she may be returned to confinement. Failure to comply with parole conditions is known as a technical violation, which is not criminal conduct in itself but does constitute grounds for reincarceration. For parolees returning to prison, it is common for technical violations to outnumber new criminal conduct. It is important to remember that parolees have served time in prison and therefore may well be more entrenched in their criminal lifestyles. As a result, parolees are often more challenging to supervise than probationers. Parole has been abolished or severely restricted in many states, as a result of a national get-tough-on-crime movement that followed some high-profile violent acts of parolees. Instead, mandatory minimum sentences have been implemented in many jurisdictions, thereby restricting the discretion of the judge.

Supervised release is a period of supervision following incarceration. It does not reduce or replace the sentence of confinement. Supervised release mandates conditions intended both to facilitate the offender's readjustment back into society, as a law-abiding and productive member of society, and to prevent recidivism.

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