Pros And Cons Of Indeterminate Sentencing

The United States had a sentencing and release procedure from 1920 to 1973 for rehabilitating offenders; both, the State and federal government used indeterminate sentencing, authorized discretionary release by the parole board, and supervised release after prison, but by 2002, sixteen States and federal government had abandoned discretionary release by the parole board, which made it hard for offenders to be released and the prison system to become overpopulated. This meant that offenders had to complete ninety-percent of their sentence before they could be eligible for parole (Clear, Reisig, and Cole, 2016). Because of this, there are five release mechanisms that both, State and federal government must use before an offender can be released;

Secondly, mandatory release is when an offender has served his/her required amount of time minus good behavior. The offender can be release without the decision of the parole board, but must serve the rest of their time on supervised parole. Third, probation release is when the judge sentences an inmate to a short time in prison, also known as “The shock”, and then release the offender back into society under supervision. Fourth, other conditional release is a release used by many States to go around mandatory release, which places offenders back into the community by granting the offender a leave of absence by using home supervision, halfway houses, emergency release, and other programs that would help the offender to be released from prison. Finally, expiration release is when an inmate have maxed out his/her time in prison and cannot be return to prison to serve additional time for the crime he/she were already serving or have any kind of supervision (Clear, Reisig, and Cole,

The parole board carefully examine and review the offender entire criminal behavior, both prior to prison and while in prison, social background, and risk to the community before they made an informed decision to release the offender, this ensure that the offender is not a threat to society and can become a law-abiding citizen of the community. According to the California Department of Corrections, (2003), “Offenders who are being considered for release must agree to the following: the offender must obey all parole agent instructions, must report to the parole officer immediately upon release, and later as instructed by the parole officer, must follow all laws, and cannot carry weapons.” But, in addition to these rules, offenders who have a mental illness must attend an outpatient therapy facility that is designated through the parole outpatient program regimen; alcohol and drug abuser must not use drugs or alcohol and must be tested periodically; and sex offenders must stay away from certain individual or location as order by the Board of Prison Terms (California State Library, 2003). Therefore, with the supervision from parole officers, regular