Department of Probation Community Supervision Essay (Essay Sample)

Student's Name
Instructor’s Name
Course Name
Date
Department of Probation
Introduction
As the Department of Probation consultant, I have identified specific and unique issues currently in the community that needs to be addressed in community supervision or community corrections. It is noted that a certain population is still facilitating criminal offenses while under community supervision. The special people include drug abusers, individuals with severe medical issues, the elderly, mentally impaired people, etc. The concept of the paper will address core programs that can be implemented to address those specifically mentioned issues that are common in a specific population within the community settings. Reviewing the fundamental programs will help determine how recidivism can be reduced or eliminated within a certain population. Recidivism involves the act of convicted criminals such as drug abusers, repeating undesirable criminal behaviors or reoffending, even receiving sanctions, or undergoing intervention after the last criminal act. Arguably, cognitive behavioral therapy programs overrate community supervision, drug court program, and probation for special population offenders to reduce recidivism cases of crimes within the community settings.
Recidivism
The paper's whole context will involve reducing recidivism, which is the act of reoffending, and the most applicable programs that can be implemented adapted, and embraced to reduce recidivism of crimes. The crimes include drug abuse, crimes committed by mentally disordered people such as manslaughtering, and others. Instead of incarcerating inmates into prisons or jails after reoffending again, there are core alternative programs that can be used to address that issues within the community-based corrections programs. The probation officers can facilitate the programs to oversee the convicted criminals serve their sentences outside jails or prisons and ensure that the recidivism act is effectively reduced or eradicated.
Special Population Offenders' Programs
Community Supervision or Correction Program
The core goals of community supervision or correction entail changing inmates' or criminals' lives, reducing violence, and helping the societies or communities come together. By so doing, community supervision needs to look for effective supervision mechanisms or programs to ensure that offenders avoid recidivism (Cullen et al.; Phelps). Similarly, community corrections should serve the inmates' needs to break the crime cycle and stop the culprits from reoffending. Reoffending has been perceived as the community's core issue for those offenders serving their imprisonment basing on the community corrections institutions under the probation and parole officers' management. Firstly, community supervision goals include preventing future criminal offenses through surveillance, easing prison or jail overcrowding, and rehabilitating inmates such as drug users or individuals with mental disorders to avoid them convicting crimes. Secondly, community corrections address the needs of the victims through justice restoration and facilitating community reintegration.
The recidivism programs will help reduce or eradicate recidivism. The target of the programs will focus on moderate-risk to high-risk inmates (Cullen et al.). The intensive supervision of the high-risk reprobates based on effective community correction programs effectively reduces recidivism within the community settings. Therefore, the programs that will reduce recidivism will involve probation, drug court, and cognitive-behavioral therapies.
Community correction as an alternative sanction of criminals' release outside the incarceration context ensures confinement of non-violent inmates and inmates within a special population or offenders with special needs. The correction program ensures confinement of offenders outside the incarceration context because these special inmates might not impose threats to the community or society (Jeong, Lee, and Martin). Through community supervision, the special population such as drug abusers, mentally impaired people who have minor threats to society may undergo rehabilitation of behaviors instead of incarcerating them into prisons which might not accomplish rehabilitation objectives. The correction program follows a supervision set of rules, policies, and release conditions.
The inmates associated with drug abuse or mentally impaired offenders are subjected to intensive supervision to undergo counseling, rehabilitation, and medical care intervention (Dodson; Begun, Early, & Hodge). The program aid the special population offenders to rectify their behaviors from worse to a better life. For instance, offenders with associated drug abuse are imposed into strict restrictions and subjective drug testing. Similarly, offenders with mental disorders are administered special care involving medical health care attention, thus helping them recover as they rehabilitate their offensive behaviors. Community correction is effective instead of offenders' incarceration into prisons because, in prisons, there is no close supervision and medical care; thus, jails or prisons may impose healthy threats that might worsen offenders’ mental state.
Probation
In essence, the probation act has been in facilitation for several years. Probation is an effective community correction program for offenders' effective punishment through incarceration outside prisons or jails under the probation officers' strict supervision (Sturm et al.). The importance of probation programs is that it saves taxpayers' money and provides rehabilitation programs for the offenders while maintaining the public's safety. Probation controls culprits within the bracket of special populations such as drug abusers, elderly people who might commit crime at an older age, and mentally impaired people who might convict crime such as murders due to mental defects. These special populations might commit crimes due to the impact of the health conditions.
Rehabilitation is one of the most effective solutions to address special populations' issues to avoid them committing crimes or reoffending. The special population, such as drug abusers, are put under the probation officers' supervision care, thus saving the cost of putting them in prisons, jails, or correctional institutions (Sturm et al.). Through probation of special populations who are low-risk criminals such as drug abusers and mentally impaired people, rehabilitation programs ensure that they undergo intensive medical care involving mental, psychological, physical treatment. Rehabilitation is an effective probation program since it will ensure the release of healthy and mentally fit; thus, allowing them to associate with community services that will change their future ways, rather than committing associated crimes. Therefore, close probation supervision of the special people through intensive care and support will help the offenders to have the liberty of reoffending; hence, reducing the recidivism act.
Drug Court Program
The drug court is also an alternative program, especially to offenders struggling with drug abuse within the community. The drug abuser is within the special population can needs constant care to reduce offensive behaviors. In other words, a drug court is a form of incarceration which helps to minimize abuse of substance, costs for maintaining offenders in prisons, and overcrowding of prisons (Mitchell et al.). The drug court ensures that drug abuse inmates change their behaviors while strict supervision reduces the recidivism rate and uses illegal substances rather than individuals behind bars. The drug abuser in drug court is encouraged to abstain from drug use completely. Also, the individuals incarcerated in drug court are held accountable for the offenses they committed while under drug influence; thus, they must follow the criminalities' legal responsibilities. Therefore, drug court is a mitigation program for drug abusers to change offensive behaviors and keep themselves away from drug use; thus, it helps inmates be integrated with the community's society.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Program
The program is an evidence-based program that focuses on the risk, responsivity, and needs principles through the cognitive-behavioral method to minimize recidivism. The program focuses on criminogenic acts that might facilitate reoffending, especially among individuals with mental disorders (Clark). The program's approach ensures that the inmates enhance their moral reasoning, self-control, social skills, self-efficacy, problem-solving, and impulse management. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is considered the most effective program over the other such as drug court, probation, and community corrections. The program is primarily used in t