Community Supervision is slowly evolving back to the rehabilitative concept it initially started with, according to an article published by The Crime Report. Today, there are 4.5 million Americans under probation or parole, with 2.3 million individuals each year failing to complete their supervision requirements and returning to prison. With the “revolving-door justice” and justice reform happening across the world, people are calling for a radically different approach when it comes to parole and probation and the methods used for it. This initiative commends abandoning punitive aspects of the system and instead focusing on rehabilitative methods. At the moment, community supervision is focused heavily on fines, penalties and jail time for minor non-criminal infractions. By approaching community supervision differently, it will help people transition better back into society and stop punishing them for a crime they have done the time for. It provides a supportive fresh start to those who need it.
To reduce the number of people under community supervision and to make it less punitive and more equitable, restorative and hopeful, a new EXiT (Executives Transforming Probation and Parole) Strategy has been created. The reforms of this strategy focus on reducing the number of technical violations, eliminating incarceration for those violations, prioritizing services and support over surveillance and supervision, establishing reasonable probation and parole terms and supporting probation and parole staff with training and resources. Many states, including New York, Michigan, South Dakota and Pennsylvania, have started to follow suit in justice reform by focusing more on rehabilitation versus punishment.
TRACKtech, LLC supports these changes and evolution in community supervision. Our platform is designed to provide rehabilitative resources and support to program members to integrate them successfully into society. Probation and parole officers can monitor program members easily and check in with them through biometric identification and video conferencing. Punitive ways are ineffective when it comes to reducing recidivism rates. Rehabilitative and justice reform movements in community supervision are more helpful and provide results for people re-entering society.