SOC311H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Day Parole, Halfway House, Work Release
16 views7 pages
What do we mean by governance?
Steering people in a direction
•
The process of governing, can be done by the state (government) or any other
actors. Assigning regulations, control
•
What is the goal of governance
Making them follow rules (the law, social norms)
○
•
What is the relevance of governance in prisoner re-entry
Parole or probation conditions
○
Trying to reproduce moral citizens in society where morality is defined in a
specific way
○
•
What are some of the ways that formerly incarcerated individuals are governed
Disenfranchisement
○
Hidden sentences
○
•
Release options in Canada
Corrections and conditional release act
Outlines steps that people must take to be released from prison
○
Those sentenced 2+ years
○
•
Probation
Probation is sentenced instead of imprisonment
○
Sometimes this is added on after your imprisonment term
○
•
Gradual release
Temporary absences
Escorted: leave correctional institution for a period of time, and are
accompanied by an officer. Limited in duration. Typically for a
certain purpose - going to court, a medical appointment, treatment,
community service etc
§
Unescorted: same, but no officer. Sometimes granted if prisoners go
to work? Available to apply if you have served 1/6 of your sentence
§
○
Day parole
Returns to community correctional center or community residential
facility / halfway house at night
§
Eligible for this at 1/3 of sentence or 7 years
§
Get out of prison, but are still supervised and subject to different
conditions
§
○
•
Lecture 2
Saturday, January 26, 2019
2:21 PM
conditions
Full parole
Eligible for this at 1/3 of sentence or 7 years
§
Get out of prison, but are still supervised and subject to different
conditions
§
Difference between day/full: a condition may or may not be that
they do not need to return to somewhere at night
§
Need to create a release plan for the parole board, which looks for:
Individual must not pose a risk to society by reoffending
□
Individual will contribute to public safety by being
reintegrated into society
□
§
○
Statutory release
2/3 sentence in prison, remaining 1/3 in community
○
•
Release condition at expiry of sentence in institution
•
Participation activity 1
Imagine the goal of parole was to ensure that the supervised individual would
recidivate. Goal is to guarantee that parolees return to prison
What conditions would you require parolees to abide by?
○
How would you approach the task of supervision?
○
•
Parole and the culture of control
Main idea is how we can manage risk
•
Rehabilitation / reform / due process -> risk management, control, and
responsibilization
•
Historical goals of parole
More focused on treatment and helping
○
Parole officers used to come from social work backgrounds, which was
reflected in the way they did their jobs
○
Goal was to make transition from prison to community more gradual
○
Address personal issues like housing etc, and setting these things up for
offenders
○
•
Contemporary goals of parole
Shift to neoliberal practices
Government at a distance: state is less responsible for individuals,
responsibility is diffused to other organizations (NGO's etc)
§
Responsibilization: responsibility for things like committing crime
reside within the individual, rather than the state/society
§
○
Diminishing social services = they might not even be there
○
Fiscal restraints or time constraints
○
Parole officers and offenders are more responsibilized
○
•