Changes to Parole Policies
Question
Several states have made changes to their parole policies in the last few decades. What changes did Florida make to their parole policies? In your opinion, why did Florida make these changes? Do you agree or disagree with the changes? You may use research outside of the textbook to answer these questions.


Solution
Changes
to Parole Policies
Florida is among the states in the
U.S. that made changes to their parole policies. The criminal justice system
enacted parole policies enabling the inmate’s release before the expiry of
their jail term (Seeds 1). However, many Florida prisoners got sentenced as
capital offenders that attract life sentencing with only eligibility for parole
after 25 years. The long waiting for parole led to overpopulation in the
prisons, with bed capacities getting overwhelmed (Al Weswasi 172). Although
Florida faced various management challenges, it made changes to parole
policies. The significant change imposed by Florida was the abolition of parole
for offenders.
Florida formed a commission tasked
with developing and implementing rules for parole decisions. The commission
recommended the abolition of parole for offenders incarcerated on or after
October 1, 1983 (Seeds 172). Only inmates whose crimes were committed before
the abolition date are eligible for parole consideration. In my view, Florida
made changes in parole policies to help in the federal government’s effort to
reduce crime rates. The availability of parole to offenders led to an increase
in severe crimes since offenders knew they would get pardoned before the end of
their jail term.
Parole policy changes in Florida
became the cause of overcrowding in the prisons. The parole decision was not
considerate of the fact prisons will be overwhelmed by the increase in new
offenders and current ones. Florida Department of Corrections reported that
many facilities face overpopulation due to insufficient bed space (Al Weswasi
1-3). The prisons also face understaffing, which makes managing a large
population of inmates challenging. As a result, lawmakers propose parole for
eligible offenders to ease the backlog in Florida prisons (Seeds 172-200).
Generally, parole plays a significant role in helping prisons reduce
overpopulation and solve understaffing challenges. Therefore, the decision to
abolish parole policies in Florida was not appropriate considering the state of
their prisons. Therefore, it would be better if Florida reinstates the parole
policies for effective management of their prisons and also to ensure quality
correctional services to the inmates.
In addition, parole policies allow
offenders to serve their sentences outside the confine of the prison system.
Many prisoners released on parole are likely to reform as they get exposed to
corrective measures to change their perceptions about crime (Al Weswasi 3-5).
Abolition of parole implies that many prisons may spend all their lives
confined in the prisons without reforming. There is a possibility of prisoners
getting used to prison life to the extent that they will not see the need for
reforming and denouncing their criminal lives (Seeds 172). Therefore, the
changes to abolish parole were not appropriate as far as the transformation of
prisoners is concerned.
Nevertheless, Florida’s abolition of
parole policies is a good move in the fight against crime in the U.S. Many
offenders take advantage of parole policies to continue with their crimes,
hoping that their sentence will get shortened (Seeds 173). High degree criminal
offenders will be afraid of spending their lives in prison due to lack of
parole. The Department of Corrections is likely to record a decrease in inmates
when parole is abolished. Generally, the abolition of parole by Florida works
for the good of the criminal justice system. It will be a strategy to reduce
crime rates and promote appropriate behavior (Al Weswasi, 1-28). Capital
offenders will be exposed to harsh correctional rules that will be difficult to
re-offend when their sentence ends. Therefore, the decision to abolish parole
policies was appropriate for enhancing the effectiveness of the criminal
justice system in Florida.
Works
Cited
Al
Weswasi, Enes, et al. “Does sentence length affect the risk for criminal
recidivism? A quasi-experimental study of three policy reforms in Sweden.”
Journal of Experimental Criminology (2022): 1-29.
Seeds,
Christopher. “Disaggregating LWOP: Life without parole, capital punishment, and
mass incarceration in Florida, 1972–1995.” Law & Society Review 52.1
(2018): 172-205.




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