From Supervision to Opportunity: Reimagining Probation and Parole

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221115486
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Date: 01 May 2022
• Subject Matter: Introduction

8 ANNALS, AAPSS, 701, May 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162221115486

From

Supervision to

Opportunity:

Reimagining

Probation and

Parole

By

DAVID J. HARDING,

BRUCE WESTERN,

and

JASMIN A. SANDELSON

1115486ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYFROM SUPERVISION TO OPPORTUNITY

research-article2022

Across a variety of measures of safety and rehabilita-

tion, our current systems of parole and probation are

failing. Research shows that community supervision

fails to reduce crime; traps its subjects in cycles of

criminal justice involvement; is excessively punitive;

and creates widespread harm to individuals, families,

and communities—all while failing to significantly con-

tribute to the social and economic integration of those

under its control. We argue for a wholesale reform of

community supervision, including the abandonment of

current monitoring and control functions, and the

repurposing of resources into systems of support for

the hundreds of thousands of people leaving prison and

jail every year. We also provide an overview to the arti-

cles assembled for this volume, which chart the chal-

lenges facing those on community supervision and offer

a roadmap of potential policy solutions for improving

the life chances of formerly incarcerated and justice-

involved people.

Keywords: community supervision; probation; parole;

criminal justice; race; public policy; poverty

Introduction

Every year, more than 500,000 people are

released from prison (Carson 2020), and more

than ten million people cycle through the

nation’s jails (Zeng and Minton 2021). For

many, the end of incarceration means the

beginning of community supervision, which

entails regular meetings with probation or

David J. Harding is a professor of sociology at the

University of California, Berkeley, and Director of UC

Berkeley’s Social Science D-Lab. He is the author of

On the Outside: Prisoner Reentry and Reintegration

(Chicago 2019) and After Prison: Navigating Adulthood

in the Shadow of the Justice System (Russell Sage 2020).

Bruce Western is the Bryce Professor of Sociology and

Social justice and directs the Justice Lab at Columbia

University. He is the author of Punishment and Inequality

in America (Russell Sage 2006) and Homeward: Life in

the Year after Prison (Russell Sage 2018).

Correspondence: dharding@berkeley.edu

FROM SUPERVISION TO OPPORTUNITY 9

parole officers and an elevated risk of reincarceration (Carson 2020; Oudekerk

and Kaeble 2021).1 Seventy percent of formerly imprisoned people enter parole

or some other form of community supervision (Carson 2020). Yet even these

numbers understate the scope of correctional oversight beyond incarceration. At

any point in time, one in forty-six Americans is on community supervision, and

there are now about 4.4 million people on probation or parole (Oudekerk and

Kaeble 2021). As the United States reckons with the harms of mass incarceration

and aggressive policing, comprehensive criminal justice reform must also address

the reach and impact of probation and parole.

What are we accomplishing with millions of people on community supervi-

sion? Originally, probation and parole were intended to help people reintegrate

after a criminal conviction by building pathways to economic and social opportu-

nity. Since criminal justice supervision is concentrated in communities that face

high levels of joblessness, discrimination, and poverty, the historic mission to

provide social support can help not only the people on probation and parole, but

their families and neighborhoods, too. Improving opportunities also makes com-

munities safer: education, stable jobs, housing security, and good health all

reduce crime (e.g., Sampson and Laub 2003; Bozick etal. 2018; Kirk etal. 2018;

Link etal. 2019).

Yet by these standards, community supervision is failing. Research documents

the low rates of employment, housing stability, health care access, and myriad

other indicators of social and economic reintegration among people on supervi-

sion (Visher and Travis 2003; Western et al. 2015; Harding etal. 2014). Table 1

shows that compared to the general population, people on probation or parole

are almost three times more likely to be unemployed, almost twice as likely to be

poor, and more than twice as likely to receive assistance from government pro-

grams. They are more likely to be out of the labor force due to disability, less

likely to have health insurance, and more likely to describe themselves as being

in poor or fair health; they have more limitations on daily activities and are twice

as likely to be in psychological distress. They are also twice as likely to have less

than a high school education and a third less likely to have ever attended college.

Finally, they experience much higher rates of residential instability.2

At the same time, people on community supervision are at high risk of arrest

and incarceration. Sixty-eight percent of people released from prison are arrested

within three years (Alper etal. 2018). Among people on probation, at least 12

percent become incarcerated; among those on parole, the figure is 27 percent

(Horowitz 2018). People on probation or parole who get arrested are often said

to have failed and, in some cases, that may be true; but an honest and dispassion-

ate look at the evidence shows how the system is failing them and that our system

of community supervision needs comprehensive reform.

Jasmin A. Sandelson is an associate research scholar at Columbia University’s Justice Lab and

an MFA student in New York University’s creative writing program. Her forthcoming book

explores the power of friendships between poor teenage girls to mitigate poverty’s harms.

NOTE: This research was supported by a grant from REFORM Alliance.