ABSTRACT
Many developments are attempts to improve and enhance the effectiveness and economy of probation and parole. This chapter examines the controversy over community supervision and discusses specific attempts to improve the efficiency of community corrections. For retributivists, what works is a system of sanctions that matches the pain of punishment with the harm of the crime and blameworthiness of the offender. In short, probation, parole, and other community supervision practices work to the degree that they can control risk of new crime, reduce incarceration and correctional costs and/or match punishments with offenders. Probation and parole officers are changing the way that they do their jobs. There is greater emphasis on enforcement and surveillance than in the past. Other changes involve making both probation and parole more punitive, such as the increasing use of "shock incarceration" and "intensive supervision," electronic monitoring, day reporting, and other sanctions that are more severe than traditional probation or parole supervision.
