Probation and Parole: Procedural Protection - Introduction, Granting Release, Release And Sandin V. Conner, Parole Rescission, Beyond Parole: Other Decisions Affecting Release Of Prisoners
sentencing offender term jail
Probation is a form of criminal sanction imposed by a court upon an offender, nearly always after a verdict or a plea of guilty or nolo contendere but without the prior imposition of a term of imprisonment. Probation may be linked to a jail term, known as a split sentence, where the judge sentences the offender to a specified jail term to be followed by a specified period of release on probation. Parole, on the other hand, is the conditional release of a convicted offender from a penal or correctional institution by an administrative agency: the parolee remains in the community within the continued custody of the state during the remainder of his previously imposed prison sentence.
Additional Topics
The differences between probation and parole are not very important in the analysis of the procedural protections afforded probationers and parolees. The procedural issues as to each may be conveniently analyzed within three categories: the decision to grant or deny probation or parole; supervisory issues particularly as they relate to the enforcement of the conditions of release; and the decision…
Parole. In Greenholtz v. Inmates of the Nebraska Penal and Correctional Complex, 442 U.S. 1 (1979), a closely divided Court rendered what was then a highly significant decision concerning parole release. The basic issue in Greenholtz was the extent to which the due process clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution applied to discretionary parole release decisions in Nebraska. Gree…
With the decision in Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472 (1995), the Supreme Court may have overruled that aspect of Greenholtz finding a protected liberty interest in the shall/unless–type statutory language used in Nebraska. In Sandin, a federal appeals court found that a Hawaii prison regulation that required substantial evidence to support a finding of guilt to a charge of prison misconduct …
In Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat, 452 U.S. 458 (1981), the Court considered whether the Connecticut Board of Pardons's record of granting approximately three-fourths of all applications for commutation of life sentences had in fact created a constitutionally protected interest, calling at least for a statement of reasons when a particular application was denied. The Court held th…
Except in systems that have adopted legally binding sentencing guidelines, an offender has no legal "right" to receive a sentence of probation. Moreover, sentencing guidelines, mandatory minimum, and other "determinate" sentencing laws often limit the court's power to grant probation. These laws, as well as the general procedural requirements for sentencing, are …
The most fundamental point to be made regarding the legal status of the probationer and parolee while in the community is that he or she is a person who will have been deprived of certain civil rights by virtue of conviction of a crime. Precisely what rights are lost and for how long as a result of the conviction varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. As noted above, probationers and pa…
An extraordinary array of conditions limit the freedom of probationers and parolees. As noted, almost all of those conditions are upheld by the courts. The Constitution itself is viewed as not being fully applicable to probationers and parolees whose constitutional identity is less than the ordinary citizen but more than that of a prisoner. In Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868 (1987), a probation…
Morrissey and Gagnon. The term revocation at times refers to the act of imprisonment or reimprisonment, and at other times to the process of establishing a violation. Revocation is perhaps best viewed as a process resembling a cameo trial at which facts are alleged and proven to show a violation; that is, that the supervisee was at "fault" by committing a new crime or violating a co…
Later cases have addressed several procedural questions left open in Morrissey and Gagnon. In Moody v. Daggett, 429 U.S. 78 (1976), the Supreme Court held that a parolee has no right to an initial preliminary hearing before being confined to prison for a suspected parole violation when the parolee-inmate already has been convicted of the crime upon which parole revocation is based. The conviction,…
American Bar Association, Advisory Committee on Sentencing and Review. Standards Relating to Probation: Tentative Draft. Chicago: ABA, 1970. American Bar Association. Model Adult Community Corrections Act. Approved, February 1992. ——. "Sentencing Probation, and the Rehabilitative Ideal: The View from Mempa v. Rhay." Texas Law Review 47 (1968): 1–59. —…
Boling v. Romer, 101 F.3d 1336 (10th Cir. 1996). Commonwealth v. Cosgrove, 629 A.2d 1007, 1011 (Pa. Super. 1993). Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat, 452 U.S. 458 (1981). Greenholtz v. Inmates of the Nebraska Penal and Corrections Complex, 442 U.S. 1 (1979). Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868 (1987). Higdon v. United States, 627 F.2d 893 (9th Circuit 1980). Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments