Probation In The Social Justice System

In the contemporary US, the social justice system is relatively comprehensive. In the development of the social justice system, the probation as one assuaging method emerged in 1841 America. At first, probation law emerged because John Augustus, who was the first probation officer on the record, decided to parole one drunkard for three weeks. After this event, governments started to consider the possibility of probation law. In 1878, Massachusetts promulgated a new law about probation, which was the first probation law in America. By 1920, other states had followed Massachusetts state to promulgate their own probation law. In 1937 some states signed an agreement for the supervision of parolees and probationers. By 1957, all states in America had signed this agreement (NYC Probation).
Probation can be defined as punishment in the community instead of punishment in the prison, but also with supervision of people who are released from prison with parole. According to David Garland’s theory of the social justice systems development, probation is a response to the development of punishment theory. When punishment theory develops to a tipping point, a social justice system will evaluate and spawn some new branch …show more content…
James' wages supported his wife and children and he was well on his way to a successful re-entry. Because he had great difficulty with writing and arithmetic, he was late in turning in his reports to his probation officer three months in a row. One morning when he was at work, James was thrown over a desk, handcuffed, and dragged off to prison, costing him his job and leaving his family without his paycheck. James had not committed a new crime: he hadn't complied with the paperwork requirements of his parole. The decision to send him back to prison was a waste of taxpayers' money, and a tragedy for James and his family (Walshe, Sadhbh,