Paper Example on Pretrial Services: Release & Supervision of Arrested Individuals

Pretrial services offered in courts are made up of pretrial release and pretrial supervision of the arrested individuals. For the pretrial release, the arrested person is supposed to be freed until up to the time of their trial in the court of law (Alarid, 2016). This is the first decision to be made when a person has been arrested.

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On the other hand, pretrial supervision is done on the condition that the arrested person is on bond. (Alarid, 2016) shows that most federal offenders who are released before trial have conditions to follow for six to seven months until sentencing. According to (Alarid, 2016), Pretrial supervision ensures that the defendant comes for a court trial and that the public is safe from the arrested person. Growing concern about the risks posed by some pretrial defendants led to the passage of a second Bail Reform Act in 1984 that included the safety of the public as an essential criterion in a decision to detain a pretrial defendant.

According to (Alarid, 2016), defendants detained during the pretrial process are more likely to be sentenced for longer periods than the federal defendants. The federal defendants are always granted release—making pretrial detention a significant disadvantage to the defendant. Pretrial supervision and bonds force the defendant to avail themselves to the court and refrains from further deviance and criminal activity while their cases are still in court.

Indeterminate sentencing can also consider the offender's circumstances, level of remorse, the risk the offender poses, and the victim and society's interest. The use of sentencing guidelines has reduced some sentencing inequality at the expense of lowering judicial discretion. The Public Service Investigation (PSI) report is a document written by a probation officer to aid a judge in an indeterminate sentence to expose individual factors that will mitigate or oppose successful community supervision. With the introduction of sentencing guidelines, (Alarid, 2016) indicate that sentencing has become less discretionary, and the importance of the PSI has declined in some states. Judging case depends heavily on the sentencing guidelines system. It is important to note that officers recommend a sentence type but not a sentence length.

A PSI is used in community supervision and the parole board release decisions. Legal issues in a PSI include: an offender has an opportunity to refute information contained in the PSI, hearsay evidence is allowed, and the presentence interview does not require Miranda warnings or the presence of an attorney (Alarid, 2016).

Community supervision has the same conditions for the standard and unique requirements. standard conditions (also called mandatory conditions) are either prescribed by law, set by court or agency practice. According to (Alarid, 2016), Special conditions of community supervision should be clearly stated without ambiguity, be reasonable so that a probationer can comply, and must protect the society or rehabilitate an offender. Judges imposes community supervisions based on the crime committed, the offender's skill or the latter’s ability deficits.

The practice of shaming or scarlet-letter sanctions is meant to briefly stigmatize offenders publicly so that punishment affects an offender’s dignity. (Alarid, 2016) show that the scarlet letter or public shaming is controversial because they are not reasonably related to a defendant's rehabilitation, violating many state constitutions. Jurisdictions with upheld shaming say it can deter and does not violate the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Reference

Alarid, L. F. (2016). Community based corrections. Cengage Learning.