Mass Supervision

Probation, Parole, and the Illusion of Safety and Freedom

De: Vincent Schiraldi

Narrado por: Barry Abrams

We've heard a lot in recent years about the nearly 2.1 million people incarcerated in American prisons and jails. But what about the approximately four million more who are on probation and parole—monitored by the state at great expense and at risk of being sent to prison at the whim of a probation or parole officer for the least imaginable infraction?

Vincent Schiraldi was New York City probation commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg, supervising a system charged with monitoring 30,000 people on a daily basis. In Mass Supervision, he combines firsthand experience with deep research on the inadequately explored practices of probation and parole, to illustrate how these forms of state supervision have strayed from their original goal of providing constructive and rehabilitative alternatives to prison. They have become instead, Schiraldi argues, a "recidivism trap" for people trying to lead productive lives in the wake of a criminal conviction.

Schiraldi offers the first full and up-to-date account of these two key aspects of our criminal justice system, showing that these practices increase incarceration, have little impact on crime rates, and needlessly disrupt countless lives. Ultimately, he argues that they should be dramatically downsized or even abolished completely.

©2023 Vincent Schiraldi (P)2024 Tantor

Ridiculousness

The only thing I agree with this guy on is that a supportive, trusting relationship between the client and the PO are paramount to the client’s success, and there are not enough POs who take this heavy responsibility seriously. Essentially everything else he says is pretty much laughable.

The history included was interesting, but I can’t get past the fact that, as far as this guy is concerned, there’s no need for laws, because the enforcement of them in any manner is nothing short of unnecessary. He is actually proud of himself for instigating the blind quashing of warrants for thousands people who absconded from probation or parole in NYC and hadn’t been found for years, reasoning that surely they all must have mysteriously seen the light and gone the route of law abiding, notwithstanding being on the run, of course. Seriously?

So many of the blanket claims he makes are easily found to be false with a little research, justified by rows and rows of statistics that he points to as proof that correlation is the same as causation. His answer to everything: abolish supervision, give people vouchers to spend as they wish on whatever services they think they need as they leave incarceration, and whatever you do, do NOT require people to follow the law. It’s just too hard for people of color to do. As a person of color, I find him completely ignorant and insulting on so many levels.