Prison Release Mechanisms in the US

This assignment examines different types of prison release mechanisms utilized in the United States. It discusses mandatory, discretionary, probation, statutory, and expiration releases, outlining their conditions and purposes. The report evaluates the effectiveness of each mechanism, considering factors like recidivism rates and societal impact. Ultimately, it argues for a nuanced approach to release decisions, tailored to individual offenders' risk levels and the nature of their crimes.

Running head: RELEASE MECHANISM
Release Mechanisms
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1RELEASE MECHANISM
Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to assess different types of release mechanisms that are
implemented on the inmates of US and eventually evaluate which release mechanisms are
beneficial for the both the society and inmates with proper reason.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Mandatory Release......................................................................................................................4
Discretionary release...................................................................................................................4
Probation release..........................................................................................................................4
Statutory release...........................................................................................................................5
Expiration release........................................................................................................................5
Effective release mechanisms for inmates and the society..........................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
Reference list:..................................................................................................................................6

3RELEASE MECHANISM
Introduction
Considering the fact that a majority of inmates get released from prison at some point of
time, the US parole boards offer parole to prisoners to prisoners who are non hazardous to the
society. However, prolonged imprisonment and expiration release mechanism is implemented on
offenders with high recidivism rate.
Discussion
Mandatory Release
Mandatory release mechanism involves the release of an inmate before the completion of the
term of imprisonment (Ostermann & Hyatt, 2016). To avail this release mechanism, a prisoner
requires following special conditions that are laid by the parole granting authority to be released
on mandatory parole. Prisoners who are being certified by the parole board, as not being
hazardous to public safety and have lower risk of re-offending are considered to be eligible for
mandatory release.
Discretionary release
Discretionary release is given to a prisoner from incarceration before the completion of
his/her sentence, on condition of lawful behavior. The offender though released is subjected to
monitoring and supervision in the community by a parole employee until the maximum term for
which he/she has been sentenced is reached.
Probation release
Several individuals, even after being convicted of crime are kept on probation instead of
being sent to prison (Ostermann, 2015). The board allows the offenders to stay in his/her society
at probation only after they assure to stay away from troubles an meet the requirements that have
been set by the parole board.

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Statutory release
This release mechanism involves the offender to serve the final third part of their
sentence in their own society under the condition of the parole board and observation of
supervision officers.
Expiration release
Expiration release may be defined as the release mechanism where an offender is
released only after he/she has served the entire sentence. This release mechanism is generally
applied to those prisoners whom the parole board considers to be too dangerous to return to the
society under mandatory or discretionary release (Latessa & Smith, 2015).
Effective release mechanisms for inmates and the society
The recidivism of an offender is the most crucial factor to determine which release
mechanism should be implemented on him/her. While prisoners with higher tendency to
reoffend, that is, high recidivism rate should be kept under expiration release mechanisms,
individuals who have committed minor crimes and have lower recidivism rate can be kept under
mandatory or discretionary mechanism. Individuals who have committed nominal crime should
be kept under probation mechanism (Carson & Sabol 2012). According to research, an extra
month in the prison reduces the rate of an offender to return to the prison within 3years of his/her
release by 1.3 percent. On the other hand, removing the possibility of parole will affect the
offender’s prison infractions and recidivism will increase substantially. Considering the fact that
re-entrance of an offender into the society does impose an effect on the society, prisoners with
high recidivism should never be allowed to avail mandatory or statutory release mechanism,
since this will cause high risk for the residents. On the other hand, individual who have
committed nominal crimes should be allowed to avail probation release and stay in the society,
as this punishment will be enough to warn them and imprisoning for nominal cause may result in
increment of recidivism.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be clearly understood that a single release mechanism
cannot be implemented on every offenders. US Parole boards of US are effectively setting prison
times for offenders in such a way that it is imposing beneficial effects both on the prisoner as
well as for the society.

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Reference list:
Carson, E. A., & Sabol, W. J. (2012). Prisoners in 2011. NCJ, 239808, 11.
Latessa, E. J., & Smith, P. (2015). Corrections in the Community. Routledge.
Ostermann, M. (2015). How do former inmates perform in the community? A survival analysis
of rearrests, reconvictions, and technical parole violations. Crime & Delinquency, 61(2),
163-187.
Ostermann, M., & Hyatt, J. M. (2016). Is something better than nothing? The effect of short
terms of mandatory parole supervision. Justice Quarterly, 33(5), 785-810.