Probation is the most common form of criminal sentencing in the United States. It is generally defined as a court-ordered disposition alternative through which a convicted offender is placed under the supervision and control of a probation officer instead of being incarcerated (Petersilia ôPart One,ö 1998, p. 1). The idea of probation was first conceived of by a Boston shoe cobbler named John Augustus. In 1841, Augustus persuaded the Boston Police Court to grant him custody of an adult drunkard rather than put the man in jail (MAPCO, n.p.). Augustus successfully reformed the drunkard and thereafter convinced the court to release other offenders into his supervision.
Even as early as the mid-1800s, however, this alternative form of punishment was controversial. The Minnesota Association of County Probation Officers (MAPCO) notes that the police, court clerks, and jailers all resisted AugustusÆ effort. Nonetheless, in 1878, Massachusetts became the first state to create an official statewide probation system with salaried officers (MAPCO, n.p.). Today, every state in the nation and many countries who model their corrections systems on the United States include probation as an integral part of their systems (MACPO, n.p.).
In 1995, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that just over 3 million adults were supervised under some form of probation. This number made up 58 percent of all adults in the correctional system (Petersilia ôPart One,ö 1998, p. 1). Also, in 1998, statistics demonstrated that criminal justice systems spent an average of only $200 - $700 per year per probationer on supervision (Petersilia ôPart Two,ö 1998, p. 3). However, Joan Petersilia notes that probation is still a subject of intense criticism. Many correctional experts and politicians believe that probation gives the image that the system is ôsoft on crimeö and too much focused on the rehabilitative ideal of punishment rather than ôth...