In attempts to ensure that the society remains free from crimes and the offenders are brought to justice effectively, there have been established various different kinds of laws that keep society in order. Two of such laws that are widely practiced in attempts to minimize crimes and to detain offenders are probation and parole.
Probation is a law according to which a person who has made an offence against the law is not detained in a prison but is rather released into the society for a specific period of time in order to give him or her an opportunity to show good behavior expected of him or her (The Free Dictionary, 2016). The purpose is to test whether the person shows signs that he or she has learned from their mistakes and are willing to give up on their offending habits. Similarly, parole is a law according to which a person is released from detention earlier than the sentence as a result of good behavior and character depicted by that person (The Free Dictionary, 2016). According to this law, the offender gets released either permanently or temporarily into the society and earns most of the rights that a normal citizen has. Sometimes, however, there is a limitation of that person to stay within a specified geographic area while servicing the time of parole.
The similarity between the two laws is that they are both made for the same reason, that is to appreciate a positive change in the behavior of the former offenders. If the offenders show good characters then they are released from jail earlier than the expiry of their sentence in case of parole with some conditions for them to follow, in the case of probation, the offenders who have moderately serious crimes are allowed to roam free and are put under check of authorities
The dissimilarity between the two is that in the case of parole, an offender is released from prison after having served some time inside first. This can range from a few weeks to several years, but it is an early release because of showing good character after all. On the contrary, in the case of probation, the offender is never put in jail at the first place but is given a second chance to prove that he or she deserves to be out of jail. Normally, probation is imposed on the offenders with not very serious crimes. These offenders can be people who cause trouble to their neighbors frequently or are frequently recorded to be violating traffic laws and road safety laws i.e. expiry of three strikes.
The offenders that are released on parole are normally bitten more serious offenders than probated ones. Still, offenders of murder and rape are usually not considered eligible for release on parole. Those involved in physical damage to health and property, however, can be released under this law. Both these laws are effective for their own purposes; sometimes it is important for people to be made realized about how they have violated the law and the society by putting them in jail for some time so that they witness its hardship. This is where parole is effective. Sometimes, for low scale offenders, it can be dangerous to expose them to the jail environment both for their physical and mental safety, this is where probation is more effective.
References
The Free Dictionary (2016). Probation. Available at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/probation
The Free Dictionary (2016). Probation. Available at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/parole
Criminal Law Advice (2016). The difference between probation and parole – Criminal Law. Available at http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal- law/parole_probation/probation_parole_pardon.htm
