In 1984, the Sentencing
Reform Act abolished the Federal Parole System and replaced it with the
Federal Supervised Release System. Though the Federal
Supervised Release System was supposed to serve the same rehabilitative
function for offenders as the parole system, supervised release has led to many
negative
consequences for offenders. Instead of serving as a system promoting
offender rehabilitation as Congress intended, the supervised release system has
actually served as more of a leash, pulling offenders right back into prison.
Under the previous parole
system, a defendant would be sentenced to a term of imprisonment and after
serving the minimum sentence for his prison term, a parole board would
determine whether the defendant was ready for release. When the inmate was
released from jail on parole, a parole officer would then monitor him or her in
the community. The effect of the parole system was that the individual was
serving a portion of his or her jail time out in the community under
supervision. It seemed reasonable that if one were let out of jail early, that
there would be some type of supervision of the individual while out in the
community completing his sentence.
