Probation and Parole in Europe

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

There are huge variations in probation and parole in Europe in how often supervisory sanctions are used and in how their use relates to the use of imprisonment. Despite large expansions in the number of people under supervision, there is little or no evidence of reductions in the use of imprisonment. Supervisory sanctions take diverse legal forms and pursue diverse purposes. Organizations that deliver supervision take many forms and operate in different ways. They have varying occupational and organizational cultures and practices. Sizable literatures examine the operation, effects, and effectiveness of supervision; results are mixed. The most consistent message is that community sanctions have somewhat lower reconviction rates than short custodial sentences. Critical attention has increasingly focused on how the “pains and gains” of supervision are experienced by those supervised and those close to them. Whatever the evidence of their effects, supervisory sanctions are likely to endure. Their use reflects key European values and prison population pressures that create political, fiscal, and social problems that require “alternatives.” There is no room for complacency, however, when technological developments may be seen to offer a different kind of alternative.