Discourses of Mass Probation: From Managing Risk to Ending Human Warehousing in Michigan

Abstract

Over the past decade, some Western countries have begun to re-embrace the language of rehabilitation and calls for penal moderation. Risk logics—which undergirded the rise of mass incarceration in the U.S.—are now being repurposed to call for decarceration. Yet while risk played a key role in the transformation from modern to post-modern punishment, its development remains poorly understood. This article explores the discourses and practices of risk from the 1970s through to 2014 in one U.S. state (Michigan). The analyses focus on probation, the primary alternative to prison. The results show that risk discourses and practices emerged in the 1970s as a mode of resistance to the prison boom and have been adapted in each subsequent decade to address state governing crises.

Risk and punishment: The recent history and uncertain future of actuarial, algorithmic, and “evidence‐based” penal techniques

“…In line with this, research has documented that the adoption of actuarial risk instruments does not necessarily correspond with a movement away from a rehabilitative or case‐based approach (Kemshall, ; Kemshall & McGuire, ; Kemshall, Parton, & Walsh, ; Leacock & Sparks, ; Lynch, ; L. Miller, ; Robinson, , ; Simon, ). Recent scholarship suggests that, rather than the replacement of rehabilitation with risk management, penal practices merge or braid together different logics and goals (e.g., rehabilitation, retribution, risk containment/incapacitation) in response to varied, and changing, institutional agendas (Hutchinson, ; Maurutto & Hannah‐Moffat, ; O'Malley, ; Phelps, ; see also Rubin, ). In this way, it is clear that risk “is always shaped and given effect by specific social and political rationalities and environments” (O'Malley, , p. 326).…”

“…Miller, 2001;Robinson, 1999Robinson, , 2002Simon, 1996). Recent scholarship suggests that, rather than the replacement of rehabilitation with risk management, penal practices merge or braid together different logics and goals (e.g., rehabilitation, retribution, risk containment/incapacitation) in response to varied, and changing, institutional agendas (Hutchinson, 2006;Maurutto & Hannah-Moffat, 2005;O'Malley, 2000;Phelps, 2017; see also Rubin, 2016). In this way, it is clear that risk "is always shaped and given effect by specific social and political rationalities and environments" (O'Malley, 2004, p. 326).…”

“…For instance, risk tools guide or even determine an array of criminal justice practices and decisions, such as pretrial detention, consideration for diversion programs, prison security level, the provision of correctional services, and case plans and supervision levels within probation and parole (Andrews et al, 2006;Desmaris & Singh, 2013;Goodman, 2008;Hannah-Moffat, 2010Hörnqvist, 2010;Kehl et al, 2017;Kemshall, 2011;Kerrison, 2018;R. J. Miller, 2014;O'Malley, 2010;Phelps, 2017;Quirouette, 2017;Rudes, Viglione, & Meyer, 2016;Taxman & Caudy, 2015).…”

Community Sanctions as Pervasive Punishment: A Review Essay

“…However, apart from the significant contributions by Chan and Zdenkowski (1986aZdenkowski ( , 1986b, and Freiberg and Ross's (1999) overview of the history of penalties in Victoria, Australian research has rarely considered the field of community sanctions as a whole. There is no work like that of Phelps (2013Phelps ( , 2017aPhelps ( , 2017b analysing the history of both imprisonment rates and community corrections rates across the Australian states and territories. Thus, we are poorly placed to trace the different trajectories and trends across the states and territories and IJCJ&SD 193 www.crimejusticejournal.com 2020 9(2) investigate the local institutional, political, cultural and legal histories of contestation that have produced differences (Tubex et al 2015).…”

Anticipation of Probation Implementation as the Type of Sentence in the Draft of Indonesian Penal Code

“…According to Michelle S. Phelps, probation is a costeffective alternative to prisons. [15] In the current Penal Code, there is an alternative for the implementation of imprisonment or confinement called suspended sentence. Meanwhile, to ease the implementation of sentencing after serving a prison sentence, it is conditional acquittance/ parole.…”