Probation discussion response
1. Intermediate punishments are used as a more severe punishment. While also allowing the individual to not be incarcerated behind bars. The purpose of these punishments is to allow for more space to be open in jails for more severe cases. As well as save money by not having an individual be in jail. I believe the best form of punishment depends on the case. If an individual was arrested on drug charges, perhaps their punishment should be completing a drug abuse course. While also passing drug tests.

2. Intermediate sanctions are criminal penalties that do not include jail time or probation. Rather, intermediate sanctions fall in the middle of these types of punishments and offer an alternative to them. Intermediate sanctions are intended to provide judges with more flexibility when directing sentences (Intermediate Sanctions: Definition, Types, Pros & Cons, 2017). According to Abadinsky (2015), the stated explanation for intermediate punishments is a classical emphasis matching the sanction to the offense, while the actual purpose is to reduce incarceration. Some types of Intermediate sanctions include but are not limited to the following: House arrest, fines, close monitoring, community service, electronic monitoring, and living in a monitored residential community. In my opinion, I do not think one punishment is better or more practical than the other and I believe that to determine that it depends on the severity of the crime that had been committed by the offender.

3. Intermediate punishments are punishments that do not require jail time and there is an alternative offered to prison. This form of punishment is beneficial for many reasons. For one, it creates more space in jail so that there is room for individuals that committed more severe cases. By not sending these individuals to jail, there is a very large amount of money that is saved as well. I believe that there is not a single form of punishment that can be applied for every case. I think that punishment should be determined on a case by case basis. No two cases are the same. There is always going to be different ways that the crime happened, different motivations for the crime happening and different details of each crime. Therefore, there isn’t one specific punishment that can apply for every single crime.

4. Intermediate punishments are in between probation and prison. Two common examples are day reporting and electronic monitoring (Abadinsky, 2015). The idea behind intermediate punishments is to provide a scale for punishments to better suit all individuals rather than those on the lower end of criminality and those on the upper end. Intermediate punishments are able to effectively and fairly provide punishment for those in the middle that may not be at the level of prison but deserve more than probation. Being that there are more than one type of crime, there should be more than one type of punishment. With that being said, for crimes that do not hurt others, like non-violent drug offenses, then the individual’s punishment should be positive, to help them better themselves and get them back on the right track. Then, if an individual commits a crime that may hurt another, they should have a mixture of punishment, and positivity. Lastly, if the individual shows to be relentless in their endeavors to hurt or even kill others, they should receive the punishment, with very little positivity.

5. Intermediate punishments are half and half. This includes incarceration and parole. Intermediate punishments allows for offenders to be released due to overcrowding. Intermediate punishments holds purpose in many different aspects. The punishment I find to be more practical is being incarcerated. This gives the feeling of a lack of freedom which can give offenders time to turn their life around.