Perceived Effectiveness of Probation System under Pakistani Criminal Justice Administration: Evidence-based Study from Parole & Probation Department, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The probation system, as a functional part of criminal justice administration, deals with low-risk offenders to rehabilitate and bring them into mainstream socio-cultural and family life. The probation system provides opportunities to convicted offenders conditionally and releases them under the supervision of a probation officer. This empirical highlighted the importance and effectiveness of the probation system and its impacts on probationers. The primary data was collected from probationers who had experience imprisonment before probation order from ten districts of Punjab province. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, and results revealed that the probationers who were ex-prisoners perceived the probation period very positively, with significant impacts on their physical, psychological, and social life. The probation system was found effective in the process of rehabilitation of offenders under criminal justice administration. Therefore, the offenders incarcerated for minor offenses may be released on probation orders instead of constructing new prisons.