Advocacy Plan for Social Change

Abstract

In the United States today, society is looking to reform criminal justice practices to bring positive social change to the community. Social work has one primary objective: to create a better society, community, nation, and world, specifically the work of the probation officer. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky stated, “A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals.” Based on that standard, the United States is not a good society. This paper advocates for policy change in how the government deals with offenders while on probation, which must be conducted to allow more significant opportunities for offenders to become productive community members. Probation is a second chance to become a productive member of society, and as social workers, we need to facilitate that opportunity.