Chapter Nine Intermediate Sanctions and Community Corrections

Learning Objectives Describe the rationale for nonincarceration penalties. Describe the rationale for intermediate sanctions. Illustrate the continuum-of-sanctions concept. Explain some of the problems associated with intermediate sanctions. List the various types of intermediate sanctions and who administers them.

Learning Objectives Describe what it takes to make intermediate sanctions work. Assess the role of the new correctional professional. Explain how community corrections legislation works and describe its effectiveness. Critically assess the future of probation, intermediate sanctions, and community corrections.

Learning Objective 1 Describe the rationale for nonincarceration penalties.

Nonincarceration Enormous cost of imprisonment Other reasons: Imprisonment is too restrictive for many offenders Traditional probation does not work with most offenders Justice is well served by having options in between

Unnecessary Imprisonment Most sanctions in Western democracies do not involve imprisonment For every offender in prison, 3 are on probation or parole. Because sanctions that do not involve prison are a worldwide phenomenon it makes little sense to think of them as a lack of punishment. Prison not effective in most cases Public sentiment is shifting away from imprisonment

Probation Limitations Probation may not work with serious offenders. Intermediate sanctions can improve supervision in 2 ways: Can intensify supervision Can provide specialized programs better suited to address the offender’s needs

Improvements in Justice Limited sentencing choices Intermediate sanctions allow a closer tailoring of the punishment to the offender’s situation. When an offender breaks probation or parole rules a response is needed to maintain the credibility of the rules. Each offender is different and intermediate sanctions provide the greatest justice for many.

Learning Objective 2 Describe the rationale for intermediate sanctions.

Rationale Continuum of sanctions: A range of correctional management strategies based on the degree of intrusiveness and control over the offender along which an offender is moved according to his or her response to correctional programs. Probation, Fines, Boot Camps, and Jail are some of the many sanctions available along this spectrum.

Learning Objective 3 Illustrate the continuum-of-sanctions concept.

Continuum of Sanctions Advantages: Increases correctional system’s flexibility Decreases prison and jail overcrowding by moving selected offenders to less-restrictive options Allows more-responsive management of individual offenders If a person is not reporting, a brief home confinement can be followed by a return to probation Costs less than other alternatives

Learning Objective 4 Explain some of the problems associated with intermediate sanctions.

Problems Selecting agencies: Selecting offenders: Correctional agency administrators argue they should administer sanctions: Critics say these agencies cannot support midrange activities Selecting offenders: Stakes: The potential losses to victims and to the system if offenders fail; stakes include injury from violent crimes and public pressure resulting from negative publicity. With some offenders the stakes of committing additional crimes are too high to select for intermediate sanctions.

Problems Widening the net: Potentially the most damaging Implementing intermediate sanctions has 3 consequences: Wider nets Stronger nets Different nets

Learning Objective 5 List the various types of intermediate sanctions and who administers them.

Judiciary Pretrial diversion (typically target petty drug offenders, and involve treatment) Fines: Day fine: A criminal penalty based on the amount of income an offender earns in a day’s work. Forfeiture: Government seizure of property and other assets derived from or used in criminal activity.

Judiciary Community service and restitution: Community service: Compensation for injury to society by the performance of service in the community. Restitution: Compensation for financial, physical, or emotional loss caused by an offender, in the form of either payment of money to the victim or to a public fund for crime victims, as stipulated by the court. Both of the above alternatives are based on the assumption an offender can atone for his/her offense by paying back society in some way.

Probation Departments Day reporting (treatment) centers: Probation center: Residential facility where persistent probation violators are sent for short periods. Restitution center: Facility where probationers who fall behind in restitution are sent to make payments on their debt. Intensive supervision probation (ISP): Probation granted under conditions of strict reporting to a probation officer with a limited caseload.

Probation Departments Home confinement: Sentence whereby offenders serve terms of incarceration in their own homes. Electronic monitoring Two types of electric monitoring devices exist. Passive Monitors- Respond only to inquires. Active Devices- Continuously signal where the offender is.

Correctional Departments Shock incarceration: A short period of incarceration followed by a sentence reduction. Is controversial because it combines undesirable aspects of both prison and probation. Boot camp: A physically rigorous, disciplined, and demanding regimen emphasizing conditioning, education, and job training. Designed for young offenders. Most studies indicate that boot camps are not effective

Learning Objective 6 Describe what it takes to make intermediate sanctions work.

Success Sanctions to be successful must be carefully planned and implemented Potential obstacles: Sentencing philosophies and practices Offender selection criteria Surveillance and control methods

Sentencing Issues Most important issue Principle of Interchangeability: The idea that different forms of intermediate sanctions can be calibrated to make them equivalent as punishments despite their differences in approach. For Example: 2 weeks of jail is seen as equivalent to 2 months of home confinement . Punishments are described as units for the sake of interchangeability.

Offender Issues The target group: Intermediate sanctions have 2 general goals: Serve as a less-costly alternative to prison Provide a more-effective alternative to probation Wrong target group Applied to non-prison cases Low risk clients Problems of bias- Significant bias exists with regard to race, sex and age of offenders.

Surveillance and Control Tough aspects of intermediate sanctions may not be totally positive. Widening the net Costs of stricter measure outweighs the benefits Deterrence minded individuals believe that surveillance deters crime by making offenders less willing to commit a crime, and by catching active criminals earlier in their recidivism.

Figure 9.2 cost of incarceration and intermediate sanctions in four states

Learning Objective 7 Assess the role of the new correctional professional.

New Professional Three major shifts in the working environment: Nongovernmental organizations have emerged to administer community corrections programs. Increased emphasis on accountability has reduced individual discretion. Relationship between the professional and the client has become less important than the principles of the criminal justice system that underlie the relationship.

Learning Objective 8 Explain how community corrections legislation works and describe its effectiveness.

Legislation Reducing reliance on prison: Local justice systems have little incentive to keep their own offenders in local corrections. Funded by state tax revenues Centralized, state-administered punishments seem to be more expensive than local corrections.

Legislation Evaluation of community corrections legislation: Three aims: To reduce the rate and number of people sentenced to state correctional facilities To reduce tax revenues spent on corrections by transferring both the costs and the funding to less-expensive local correctional facilities To reduce prison populations

Learning Objective 9 Critically assess the future of probation, intermediate sanctions, and community corrections.

Future Three recurrent problems: Some way must be found to overcome the seemingly immutable tendency of the CJ system to resist placing in less-restrictive options and to keep increasing the level of corrections. Community support must increase Purposes of sanctions must be clarified