NCJ Number
161495
Date Published
Unknown
Length
43 pages
Annotation
Programs to reduce the demand for detention beds by providing alternatives to incarceration in Yellowstone, Stillwater, and Carbon counties in Montana are described with respect to their operation, outcomes, successes, problems, and prospects for replication in other jurisdictions.
Abstract
The three rural counties began their programs several years apart and have defined and redefined their objectives and needs over the years. The alternatives included community service, pretrial screening, house arrest or electronic monitoring, a jail work program, community supervision, domestic assault intervention, victim offender restitution, work release from a halfway house, counseling for adolescents convicted under laws regarding underage alcohol possession, and deferred prosecution. The evaluation revealed that issues that must be confronted in the implementation process include personnel resistance to change, widening of the net of social control, public perceptions, indigency, and noncompliance. However, the alternatives provide sufficient diversity that any community can implement an alternatives plan. Appended program budgets