NCJ Number
156750
Journal
Criminal Justice Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1991) Pages: 13,20-22,42-45
Date Published
1991
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article examines overcrowding in U.S. prisons and jails, followed by a presentation of the American Bar Associations Criminal Justice Section's Model Adult Community Corrections Act, which is proposed as a remedy to such overcrowding.
Abstract
Despite a static crime rate, the number of persons in State and Federal prisons has quadrupled since 1970, when approximately 197,000 people were behind bars. The corrections crisis, with its attendant costs and the failure to force down crime rates, has led to an increased emphasis on sentencing alternatives to incarceration. By and large, this has taken the form of community corrections sanctions. The Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association has developed a model act that contains eight critical components of a successful community corrections program. One component focuses on the selection of offender populations that can be managed in the community without institutionalization. Other components focus on local government funding for community corrections, the development of mechanisms to ensure that communities implement community corrections programs, and the use of local planning in the development of community corrections. Other components of a community corrections plan are an annual comprehensive plan for community corrections, a formula for calculating the subsidy provided by the State to the community, mandatory community corrections programs, and restrictions on the use of the State subsidy. An overview of the Model Adult Community Corrections Act is provided.