NCJ Number
146190
Date Published
1992
Length
38 pages
Annotation
The Sentencing Project was requested by the Director of Probation in Ulster County, New York, to conduct a site visit, assess the effectiveness of various community corrections and alternatives to incarceration programs which had been initiated since 1989, and advise the county on program development.
Abstract
Recommendations were made on the basis of interviews with 40 local criminal justice and public officials including the sheriff, county judge, town justice, prosecutor, public defender, legislators, probation staff, mental health staff, and personnel at all alternative sentencing programs. Program recommendations aimed at further reducing the county's jail population included improving the defender-based advocate program, modifying operations of the conditional release program, expanding community service sentencing programs, expanding the community corrections program to accommodate more women offenders, increasing the use of pretrial release when appropriate, providing transportation services for offenders in the day reporting center, imposing day fines, and establishing a victim-offender reconciliation program. Other policy and system recommendations included continuing efforts to coordinate criminal justice, developing a jail overcrowding contingency plan, increasing the use of community-based punishments for drunk drivers, utilizing "tourniquet sentencing" for probation violators, determining appropriate policy revisions permitting additional releases, addressing racial disparity issues, reconsidering the use of bail as a means of assuring public safety, and increasing the use of appearance tickets as an alternative to arrest. 2 appendixes