NCJ Number
165255
Date Published
1996
Length
23 pages
Annotation
Community corrections programs are reviewed with respect to State models, the comparative costs of incarceration and selected community corrections programs, the development of community corrections in California, and evaluation findings regarding basic alternative sanction programs.
Abstract
Eight States had enacted comprehensive Community Correction Acts that create a network of correctional programs for specific types of offenders. California and 10 other States have enacted limited community correctional programs. The most frequently used alternative sanction programs include intensive supervision programs, day reporting centers, house arrest and home confinement, shock incarceration programs, electronic monitoring, community residential restitution centers, and residential drug treatment centers. A study of intensive supervision in three States revealed that it failed to relieve prison overcrowding, did not affect recidivism, and cost more than originally planned. Day reporting centers cost from $10 to $70 per month, depending on the level of services provided. A multistate evaluation of shock incarceration reported to NIJ revealed that three States' programs result in lower recidivism rates than comparison groups; failures are more often for technical parole violations than for new crime violations. Electronic monitoring has not been extensively evaluated, but an Oregon study revealed that low-level drug offenders diverted from jails to monitoring programs had lower recidivism than a control group supervised by standard methods. Successful drug treatment programs are personnel-intensive, highly structured, and costly. Reference notes