Community Corrections in Kansas: Extending Community-Based Corrections or Widening the Net?

• NCJ Number: 122331
• Journal: Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1990) Pages: 79-101
• Author(s): P R Jones
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 23 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In this period of prison overcrowding, several States have passed community corrections acts (CCAs).

Abstract

All such programs include the diversion of prison-bound offenders into the community, despite the recognition that community corrections needs are wider than simply providing an alternative to incarceration. However, recent correctional evaluation literature has noted that many "diversionary" programs have repeatedly and disturbingly failed to target the appropriate clients. In many cases, community-based programs have become probation adjuncts rather than incarceration alternatives, thereby widening the social control net. Findings from an evaluation of the Kansas CCA indicate that such "net-widening" is not an inevitable result of alternative programs and that without the CCA, prison overcrowding problems in Kansas would have been much worse. 7 tables, 6 figures, 1 appendix, 27 notes, 22 references. (Author abstract modified)