NCJ Number
119942
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 51 Issue: 6 Dated: (October 1989) Pages: 82,84,86-88
Date Published
1989
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article points out that prison crowding is forcing communities to develop alternative criminal sanctions for petty offenders and nonviolent felons.
Abstract
Prisons are now so crowded that they can hold only the most dangerous offenders. Alternatives to incarceration must be found for lesser criminals and must fit the crime, be sufficiently unpleasant to deter criminals and make them an example to the community, and protect the community in real and credible ways. The time has come for community-based corrections and for programs that utilize probation and police cooperative action, probation and prosecution cooperative action, intensive supervision, electronic surveillance, and narcotics and drug deterrence. Other community alternatives include work furlough programs, probationer violation and restitution residential centers, day reporting centers, and paid intensively supervised work crews. Community alternatives are more expensive than traditional probation, but they are much less expensive than incarceration. Legislatures will not endorse the alternatives, however, if the public believes that the only real sanction for crime is incarceration.