NCJ Number
177933
Journal
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: 1999 Pages: 5-22
Date Published
1999
Length
18 pages
Annotation
After a brief overview of the multiplicity and diversity of the criminal justice systems in America, this article summarizes the evaluation findings for various types of community-based corrections.
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Justice has supported a series of evaluations of a wide range of newly developed community penalties (generally called "intermediate punishments"). The evaluated programs include house arrest, electronic monitoring, intensively supervised probation, mandatory drug treatment, community service, day-reporting centers, restitution centers, and day fines. Another body of evaluations has examined boot camps. For the most part, the evaluation literature raises doubts about the effectiveness of community penalties in achieving the goals touted by their promoters. This does not mean there are no effective community-based programs. Relatively few have been evaluated, and many of these have been altered in accordance with evaluation recommendations. The evaluation literature does not "prove" that community-based programs cannot succeed, but rather that many have not succeeded for various reasons. This article devotes some space to each community penalty and emphasizes the more substantial evaluations and literature reviews. Overall, it appears that for offenders who do not present an unacceptable risk of violence, well-managed community penalties offer a cost- effective way to keep them in the community at less cost than imprisonment and with no worse prospect for recidivism. Community penalties are unlikely to have widespread use in the United States as alternatives to prison unless sentencing theories and policies become more expansive and move away from oversimplified conceptions about proportionality in punishment. 58 references