NCJ Number
80475
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1981) Pages: 3-14
Date Published
1981
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The development of the PACT (Prisoner and Community Together) Community Service Restitution Program (CSR) is described, and results of various evaluations are presented, followed by a presentation of general guidelines for developing a CSR program.
Abstract
The CSR program provides that offenders who would otherwise have been jailed perform service to the community for a specified period without pay. The primary intention of the program is to provide a sanction that will be used as an alternative to jail; any rehabilitation effects are secondary. The primary problem foreseen in the implementation of a CSR program is that it will be used by the courts as an additional means of social control rather than as an alternative to existing patterns of jail sentences. The PACT CSR program, initially established in four northern Indiana cities, sought to avoid this misuse of the program by requiring that the offender be given the option of performing community service only after having received a jail sentence, but prior to serving time. Further, the program uses the formula of 6 hours of community service for each day of the jail sentence. While various independent evaluations showed the PACT CSR program to be operating effectively, a staff reexamination of the program shows that, at best, only 50 percent of the offenders receiving a community service sentence would have actually served time in jail or prison. Apparently, judges were giving jail sentences, later converted to CSR orders, to persons who would formerly have received lesser sentences. In order to counter this trend, the CSR program began limiting clients to offenders involved in serious cases showing a history of a high probability of incarceration. Class B and C misdemeanors would no longer be accepted as cases for CSR. Over the short term, this strategy appears to be successful in providing further reduction in inmate populations. Seventeen guiding principles for CSR programs are suggested. Thirty-eight footnotes are listed.