NCJ Number
149933
Journal
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Review Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: (First Quarter 1994) Pages: 4-7
Date Published
1994
Length
4 pages
Annotation
In this first part of a multipart article, intermediate sanctions are examined with respect to their rehabilitation potential, safety, and cost-effectiveness and found to be mixed in their effectiveness on these factors.
Abstract
In 1990, 61 percent of adult offenders each day were on some form of probation, 17 percent were in prison, 12 percent were on parole, and 9 percent were in jail. The majority of prison inmates were violent offenders, while state courts placed about 10 percent of violent offenders, 31 percent of serious property offenders, 29 percent of drug offenders, and 31 percent of other felony offenders on some form of probation. Intermediate sanction programs often contract for drug treatment services with outside agencies; drug treatment has had very limited success. It is increasingly clear that programs dealing with drug-abusing offenders must use strategies designed for offenders rather than those designed for use in the community. Routine and random urinalysis appears to reduce offenders' use of illegal drugs. Intensive probation supervision is used for about 2 percent of all probationers. Its major rationale is cost-effectiveness, as well as public safety, prison overcrowding, and increased sentencing options. House arrest and electronic monitoring are becoming increasingly popular sentencing options; evaluation studies have produced mixed results. Little published data are currently available on the use of day reporting centers. Cost data indicate that intermediate sanctions cost far less than prison or jail, but cost analyses usually fail to factor in the costs of revocations and rearrests.