Estimating Jail Displacement for Alternative-To-Incarceration Programs in New York City, Final Report

• NCJ Number: 210215
• Author(s): Mary T. Phillips Ph.D.
• Date Published: August 2002
• Length: 89 pages
• Corporate Author: New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc
• Sale Source: New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For the executive summary of this report, see NCJ-210216.

Annotation

This study examined whether New York City's Alternative-to-Incarceration (ATI) programs for defendants charged with misdemeanors and felonies have produced reduced incarceration time for participants compared with nonparticipants convicted of similar offenses.

Abstract

By intervening with a program of community service for misdemeanants and programs that provide drug treatment, educational, and vocational services for felons, the ATI programs aim to provide an alternative to incarceration sentences or reduce incarceration length. In order to determine whether this objective is being met by the ATI program, each ATI participant was individually matched with a defendant with similar demographics and case characteristics, but who was not diverted to one of the ATI programs considered in this study. A "displacement" effect for each ATI participant was calculated by subtracting his/her incarceration time from that of the comparison case. If the comparison case received a longer jail or prison sentence than the ATI participant, time was considered displaced. Displacement effects were calculated for each of seven ATI programs designed for felony offenders and one program for repeat misdemeanor offenders. The felony dataset included participants in the 7 programs who exited between July 1, 1998, and March 31, 2000 (n=1,014 cases). The misdemeanor dataset for this same period involved 1,646 cases. All of the programs were found to exceed the displacement goals set for the programs (6 months for felons and 20 days for misdemeanants) for defendants who completed the programs, many by as much as double or triple the minimum goal. This indicates the selection procedures were effective in identifying those defendants who were facing sentences greater than the minimum targeted length. The ATIs did not usually displace any incarceration time for defendants who failed to complete the program. This suggests that efforts must be increased or modified to increase program completion rates. 15 tables, 3 figures, and appended brief descriptions of programs and matching procedures for comparison cases