NCJ Number
82772
Journal
Judges' Journal Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1982) Pages: 48-54
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The project director for the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives describes the center's Client Specific Planning (CSP) program, which provides courts with individualized sentencing plans for offenders that reflect an emphasis on restitution, deterrence, and rehabilitation.
Abstract
The program is designed to overcome common sentencing problems, including selectiveness of information given judges, lack of detailed client information, and time pressures under which judges operate. The program focuses on deterrence through certainty of a specific sanction, restitution through community service work, and, if possible, avoidance of incarceration through use of work release, split sentences, and other short-term residential arrangements. CSP targets felons so that jail populations will be affected. Program staff meet extensively with clients, their attorneys, community resource representatives, and other involved parties before preparing and formally presenting sentencing plans. They appear at all sentencing hearings and testify about the plan's merits if requested to do so. Although the court retains final authority regarding the sentence and its length, hours of community service, and amount of financial restitution, the majority of plans presented between October 1979 and May 1981 were accepted, and the majority of affected clients have or are fulfilling their sentence requirements. The plans usually cover living arrangements, employment, psychological treatment, drug surveillance, education, vocational training, medical treatment, supervision, reporting, and other special conditions. Examples of two client plans and a description of the program's procedures are provided.