NCJ Number
111955
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 51 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1987) Pages: 12-21
Date Published
1987
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Pragmatic concerns with prison overcrowding, correctional costs, and penal control of offenders have contributed to the development of a wide array of noninstitutional penal options.
Abstract
The new wave of intermediate sanctions had included house arrest, electronic surveillance, day treatment centers, boot camp programs, and shock incarceration. Debate over particular sanctions has focused attention on questions of cost, public acceptance, political support, and crime control effects. To the extent that values and principles have been brought into discussions of sanctioning options, reliance has been placed on minimum standards that punishment must not be cruel, or unusual, or fundamentally unfair. While these principles are necessary, they are not sufficient to ensure a just and morally esteemable system. Rather, a deference to liberty interests should govern consideration of general sanctioning policies and individual sanctions. The least drastic, least intrusive option that will satisfy legitimate purposes is to be preferred. An examination of house arrest and electronic surveillance in the context of a typology of sanctions indicates that it involves physical, economic, informational, privacy, legal, and political sanctions. Such sanctions illustrate an alarming trend in probation and parole away from caring toward expanding the repressive powers of the State. 19 footnotes and 1 table.