NCJ Number
79196
Date Published
1981
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The Oregon Community Corrections Act (CCA) is discribed and compared to the Minnesota model, and findings are reported from the first evaluation of the act.
Abstract
In 1975, the Oregon Division of Corrections faced its most severe prison overcrowding crisis in decades. The Oregon legislature followed the recommendations of a task force and adopted one of the Nation's most complete community corrections incentive programs in 1977. The act included all the significant features of the Minnesota act, including a State subsidy for county programs, the creation of local community corrections advisory boards, the initiation of locally administered community corrections systems, and a 'chargeback' penalty when a county sends an 'inappropriate' offender to a State institution. Oregon's most significant departure form the Minnesota model is the Oregon CCA provision for three distinct levels of participation by the counties, in order to encourage counties to become involved at some level which they deem appropriate under their particular circumstances. The first Oregon evaluation of the CCA was considerably less exhaustive than Minnesota's, in which researchers had analyzed 6 years of data. The Oregon evaluation compiled descriptive information for 1977, the year before the act took effect, and 1979, a year when most of the counties now participating in the act had at least 6 months experience with it. An analysis of court dispositions of the class of felons deemed appropriate for community sanctions indicated that six fully participating counties had sent significantly fewer of these felons to State prison in 1979 than in 1977, and the use of probation and 'split sentences' had increased dramatically. The evaluation projected that State commitments from the fully participating counties would have increased without the act, as would have incarceration in local jails. Overall, the CCA is considered a cost-effective policy.