NCJ Number
105068
Editor(s)
L F Travis
Date Published
1985
Length
206 pages
Annotation
These 11 readings examine the history of community corrections in the United States, the legal and organizational constraints affecting it, and issues and empirical research relating to its goals, treatment approaches, client and staff perceptions, and effectiveness.
Abstract
A historical overview notes the varying philosophies over time regarding the concept of community and the degree of punitiveness that corrections should involve. Analyses of the context in which community corrections programs operate note the need for managers to focus on broad managerial issues as well as day-to-day operations and identify the ways in which legislation and court decisions have reduced their discretion. Discussions of the purposes of community-based corrections conclude that community correctional programs can be as effective as other penalties in punishing offenders and that intensive supervision as an alternative to incarceration can achieve major cost savings without appreciable added risks to the community. Examinations of the perceptions of the people involved in community corrections (1) note the frustrations of staff and their desire for professionalization and (2) explore how knowledge of staff characteristics and of offenders' desires for support or for autonomy can form the basis of decisions regarding matches of clients and supervisors. Papers on treatment approaches emphasize the need for risk and needs assessment and the matching of treatments to needs and explain the role of halfway houses. Concluding papers focus on research about program effectiveness and argue that (1) current data indicate the need for further research and experimentation with parole supervision and (2) community corrections, taken as a whole, is much cheaper and at least as effective as incarceration. The final paper argues that community corrections should be the dominant correctional approach in the future. Data tables, chapter references, and introduction overview.