NCJ Number
111954
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 51 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1987) Pages: 8-11
Date Published
1987
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Priorities among the various goals of criminal justice sanctions, which determine the nature of community corrections, have changed radically in the past 15 years and have altered the amount and location of discretion in probation.
Abstract
From 1920 to 1970, emphasis of sanctions was on treatment and rehabilitation, and discretion was broad. From 1970 to 1980, a focus on just deserts reduced the exercise of discretion in sentencing and in discretionary release and devalued the worth of community supervision. In the 1980's, concern with incapacitation contributed to the development of intensive surveillance and supervison and electronic monitoring. Discretion became viewed as inevitable, and guidelines were developed to structure discretionary decisions. These trends have had a special effect on community supervision programs and will influence probation practices over the next decade. There is growing pressure to ensure that presentence information, probation conditions, and supervision have a direct relationship to sentencing goals. Emphasis on risk control will encourage the development and use of valid risk assessment scales in decisionmaking. There will be more variety in supervision levels and caseload size, and there will be a greater emphasis on enforcement than treatment. Demands for accountability will result in greater specificity in probation objectives, which, in turn, will necessitate the development of more sophisticated information systems for planning and decisionmaking.