NCJ Number
132782
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1991) Pages: 481-505
Date Published
1991
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Current "social war" criminal justice policies lack rational planning, have led to the current state of prison overcrowding and fiscal crises, and have expanded the scope of correctional control. However, proposals to rectify these problems through greater reliance on community corrections are more costly than commonly believed.
Abstract
Scope (restrictive-expansive) and purpose (punitive-rehabilitative) are independent dimensions of correctional policy which together comprise the overall goals of that policy. Explicit consideration of the scope and purpose of corrections is necessary for the evaluation of the costs of correctional crowding. An adequate assessment of the correctional system must address not only the size of the prison population, but also its rate of growth. However, the problem of overcrowding extends to the entire system of correctional control including community based corrections, intermediate sanctions, and probation and parole services. Because large transfers of inmates to community corrections would require higher levels of supervision, the cost savings over traditional institutionalization would rapidly diminish. Correctional policy decisionmakers need to consider sanctioning alternatives. These authors propose a sanctions budget which would require judges to spend sanctions from a fixed schedule of sanction levels and types; "overspending" would require demonstration of exceptional need and legislative authorization of additional funding. The sanctions budget would require choices among cost-effective policies based on available resources, intermediate sanctions, and explicit correctional objectives. 2 tables, 2 notes, and 81 references (Author abstract modified)