NCJ Number
98933
Date Published
Unknown
Length
100 pages
Annotation
After outlining strategies for reducing prison admissions and shortening the average prison stay so as to reduce prison overcrowding, this paper proposes sampling selection criteria for profiling offenders as a basis for examining how various types of offenders are currently sentenced in Oregon.
Abstract
Strategies for reducing prison admissions include diverting newly convicted offenders to sentencing options other than imprisonment and reducing the number of parole and probation violators imprisoned by excluding incarceration for technical violations. Strategies for reducing the average length of stay in prison are reduction in initial prison sentences, earlier parole, and the use of 'good time' to shorten sentences. Profile information on prisoners currently incarcerated and on admission and release cohorts can provide baseline descriptive data on present practices and can facilitate forecasting the impacts of changes in these practices. The four primary offender populations which should be profiled are prisoners, parolees, probationers, and jail inmates. These groups can be profiled in two ways: sampling those who enter or leave a given population over a specified time period (cohort analysis) or sampling a cross section of a given population at a single point in time. The paper charts the types of data which should be obtained for each of the four offender populations.