NCJ Number
172124
Journal
Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Dated: (1996-97) Pages: 367-384
Date Published
1997
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This case study of intermediate punishment explores the origins, operations, and outcomes of a correctional reform in a major metropolitan county in Florida and demonstrates how the motivations and activities of several control agents influenced this process.
Abstract
The correctional reform consisted of an organizational unification of a county jail and community-based sanctions to establish an intermediate punishment system containing a continuum of sanctions. The core components of the intermediate punishment system came to include the jail, probation, alternative community service, work release, home confinement, and day reporting programs. The system has received national and State attention and has been recognized as a prototype system. The research was conducted over a 5-year period and collected data from a variety of sources. Results revealed that this reform effort was associated with a piling up of sanctions. This piling up is both an intended and an unintended operational feature. It exposes offenders to a number of punitive and rehabilitative controls and often leads to violations and return to the correctional system. Interpreting the findings regarding this reform and other reform processes requires the use of several frameworks, including organizational, political economy, and professional ideology. In particular, Cohen's concept of deposits is useful in describing the relationships that underlie the reform process. The research also demonstrated the inherent complexities of the reform process. It also indicated that multiple factors shape the reform process and that the component parts of the process cannot be fully understood separately from one another. Figure, tables, and 18 reference notes (Author abstract modified)