NCJ Number
146430
Date Published
1993
Length
117 pages
Annotation
This report examines the South Carolina Restitution Center Program (RCP) from July 1990 through June 30, 1992, and is a follow-up evaluation of the State Reorganization Commission's November 1991 evaluation of this program.
Abstract
Following a description of the RCP's operation, the evaluation report focuses on how well the RCP achieved its primary goal of diverting appropriate offenders from prison cost effectively. The report then examines the program's effectiveness in habilitating its participants through an analysis of their recidivism. The RCP was created in 1986 under Section 5 of the Omnibus Criminal Justice Improvements Act of 1986. The rationale for the program was that some nonviolent offenders may be better served in a restitution program, where the residents of the center can be employed and repay their victims and society for their offenses rather than be incarcerated. The legislation envisioned that several restitution centers would be built in different regions of the State, so that offenders in the program could keep their current employment and maintain ties with family friends, and communities. Offenders may be committed to a restitution center for a nonviolent offense in which the sentence is suspended and as a condition of probation, as a revocation of probation, or as a condition of parole. The term of placement at a center is not more than 6 months nor less than 3 months. Based on available court and program data, this evaluation found, as did the previous evaluation, that the RCP is not being used as an effective alternative to prison. It is, instead, "widening the net of social control" by placing addition constraints on offenders who would have received a nonprison sanction. The failure rate of the program is high (44.4 percent recidivism). This failure rate is an increase from the previous evaluation. 38 tables, 29 figures, and appended supplementary information