Jail Displacement for ATI Programs

• NCJ Number: 202829
• Author(s): Mary T. Phillips Ph.D.
• Date Published: December 2002
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: This report is No. 1 in the CJA Research Brief series.

Annotation

This paper presents findings from a study designed to determine how eight New York City Alternative-to-Incarceration programs fared in displacing incarceration.

Abstract

Alternative-to-Incarceration (ATI) programs are intended to reduce time that many defendants would otherwise spend in jail or prison. There are differing ATI programs for misdemeanor offenders and felony offenders. Misdemeanor offenders are offered a community service program and felony offenders are offered drug treatment, education, and vocational training programs, allowing them to live in the community under supervision. The overall question addressed in this paper is whether the programs are succeeding in meeting their goal or are the programs full of individuals who would not have had to serve any jail or prison time anyway. Are the programs an alternative to incarceration or do they provide the courts with a sentence alternative to probation or even dismissal? This paper presents the results of a study designed to find out how eight ATI programs (one misdemeanor program and seven felony programs) in New York City have done in displacing jail or prison time. The study sample included all participants in the eight ATI programs who exited the program between July 1998 and March 2000. The final data file contained 1,646 misdemeanor cases and 1,014 felony cases. The ATI program participant was matched with a defendant whose case and demographic characteristics were similar in every way. The difference between the two sentences, the one the ATI participant received and the one given the comparison defendant was the amount of jail time displaced by the program. The results indicate that the ATI programs examined did displace incarceration for many of their clients. For New York City, the programs met and even exceeded the displacement goals set by the City. However, it was also found that there was no jail time displaced for more than half of the defendants in both the misdemeanor and the felony programs. Understanding the factors that affect displacement helps programs maximize their impact and reduce the number of defendants for whom no jail time is displaced.