Overseas Experience of Intermittent Custody and Temporary Restriction of Liberty (From Periodic Restriction of Liberty, P 56-63, 1985, Roger Shaw and Rita Hutchison, eds. - See NCJ-101459)

• NCJ Number: 101464
• Author(s): P Cavadino
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: University of Cambridge
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

A review of the systems of intermittent custody used in The Netherlands, Belgium, and New Zealand concludes that only New Zealand's use of daytime detention on Saturdays offers any potential for application in the United Kingdom.

Abstract

Site visits to The Netherlands and Belgium and a review of information from New Zealand formed the basis of the analysis. In The Netherlands, weekend imprisonment is available only to offenders with sentences of 2 weeks or less and who request it. Belgium has offered both weekend imprisonment and semidetention since 1963. Prisoners serving semidetention leave the prison in the morning and return at night. The use of both alternatives has declined as unemployment has increased. Cost and the view that a series of weekends is a more severe punishment than 2 weeks in prison are the main drawbacks of weekend imprisonment. New Zealand is expanding nonresidential periodic detention, which requires 8 hours of Saturday attendance at a center conducting community service work and run by the probation service. This type of program has not been included in British proposals for intermittent sentences, but it should be. A discussion of this conference presentation focuses on net-widening and the need to define the sentencing goal clearly.