NCJ Number
137639
Date Published
1991
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examines the fiscal and policy implications of California's reliance on incarceration to handle technical parole violators (PV-RTC's).
Abstract
In 1989, 39,976 PV-RTC's were returned to custody in California. These violators accounted for approximately half of the inmates received at California institutions that year. The projections of PV-RTC's for 1991 approach 45,000. The next two largest prison systems in the Nation, New York and Texas, had only 6,043 and 1,328 PV-RTC's, respectively. On a macroeconomic level, using the California Department of Corrections annual per inmate prison costs ($20,562 annually), the 39,976 parole violators incarcerated in 1989 cost the State $360 million. Additional costs come as overcrowded prisons must hire more guards and staff to maintain a semblance of order. The answer to the costly parole-violator problem is the provision of both a continuum of community-based options for violators and effective prerelease services. The current corrections system virtually guarantees recidivism and reincarceration by ignoring rehabilitation and emphasizing incapacitation instead of education. The inadequate prerelease programming in the institutions guarantees eventual parole failure. 2 figures and 1 table