NCJ Number
243202
Date Published
July 2013
Length
36 pages
Annotation
This report provides an overview of the state of community corrections, the transformational practices emerging in the field, and recommendations to policymakers.
Abstract
This report reexamines the reliance on institutional corrections, incarceration in prisons or jails, and discusses the role of community-based corrections, which include probation, parole, and pretrial supervision. This report begins with a summary of what constitutes community corrections today and what are best practices; it then describes the efforts of some States to reshape their work. States and counties are moving to shift the burden from institutional to community corrections, sending greater numbers of offenders to supervision agencies with heightened expectations of success but often without the additional resources necessary to do the job that is being asked of them, There is considerable variability within and across States in the way community corrections is organized and financed; agency responsibilities and accountability also differ. Topical discussions in this report include what community corrections is; its current state; emerging best practices; current practices that need more research; recent policy changes in community corrections; and recommendations to the field. This report also includes a discussion of practices that are attracting interest from the community corrections field, yet require additional research to determine if their intended outcomes are being achieved. 111 endnotes