NCJ Number
139348
Date Published
1991
Length
116 pages
Annotation
This study examined the regimes of 21 British probation hostels to determine whether or not the characteristics of the offenders sentenced to each regime varied according to regime characteristics.
Abstract
Probation hostels are community-based residential facilities designed to provide closer supervision of probationers than is possible under traditional probationary supervision. Probation hostels are considered by their supporters as alternatives to imprisonment; it is assumed by many corrections professionals that unless probation hostels provide strict, even harsh, regimes they will not be chosen by the courts as a sentencing alternative to imprisonment. In examining this assumption, the study identified the characteristics of the regimes of a number of hostels. The regimes studied were determined to fall into three general categories: "Restrictive" regimes had tight, even punitive, regulations designed to greatly restrict residents' freedom and comfort; the "middle-of-the-road" hostels maintain a more relaxed, traditional routine akin to customary probationary supervision; the "liberal" regime rejects most controlling mechanisms as infringements of residents' autonomy and a threat to the emergence of more responsible behaviors. The study did not find that the more serious offenders were placed in restrictive regimes and the less serious offenders were sentenced to liberal regimes. Apparently the sentencing courts have given little consideration to the types of regimes under which offenders will fulfill their sentences in probation hostels. 36 notes, 32-item bibliography, 49 tables, and appended study forms