Punishment and Control in Community Supervision (From Correctional Theory and Practice, P 31-42, 1992, Clayton A Hartjen and Edward E Rhine, eds. -- See NCJ-135949)

• NCJ Number: 135951
• Author(s): T R Clear
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Nelson-Hall Publishers
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This analysis of community supervision concludes that policies are needed to structure the practice of setting conditions for community supervision, because the current lack of a consistent rationale leads to two different and unsatisfactory approaches.

Abstract

Two general approaches are currently used in selecting the supervision that will apply to a given offender. In their most extreme forms, they can be called the Sufficient Model and the Necessary Model. The Sufficient Model results in a large number of conditions. However, expecting such a large number of conditions to be enforced is unreasonable. As a result, supervision officers must use great discretion, and noncompliance with conditions has almost no consequences. In contrast, the Necessary Model requires an individualized set of conditions, based on the idea that each condition must be strategically necessary for a particular offender. However, this approach often results in disparate decisions regarding conditions. Most community agencies use elements of both models. The presentence reports written by 20 experienced probation officers in training demonstrate the wide disparities that result. Thus, a policy is needed that limits the number of conditions, the rationale for each of them, how they should be enforced, and how their establishment by probation officers should be reviewed. Tables and 15 references