NCJ Number
139140
Editor(s)
J M Byrne,
A J Lurigio,
J Petersilia
Date Published
1992
Length
367 pages
Annotation
Intermediate sanctions were developed for offenders whose crimes were not serious enough for incarceration, but who merited a punishment harsher than ordinary probation. The stated objectives of intermediate sanctions are to provide cost-effective alternatives to incarceration, deter offenders, protect the community, and rehabilitate offenders. Detractors claim that intermediate sanctions also create an appearance of correctional reform, institute a mechanism for reclaiming limited resources for parole and probation, and provide administrators with a response to the more punitive orientation of the public.
Abstract
The 20 chapters contained in this volume describe specific intermediate sanction programs and discuss issues, controversies, and future considerations. The first section focuses on intensive probation supervision (IPS), first placing IPS programs in historical context and then assessing the effectiveness of an IPS program for drug-involved offenders in terms of recidivism, program participation, and system costs. The second section focuses on home confinement and electronic monitoring. The types and features of commonly used electronic monitoring systems are outlined, and an evaluation of a demonstration project for drug offenders is summarized. The third section examines shock incarceration programs, describing common program features and critically presenting existing evaluative data. Other approaches to intermediate sanctions are discussed including day fines, day reporting centers, residential community correction programs, and community service orders. Some of the controversies surrounding the increasing use of intermediate sanctions touch upon their net-widening effect, their use in terms of female offenders, the development of intermediate sanctions at the Federal level, and the effectiveness issue. Two chapters discuss the future of intermediate sanctions. Chapter references