Rapid Prototyping Systems

1. Chapter 5 Intermediate Sanctions

2. Intermediate Sanctions • Alternatives to incarceration • Operated by probation/parole agencies • No need to create new bureaucracies • More punitive than traditional community supervision • Most are cheaper than imprisonment • Community-based treatment more effective

3. Logic of Intermediate Sanctions • Increase incapacitation, retribution, deterrence • Increase offenders’ sense of responsibility via demands for employment, self-discipline • More treatment and educational resources available in community – higher success rates • Restitution more easily provided • Avoid the negative influences of the prison • Less cost; more space for serious offenders

4. Graduated Sanctions • Punishment/intrusiveness of community supervision increased slowly if offender fails to cooperate • Reduces recidivism, revocation, at least among drug offenders • Increasingly popular

5. Types of Sanctions Limited only by official creativity, initiative Front door: Prior to prison Back door: Early release from prison • Restitution/community xervice • Intensive supervision • Home confinement/electronic monitoring • Ignition interlock systems

6. Types of Sanctions (continued) • Day reporting centers • Transitional facilities • Split sentences • Correctional bootcamps • Therapeutic communities • The only alternative sanction oriented primarily to “treatment”

7. Restitution andCommunity Service • Required for over 30% of probationers • Most common alternative sanction • Repopularized by victims, restorative justice • Can be combined with mediation • Restitution centers: semi–secure dormitories with transportation to job sites • Community service used when society is victim

8. Perpetual Incarceration Machine • Increased emphasis on fees, fines, restitution • Popular demands for retribution • Dominance of new penology’s cost-efficient orientation • Increases frustration, failure among impoverished offenders

9. Intensive Supervision Programs (ISPs) • Designed for high-risk offenders • 2–4 times more monthly contacts with parole officer • Increases revocation/recidivism rates through greater scrutiny • Most effective when combined with intensive counseling • Usually employed for punishment, public safety

10. Home Confinement and Electronic Monitoring • Technology enforces strict curfew • Work, therapy, basic errands only • No adverse impacts on mental health • Weekly schedule approved by officer • Monitoring usually via phone by private contractor • Quality varies with contractor, client selection

11. Ignition Interlock Systems • Used with drunk driving offenders • Checks alcohol content of breath before car can be started • Random checks after car is put in gear with some units • Usually supplied by private contractors • Usually paid for by offender

12. Day Reporting Centers • Structured, monitored environment for unemployed offenders • Service (job counselors, educators, therapists) visit or work at center • Offenders leave only for medical care,job interviews • Use limited by location problems

13. Transitional Facilities • Halfway Houses • Non-secure facility • Living quarters and use of phone • Work Release Centers • Less secure than minimum security prison • Both provide control intermediate between prison and parole

14. Split Sentences or Shock Probation • Brief incarceration followed intensive supervision in community • Seeks deterrence without adverse effects of imprisonment • Costly, little impact on recidivism • Often utilize bootcamps

15. Correctional Boot Camps • Modeled on military, stress discipline • Success → ISP Failure → Prison • Popular with public and politicians • No effect on recidivism unless treatment emphasis is added • Costlier than prison • Many problems with physical, sexual abuse

16. Therapeutic Communities • Residential treatment facilities • Intensive, use variety of therapies • Most common for drug/alcohol offenders • High drop-out rate but recidivism rare among graduates • Length of treatment critical to success rate • Costs roughly equal prison but stay often shorter

17. Effectiveness ofIntermediate Sanctions • Each sanction addresses different goals • Cost efficiency requires use with offenders who would otherwise be imprisoned • Most common use is to make community supervision more punitive • This addresses demands for greater retribution but is not cost efficient

18. Dangers ofIntermediate Sanctions • Growing “culture of surveillance” • Americans already the most closely monitored people in world • Expanding the net of social control • The easier it is to supervise people, the more people placed under supervision • A financial and moral issue

19. Dangers (continued) • Discriminatory use • Net widening impacts least powerful • Wealthy more able to avoid prison • Control enhanced at expense of treatment • Impact on third parties • Risk reduction versus cost management • Opportunity costs: would resources be better used in other ways?