Transcript A Decade of Experimenting with Intermediate Sanctions

A Decade of Experimenting with
Intermediate Sanctions:
What Have We Learned?
Joan Petersilia, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine
Why Look Back Now?
• ISP’s have run their natural progression
– enthusiasm  program design  evaluation  redesign
or abandonment
• All scholarly research carries practical and
political implications
– We should spell those out ourselves rather than leaving
it to others
– The idea that academics should remain “above the fray”
only gives ideologues license to misuse our work.
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Questions to Be Addressed
• What did the ISP experiment consist of?
– Who did what, with whom, for what purpose?
• What did the evaluations show?
– offender recidivism, costs, prison crowding
• Most importantly, how is this knowledge guiding
current practice?
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Defining Intermediate Sanctions
• Mid-range punishments that lie between prison
and routine probation
– intensive supervision, house arrest, electronic
monitoring, drug testing, boot camps, day reporting
centers
• No agreed-upon definition, simply means more
community supervision than the person would
have gotten in the absence of the ISP. Great
variety of programs.
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Conclusions
• ISP experiment was--in numbers and dollars
invested--more symbolic than substantive;
• But what WAS done revealed consistent findings
about how programs MUST be redesigned for
effectiveness;
• Those findings are core to the emerging
“community justice” model in corrections.
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Why Did ISP’s Emerge?
• South faced prison crowding in 1980; Georgia developed
intensive probation
– They showed 5% recidivism, full employment, and significant cost
savings
– Much publicity, other States followed
• RAND showed probation for felons in California
threatened public safety
– recommended ISP’s for prison and probation crowding
• Morris and Tonry book provided conceptual framework,
argued ISPs needed in principle for rational sentencing
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Federal, State, and Private Foundations
Helped Focus This Energy
• DOJ held national conference, Attorney General
Thornberg endorsed ISPs
• Edna McConnell Clark funded State-Centered
Projects
• NIJ, NIC, BJA cooperated in national
demonstration, research, training, technical
assistance
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1985-95 Years of ISP
Implementation and Evaluation
• Every large probation and parole agency
implemented intensive supervision, electronic
monitoring, house arrest, drug testing
– Most states also developed boot camps
– Many developed day reporting centers
– Some instituted day fine programs
• Dozens of books, articles, evaluations published
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But Few Offenders Participated and
Few Dollars Were Spent
• Fewer than 6% of 3 million adult probationers and
parolees (P/P) on ISP
• 1% of P/P on electronic monitoring
• <10,000 total participants in boot camps
• <15,000 total participants in day reporting
• Estimate Less Than 10% of P/P ever on ISPs.
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Intensity of Services, Surveillance, and
CJS Response Seldom Matched Model
• Most of the planned treatment never got delivered
• Contact levels were about 2/month, instead of
8/month
• Few violations were acted upon
– jail space limited, judges didn’t prioritize ISP
– Langan found that, nationally, 50% of probationers
were discharged without completing court-ordered
conditions. “ISPs not rigorously enforced.”
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Dollars and Priorities
Were Inadequate
• Federal funds for research and demonstration
<$10 million total over the decade
• NIJ’s budget at all-time low
• corrections budgets strained, affected jail and prison beds
• treatment programs: demand up, funds shrinking, p/p low
priority
• Results might have been different with greater
resources and systemwide focus
• e.g., more treatment, ability to respond to violations, serve
warrants
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Evaluation Findings Consistent
Across Sites & Programs
• 1) ISP participants were not prison-bound but mostly highrisk probationers;
• 2) ISP’s were more watched closely
– rearrests did not decrease
– technical violations increased
– commitments to jail or prison increased
• 3) But, offenders who DID receive treatment PLUS
surveillance had lower (10-20%) recidivism. Recent metaanalysis confirms.
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Is ISP Evidence Is Being Used?
• Yes, to Redesign Programs
– OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy
• California’s $50 million Challenge Demonstration
– Kleiman’s Coerced Abstinence Proposal
– Governor’s Task Force in Wisconsin
– Boot Camps, ISPs, and Drug Testing
• Combine Surveillance + Treatment + Appropriate
Response
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ISP’s Legacy Is Contributing to
“Community Justice” Models
• As P/P moved towards “tough supervision,” police were
moving towards “softer” policing. Both involved
proactive community building.
– Community meetings revealed resident’s fear of probationers and
parolees
– Police could use p/p officers for their knowledge of hot spots, hot
offenders, and legal authority concerning p/p conditions and
warrants
– ISP officers emerged as key players in community policing efforts
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Boston’s Operation Night Light
• Formal Police/Probation Partnership
– Praised by President Clinton in State of the Union address
– Initial strategy to reduce gang violence spreading to other crimes and
locations
• Police and probation officers go out together, make home visits and corner
stops to “non-compliant” probationers, serve warrants, enforce conditions
• With police help, probation becomes 24-hour a day reality
• Word is getting out that probation “counts”--judges supportive
– But it is more than surveillance
• Team meetings now include clergy, parents, schools
• Incorporate treatment and prevention programs, summer jobs
• Spreading across the nation
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ISP Programs Helped Send the
Message….
• No one program, no one agency, can reduce crime.
– Crime is multi-faceted, and singularly focused
interventions don’t work.
– Long term solutions probably come from community
partnerships and not just offender restraint.
• We learn this lesson repeatedly, but if ISP
experiments lend scientific evidence to this muchneeded message, the money will have been
exceedingly well spent.
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