Transcript Current State of Community Corrections

Corrections:
Wassup with that?
What is Corrections?
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Agencies and programs that carry out the
sentence of the court
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Institutional Corrections = prisons/jails
Community Corrections
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Front End Sanctions
Back End Programs
Community Corrections
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Front End Sanctions = Alternative to
Prison/Jail Senteces
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Probation
Intermediate Sanctions
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Boot Camps, Electronic Monitoring, Intensive
Supervision
Back End Programs = Reintegrate
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Parole Supervision
Halfway Houses
A Brief History of Corrections
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Until the late 1960s:
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Rehabilitation was the Guiding Mission of
Corrections (at least on paper)
Community Corrections was centerpiece
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Indeterminate Sentences, Probation, Parole
Rehabilitation attacked and largely killed in
the early 1970s
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Why?
Results?
Cromwell et al.
“Paradoxically, correctional
policy shifts according to
public perceptions, which are
primarily influence by the
media, no by the realities of
corrections”
Social Context and Ideology in late 1960s
and early 1970s
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Conservatives:
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Value stability, hate “disorder”
Mistrust rehabilitation as “coddling criminals”
Particularly riled up in the 1960s
Liberals:
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Value equality/fairness
Enraged by the “government” in the 1960s
Rehabilitation as another government failure
Liberals and Conservatives agree
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Abolish parole, institute determinate sentences,
implement sentencing guidelines
Only issue: length of sentences
1980s ushered in a conservative era in U.S.
politics
Legislative results?
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Sentencing guidelines with harsh sentences
3 strikes, mandatory minimum sentences
The “War on Drugs”
Whither Community Corrections
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What is the role of Community Corrections in
a “get tough era?”
Joan Petersilia
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C.C. suffers from an “image problem” and is
therefore under-funded
Particularly troublesome, given:
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¾ of corrections population is in community
Over ½ of these folks are felons
What Works?…
In a traditional sense
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Does a C.C. program reduce recidivism?
Does a C.C. program divert people from
prison (and therefore save $)?
Is a C.C. program “punishment?”
Joan Petersilia
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Should recidivism be used as a criteria?
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If so, should we focus on post-program behavior?
If so, is all recidivism “bad?”
C.C. programs should “count” other stuff:
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Contacts with offenders
% placed in treatment
The Future of Community Corrections
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The Limits of “Control in the Community”
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Zero tolerance programs, high-surveillance
Boot Camps, ISPs, Electronic Monitoring
New Directions
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Community based supervision
Restorative Justice
Judicial Involvement/Drug Courts