Define community corrections and identify the goals and responsibilities of community corrections agencies and their staffs.
Although community corrections programs are very diverse across the nation, the common feature of those programs is that they provide supervision and treatment services for offenders outside jails and prisons. The dual emphasis on supervision and treatment creates a potential role conflict for community corrections staff. There is some indication, however, that the traditional focus on treatment has been declining relative to the growing emphasis on supervision.
Define probation and summarize the research findings on recidivism rates.
The most commonly used type of community sentence is probation. Offenders placed on probation are supervised and provided with various services in the community instead of being incarcerated. In return, they are required to abide by the rules of the probation sentence. Overall, studies indicate that probation is about as effective as incarceration in controlling recidivism. Available data indicate that recidivism is quite high among felons sentenced to probation. Furthermore, research has not found a strong association between probation officers' caseloads and the likelihood of probationer recidivism. If anything, reduced caseloads seem to increase the probability that instances of recidivism will be detected.
Distinguish parole from probation.
Unlike probation, parole is not a court-imposed sentence. Parole is a mechanism of releasing persons from prison and a means of supervising them after release, instead of an alternative to an incarceration sentence. Parole supervision is often confused with probation because the two share many similarities. Four major objectives of parole agencies are to: (1) preserve community safety by supervising the behavior of parolees; (2) promote the betterment of parolees by responding to their treatment needs; (3) control prison crowding; and (4) control the behavior of prison inmates by providing early release opportunities in exchange for good prison conduct.
Explain the functions of a parole board.
In general, a parole board directs a jurisdiction's parole policies and manages the parole release and termination processes. Parole board members (or their representatives) conduct parole-grant hearings to determine which inmates should receive early release from prison. Boards also determine whether to revoke the parole of persons who have violated parole conditions. In most states, field service agencies are administratively independent of parole boards. A field service agency provides community supervision and treatment services for persons who have been granted parole release by the board and makes recommendations to the board concerning termination of parole.
Describe how intermediate sanctions differ from traditional community corrections programs.
Compared with traditional programs in community corrections, intermediate sanctions are oriented less toward rehabilitation and more toward retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. They are more punitive and more restrictive. The recent popularity of intermediate sanctions is attributable largely to the record high levels of prison crowding that plague many jurisdictions and a corresponding need to devise acceptable alternatives to imprisonment.
Explain two major concerns about intensive-supervision probation and parole (ISP).
Two major concerns about ISP are (1) the potential for net-widening, and (2) the lack of demonstrated reduction of recidivism. Net-widening occurs when offenders placed in a novel program such as ISP are not the offenders for whom the program was intended. The consequence is that those in the program receive more severe sanctions than they would have received had the new program been unavailable. Studies show that ISP is associated with a substantially higher percentage of technical violations than alternative sanctions such as regular probation, prison, or regular parole.
Explain what day reporting centers and structured fines are.
Day reporting centers allow offenders to live at home but require them to report to the center regularly to confer with center staff about supervision and treatment matters. Program components commonly focus on work, education, counseling, and community service. Structured fines, or day fines, differ fundamentally from the fines (called tariff fines) more typically imposed by American criminal courts. Whereas tariff fines require a single fixed amount of money, or an amount within a narrow range, to be paid by all defendants convicted of a particular crime, without regard to their financial circumstances, structured fines, or day fines, are based on defendants' ability to pay. The basic premise of structured fines is that punishment by a fine should be proportionate to the seriousness of the offense and should have a roughly similar economic impact on persons with differing financial resources who are convicted of the same offense.
Explain what home confinement and electronic monitoring are.
In home confinement programs (also known as home incarceration, home detention, and house arrest), offenders are required by the court to remain in their homes except for preapproved periods of absence. Electronic monitoring, which is generally coupled with home confinement, allows an offender's whereabouts to be gauged through the use of computer technology.
Identify the goal of halfway houses and compare them with other community corrections programs.
The goal of halfway houses is to provide offenders with a temporary (for instance, 6-month) period of highly structured and supportive living so that they will be better prepared to function independently in the community upon discharge. To this end, most programs place a heavy emphasis on addressing offenders' educational and employment deficits. Research clearly suggests that a large number of offenders placed in halfway houses do not successfully complete their programs. However, those who do receive successful discharges seem less likely to commit new crimes than those who do not. Yet, there is little reason to believe that halfway houses are associated with less recidivism than other community corrections programs.
Summarize the purposes and outcomes of temporary-release programs.
By allowing incarcerated persons to temporarily leave their facilities to participate in approved activities in the community, temporary-release programs are intended to foster ties between inmates and their communities, thus gradually preparing inmates for return to society. These programs also give officials a way to judge the readiness of inmates for release, and since most inmates want to participate in temporary release, the programs give inmates an incentive to maintain good institutional behavior. Although fear and other forms of resistance from community members often plague the programs, there is evidence that participation in temporary release is associated with a decreased likelihood of recidivism upon release from incarceration. Some common types of temporary release include work release, study release, and furlough.
