It is not a secret that correctional facilities and jails are overcrowded with offenders who have committed serious felonies, and even those still awaiting their trial. There are correctional alternatives that are currently being implemented to combat these concerns. It will soon be apparent whether these modern alternatives have steered our correctional systems back on track to cure this overcrowding problem.
Correctional alternative techniques are used on whoever’s left over after the “nothing-else-works approach”, or selective incapacitation, which identifies and maintains high-risk offenders in prison. Modernizing these alternatives derived from evolving philosophies that were designed to combat prison overcrowding by shortening prison …show more content…
If an individual does not comply with the conditions, he or she risks becoming incarcerated. Some conditions could include: day reporting, home confinement electronic monitoring, restitution, community service, and/or treatment programs. According to BJS Statisticians, “approximately 1 in 52 adults in the United States were under community supervision at yearend 2014.” (Bonczar, Kaeble, & Maruschak, 2015) Probation can supplement short-incarceration, and it can vary by jurisdiction and severity of the crime committed. There are two different terms that are associated with short-incarceration, however, both produce basically the same outcome: shock probation and split sentencing. Shock probation, which is typically used with first time offenders, is where the offender is originally sentenced to incarceration, and is set to be resentenced after a set amount of time, presuming that the time spent would “shock” the offender into changing his or her way. However, in split sentencing, the offender will not appear before a judge after the original sentencing because probation was already ordered. Split sentencing could also be a sentence that is not served in a continuous period, for example serving time on the weekend and working during the week. Although supervision of an offender is only a start of the …show more content…
Moving the offenders has put less stress on the higher-security institutions resulting in a more humane environment. Reassigning offenders allows opportunities to open up for offenders that need to be reassigned to a higher level of security. For example, if an offender has shown that he or she has progressed in adjusting to life in a medium-security institution, and they have been reassessed, moving them down to a lower security institution opens up a bed for a potential transfer. This also affects the offender because he or she feels rewarded, or a sense of achievement by earning a reassignment. Reassigning to a lower security level also opens up the opportunity for extra duty-related assignments, and ultimately costs the American taxpayers less. It also opens up greater resources toward the offender’s rehabilitation.
In closing, the overcrowding of institutions has triggered a massive restructuring of our correctional and jail facilities. There are modern correctional alternatives in place to reduce the overcrowding and reestablishment of a more humane environment. Also discussed were the affects of these alternatives on both the offender and the institutions. It will only be a matter of time before overcrowding subsides, and day-to-day operations go back to
Correctional alternative techniques are used on whoever’s left over after the “nothing-else-works approach”, or selective incapacitation, which identifies and maintains high-risk offenders in prison. Modernizing these alternatives derived from evolving philosophies that were designed to combat prison overcrowding by shortening prison …show more content…
If an individual does not comply with the conditions, he or she risks becoming incarcerated. Some conditions could include: day reporting, home confinement electronic monitoring, restitution, community service, and/or treatment programs. According to BJS Statisticians, “approximately 1 in 52 adults in the United States were under community supervision at yearend 2014.” (Bonczar, Kaeble, & Maruschak, 2015) Probation can supplement short-incarceration, and it can vary by jurisdiction and severity of the crime committed. There are two different terms that are associated with short-incarceration, however, both produce basically the same outcome: shock probation and split sentencing. Shock probation, which is typically used with first time offenders, is where the offender is originally sentenced to incarceration, and is set to be resentenced after a set amount of time, presuming that the time spent would “shock” the offender into changing his or her way. However, in split sentencing, the offender will not appear before a judge after the original sentencing because probation was already ordered. Split sentencing could also be a sentence that is not served in a continuous period, for example serving time on the weekend and working during the week. Although supervision of an offender is only a start of the …show more content…
Moving the offenders has put less stress on the higher-security institutions resulting in a more humane environment. Reassigning offenders allows opportunities to open up for offenders that need to be reassigned to a higher level of security. For example, if an offender has shown that he or she has progressed in adjusting to life in a medium-security institution, and they have been reassessed, moving them down to a lower security institution opens up a bed for a potential transfer. This also affects the offender because he or she feels rewarded, or a sense of achievement by earning a reassignment. Reassigning to a lower security level also opens up the opportunity for extra duty-related assignments, and ultimately costs the American taxpayers less. It also opens up greater resources toward the offender’s rehabilitation.
In closing, the overcrowding of institutions has triggered a massive restructuring of our correctional and jail facilities. There are modern correctional alternatives in place to reduce the overcrowding and reestablishment of a more humane environment. Also discussed were the affects of these alternatives on both the offender and the institutions. It will only be a matter of time before overcrowding subsides, and day-to-day operations go back to