What Are The Advantages And Cons Of Community Corrections

In the early 1990’s, negative perceptions of the prison system brought about the “Nothing Works” doctrine, which argued that rehabilitation programs are a waste of the public’s time and money when concerning criminal behavior. Therefore, the Nothing-Works doctrine was the beginning, and brought about the truth-in-sentencing laws that were enacted to reduce the possibility of early release from prison. The primary goal of the truth-in-sentencing laws was focused on retribution and was implemented to provide tougher punishment with the hopes of reducing crime rates (Foster, 2006). Unfortunately, the guidelines set forth interoperate the amount of time offenders will serve while eliminating the opportunity for early release afforded through goodtime …show more content…
For example, community correction lowers the taxpayer’s burden to incarcerate prisoners. According to Foster, (2006), imprisonment cost twenty-five times that of putting an offender on probation under community corrections. In some jurisdictions, taxpayers do not pay anything under community corrections because they require the probationer to pay for their own costs to be supervised (Stoher et al., 2009, p. 346). In fact, South Carolina operates an effective and intensive day reporting programs at a cost of $6.39 per day, which offers education, drug treatment, counseling, life and jobs skills programs (Nieto, 1996). According to Neito & Jung (2008), the cost to monitor a sex offender with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology in Florida is $10 a day, and that cost will decrease as technology becomes more common on an economic scale. As a consequence, the high costs associated with imprisoning offenders should be focused on serious violent offenders than those committing non-violent …show more content…
This happens because of the separation and lack of family ties and the label of being an ex-con, which makes it more difficult for the offender to obtain sufficient employment to reintegrate back into society (Stohr et al., 2009). Therefore, when one feels everything is lost, it is much easier to give up and return to the prison system. Under the community corrections concept, the offender is provided with the opportunity to take advantage of community programs while giving back to their community by making offenders take responsibility through restitution, community services, and court fees. These programs allow the offender the opportunity to provide for their families while proving to society that they can become a more structured and law-abiding