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Community-Based Sanctions
“....
community-based sanctions used as alternatives to incarceration are
a good investment in public safety. Compared with incarceration,
they do not result in higher rates of criminal behavior and, thus,
public harm; in fact, they were clearly associated with lower
recidivism rates for matched groups of offenders.”
— The Effectiveness of Community Based
Sanctions in Reducing Recidivism, the Oregon Department of
Corrections, 2002
In Michigan,
as elsewhere, most of the money allocated for “corrections”, goes to
operate prisons. Few resources are left for community-based
programs. Yet, for the right offender, community-based sanctions
are more cost-effective than long incarceration.
Community-based sanctions have a number of advantages:
•
They
are flexible. Programs can be combined with each other and with
jail terms to produce a mixture that is appropriately targeted at
the behavior of particular offenders.
•
They
punish in a way that requires more responsibility and
decision-making than a prison sentence. An offender is required to
complete relevant programs; get and hold a job; pay court costs,
restitution and fines; attend counseling; and deal with the choices
presented by the real world instead of an artificial environment in
which others make all the decisions.
•
They
are less expensive than incarceration and they leave offenders in a
position to help pay their own way.
•
They
free up scarce prison cells for the truly dangerous offender.
A wide range
of community-based sanctions is being used throughout the United
States and many have been found successful in reducing recidivism.
At the very least, they do not increase the risk of recidivism any
more than incarceration.
Some of the
most common community-based sanctions are briefly described below.
Costs vary by location and specific program content.
Probation
Residential Centers
These centers
provide a structured setting in which offenders can learn job
skills, deal with substance abuse, get counseling, find a job and
learn money management before living on their own. Along the
continuum of sanctions, they fall just under prison and jail and
just above intensive supervision. They provide a wide range of
services and linkages to other community resources, including
substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, and employment
and training programs.
In 2000,
Michigan had 29 residential treatment center programs statewide,
ranging in capacity from 3 to 217. Collectively, they had an
average daily population of 945 - less than an average sized prison.
Funding for that year was $14,797,487. Subsequent cuts reduced that
amount, but the Governor’s proposed budget would restore funding for
centers to $15 million. Michigan reimburses approved programs at a
rate of $43 a day. The average length of stay is 90 days and the
limit is 150 (down from the previous limit of 180 days).
Day Reporting
Offenders report daily to a center that provides mental health
counseling, job training and substance abuse treatment. Regimens
vary from the simplest supervision to complex programming, depending
on local funding.
The cost usually includes an intake assessment of about $35. The
daily costs depend on the amount of in-kind services provided by
community agencies such as community mental health. At a minimum,
day reporting costs about $4 a day for basic services.
A Utah day reporting program evaluated by researchers at the
University of Utah found that subjects displayed a statistically
significant reduction in alcohol and drug use, property crime
offenses, and overall criminal charges during the first year
subsequent to receiving services. The services were equally
effective with clients regardless of their probation or parole
status, prior incarceration, or source of referral to the program.
See:
http://www.justice.utah.gov/Research/Adult/Adult Day Reporting
Center Eval.pdf
Substance Abuse Treatment
As the public increasingly perceives addiction as a medical problem,
treatment has gained acceptance as the solution for those who abuse
alcohol and drugs. Legislative testimony by the Association for
Licensed Substance Abuse Organizations at appropriations hearings
for the Michigan Department of Corrections in February 2003,
described numerous research projects that demonstrate that treatment
works to reduce substance abuse and lower recidivism. For instance:
• An Ohio study reports that treatment for criminal offenders
provided cost offsets of three to seven times the cost of treatment,
and criminal justice involvement dropped from 60 percent the year
before treatment to 19 percent the year after treatment.
• A Delaware study shows that 71 percent of drug-involved offenders
who participated in a continuum of treatment, both in prison and in
the community, were arrest-free 18 months later compared to 30
percent of a comparison group that received no treatment.· An Oregon
study concluded that every dollar spent on treatment saved $5.60 for
prisons, welfare and other expenses.
• The 1997 Drug Treatment Outcomes Study found a 69% reduction in
weekly heroin use and the probability of being in prison dropped
from 69% the year before treatment to 25% in the year after
treatment.
• A five-year study of low risk chronically addicted felony
offenders in New York found that the participants, who averaged 17
months of treatment, were 67% less likely to return to prison than
their untreated counterparts. These results were achieved at half
the cost of incarceration.
Drug Courts
The drug court model has proven so successful as a means of
addressing substance abusing offenders that it has been widely
adopted throughout the country. In Michigan, the Governor’s proposed
budget for FY 2004 doubles the appropriation for drug courts from $3
million to $6 million.
Drug courts (and sobriety courts for alcohol abusers) are special
purpose dockets within a county’s judicial system. These courts
handle the cases of addicted offenders who have committed less
serious crimes. Drug court judges and court staff are trained to
provide an effective mixture of supervision and treatment. These
programs include frequent drug testing, regular reporting to the
court as well as probation officers, drug treatment, educational
opportunities and the use of sanctions and incentives. Participants
who relapse may face short stints in jail. Those who fail altogether
may face prison. Those who succeed receive substantial positive
reinforcement, including formal graduation ceremonies.
National studies show that drug use and criminal behavior are
substantially reduced while clients are participating in a drug
court program. Criminal behavior is lower after program
participation, especially for graduates. They generate cost savings,
at least in the short term, from reduced jail/prison use, reduced
criminality and lower criminal justice system costs of $10 for every
$1 spent on drug court. (See the National Drug Court Institute:
www.ndci.org/courtfacts.htm)
A study of the pioneering Kalamazoo Drug Court shows that of the
women who successfully completed the program, 87 percent had no
subsequent convictions within three years of successful program
completion. Of the men who successfully completed the program, 89%
had no subsequent convictions within three years. In Michigan the
cost for drug courts can be about $1,750 for men, $1,900 for women
and $2,800 for juveniles annually. The average length of stay in the
program is 20 months.
Because of its success, attempts are being made to adapt the drug
court model to other uses. Pilot programs are being conducted to
test the feasibility of mental health courts for mentally ill
offenders, and re-entry courts for parolees.
Community Service
Convicted offenders are placed in unpaid positions with nonprofit or
tax supported agencies to serve a specified number of hours doing
work or service within a given time frame as a sentencing option or
condition of probation. The cost to taxpayers is minimal.
There are many advantages to community service:
• Value of probationer’s service to the community agency
• Therapeutic effects on a probationer such as atonement for misdeed
• Exposure to the work environment
• Symbolic compensation to the community
• Reduction in probation supervision caseload
A recent Oregon Department of Corrections study showed that this
sanction is the most underused in the United States even though it
is inexpensive to administer, produces public value and can be
scaled to the seriousness of the crime. In national studies,
recidivism following a community service sanction is no higher than
recidivism following incarceration, which is much more expensive.
See:
http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dcj/Effectiveness_of_Sanctions_version2.pdf
Community-Based Mental Health Services
A 1999 U.S. Department of Justice study estimated that more than 16
percent of those held in state and local jails across the country
were mentally ill.
In Michigan, about 3,500 state prisoners are considered
seriously mentally ill and are under the care of professionals from
the Department of Community Health (7 percent of the 50,000
prisoners in 2004). Most are in treatment programs
inside Michigan prisons. An untold number of mentally ill men and
women are housed in county jails.
More community-based mental health treatment programs could help
prevent the tragedy of incarcerating mentally ill persons, and more
programs designed to help mentally ill parolees could be effective
in reducing the state’s prison population.
One approach that has been found to be successful is called
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) designed to provide
comprehensive community-based services to people with serious mental
illness (SMI). Experts report that ACT is a good approach for people
with SMI who have recently left institutions, typically do not
schedule or keep appointments, or do not do well without a lot of
support. ACT programs (one of which operates in Michigan) use a
variety of treatment and rehabilitation practices, including
medications; behaviorally oriented skill teaching; crisis
intervention; support, education, and skill teaching for family
members; supportive therapy; cognitive-behavioral therapy; group
treatment; and supported employment. Studies have found that ACT may
be associated with reduced hospital admissions, shorter hospital
stays, better social functioning, greater housing stability, fewer
days homeless, and fewer
symptoms of
thought disorder and unusual activity. Studies have also found that
ACT services cost less than other services, especially inpatient and
emergency room care.
The National Mental Health Association reports that funding for
community-based mental health services in real dollars has actually
declined in recent years. This widening deficit exists even though
research demonstrates that mental health treatment is effective and
yields benefits for individuals, families and society as a whole.
Cognitive Restructuring
Many rehabilitation programs include cognitive restructuring therapy
which works on the premise that criminal and other types of
destructive behavior spring from faulty thinking. The therapy helps
participants recognize and change their thinking patterns.
Costs vary from location to location and from program to program,
but can be about $20 per offender for a 65-day program. (2003
Oakland County Comprehensive Plan.)
Much national research shows the approach to be successful in
reducing crime.
Electronic Monitoring
A system involving the transmission of electronic signals from a
device worn by the offender through a telephone to a centralized
computer that keeps track of the offender’s movements. Offenders can
be placed under virtual house arrest, permitted limited mobility to
attend work or school, placed on curfews, or prohibited from being
in certain locations.
In Michigan, because offenders pay $8.50 per day to participate,
electronic monitoring is essentially cost-free to the public. Of
those who have participated in the past, less than 2 percent have
been arrested for a new felony and less than 8 percent have
absconded or escaped.
Other General Research Results on Community Sanctions
• The National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), a
private, nonprofit agency providing training, technical assistance,
research and direct services to criminal justice, social services,
and mental health organizations and clients across the country, has
gathered information that documents success for a number of
programs. See What Every American Should Know About the Criminal
Justice System by the NCIA and go to the NCIA site to view other
documents:
http://www.ncianet.org
• The Oregon Department of Corrections Study, completed in 2002,
showed that even in the absence of treatment services, alternative
sanctions result in no worse recidivism than jail for many
offenders. The selection and assignment of appropriate offenders to
appropriate sanctions is the key to the effective use of jail and
alternative sanctions.
http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dcj/Effectiveness_of_Sanctions_version2.pdf
• A study entitled The Comparative Costs and Benefits of Programs to
Reduce Crime, prepared in 2001 by the Washington State Institute for
Public Policy (http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/crime/costben.html
shows that several community-based programs, particularly those
dealing with delinquents, prevent a significant amount of crime,
saving taxpayers and victims the cost of crime. One program entitled
Multi-Systemic Therapy, an intensive home-based program for chronic,
violent or substance-abusing juvenile offenders saves taxpayers
$31,661 for each participant after the costs of the programming is
subtracted. Another is a cognitive-behavioral intervention that
attempts to reduce antisocial behavior at a cost of about $738 per
participant. The reduction in recidivism generates about $33,143 per
juvenile for taxpayers after the cost of the program is deducted.
Funding Community-Based
Sanctions
If we paroled 100 eligible Level 2 prisoners at a savings of
$2,503,800 annually (assumes $25,308 per prisoner), we could
provide:
• 50 new parole officers so parolees can receive more support
services when reentering the community ($50,450 for each agent
includes office overhead).
• Probation residential treatment for 388 more probationers so they
can learn to function in the community instead of going to prison
($43 a day for five months).
• Drug Court programming for 1,446 men in which they can receive
frequent drug testing, supervision, counseling, treatment and
educational opportunities ($1,750 per man for 20 months.)
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Addressing the social and economic
costs of
Michigan's prison system |
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