Community-Based Alternatives to Prison: How the Public and Court Personnel View Them

Source: (1995) Federal Probation. 59:3-9.

Criminologists have been interested for some time, especially in the past two decades, in the relationship between crime and the use of prison. Prison has come to be regarded not as a deterrent to crime, but as a promoter of crime, incapable of treating the men and women who were sentenced to prison to be reformed. As a result of critical evaluations and commentary regarding the use of prison to deal with criminals, correction of the offender in the community has emerged as the recommended strategy for dealing with criminals. Community corrections is preferable to prisons on the basis of cost and effectiveness in diverting offenders from a criminal lifestyle. The authors cite a need for continuing research into: (1) the factors which influence community attitudes toward community corrections; (2) the factors which will influence changes in public attitudes; (3) the extent to which perceptions of public attitudes influence decisionmaking in the justice system; and (4) the extent to which community corrections programs have achieved and are achieving clear identifiable goals.