Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Monday, August 25, 2008

New Report From VERA On The Use of Intermediate Sanctions

A study was done out of Oregon that was measuring the effectiveness of the difference between using community based intermediate sanctions and the ineffectiveness of jail-based sanctions

In the 1990s the Multnomah County, Oregon, Department of Community Justice
(DCJ)—the agency responsible for supervising people on probation, parole,
or post-prison supervision in the county—initiated a series of evidence-based
reforms. As part of this effort, DCJ offi cials asked the Vera Institute to examine
how the county uses intermediate sanctions when people violate the conditions
of their probation or post-prison supervision. Intermediate sanctions (e.g., drug
treatment, community service, day reporting, and jail) represent a stepped hierarchy
of penalties and programs that can forestall a return to prison. Vera conducted
a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the county’s use of these sanctions.
This brief provides an overview of our key findings.

Vera Institute

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doggone it! This report is completely inconclusive and I don't know why Think Outside the Cage included it. There was no description of offenders, no actual evaluation of the efficacy of intermediate sanctions. It was wasted space to report it!

Anonymous said...

The use of jail as an intermediate
sanction was correlated
with higher rates of recidivism,
a relationship that should be
examined more closely. People
who received any intermediate
sanction (including jail) were
44 percent more likely to have
their supervision revoked, compared
to a similar group. Those
receiving jail were 76 percent
more likely to have their supervision
revoked.
This was a waste of tax money. Everyone involved in the parole system knows that it is broken. Just sending 92% back to prison does not resolve anything. I hope that Carol and Christine are able move this committee appointed by the governor to do something.
I have talked with many people in the staff of DOC and they also know that the system is broken. They have good ideas about halfway houses and intermediate sanctions, but this article does not address these ideas.mpc

Anonymous said...

I think the use of jail as intermediate sanctions is not a good approach and only the waste of time. This is not much helpful in these circumstances. It was a good research work done here.