Smart Sentencing

In search of remedies to the growing problem of correctional crowding, federal, state, and local policy makers have begun to experiment with a range of new "intermediate" sanctions. These sanctions have taken a variety of forms--intensive probation supervision, home confinement, boot camps, day fines, residential community corrections, day reporting centers, and community service programs. In Smart Sentencing a distinguished panel of experts offers an in-depth assessment of the design, development, and impact of each of these intermediate sanctions while also discussing the most controversial issues surrounding the use of alternative punishments (e.g., the purpose of sanctions, effectiveness issues, gender bias, overrepresentation of minorities). The contributors also look at the future of intermediate sanctions and consider the many questions posed by criminal justice professionals and students regarding their continued development. "New concepts in sentencing are explored, including home supervision, electronic monitoring, boot camps, day fines, community service programs, residential community corrections, and day reporting centers." --The Women's Advocate "Smart Sentencing is a rich, critical collection evaluating various intermediate sanctions such as community service, drug treatment programs, and electronic monitoring. Twenty articles by leading U.S. researchers ably chronicle progress made--and not made--by the movement for intermediate sanctions." --Update "Smart Sentencing is a rich and stimulating collection of reports from the field. Contributors to this volume are astute observers of criminal justice operations, and they rarely hesitate to describe problems when they see them. . . . Smart Sentencing is highly recommended and well worth reading. . . . While this volume strongly supports the 'intermediate sanction movement,' it goes well beyond rhetoric by providing professional assessments of what works and what doesn't work. It also outlines a direction for future studies of intermediate sanctions." --Federal Probation "A major contribution to the study of this resurgent field. . . . Smart Sentencing includes previously unpublished works from some renowned authorities on intermediate sanctions. The book is aimed at academics and correctional administrators who desire a better understanding of intermediate sanctions. In concert with that aim, the contributors keep the use of complex inferential statistics to a minimum, instead relying on descriptive methods of measuring diversion and cost savings. . . . Just as important, almost all of the articles lay conceptual and theoretical foundations for a particular sanction, something frequently neglected by in-house correctional researchers and administrators." --The Criminologist "This book provides a fairly detailed account of the experience of intermediate sanctions in America. . . . Overall, this is a useful book and the general quality of the contributions is high." --The Magistrate