COMMUNITY BASED CORRECTIONS

A. Its Concepts

Community based corrections include all correctional activities that take

place in the community. Community based Correctional program embrace any
activity in the community directly addressed to the offender and aimed at
helping him to become a law – abiding citizen. Such a program maybe under
official of private auspices. It may be administered by correctional agency
directly or by non-correctional service. It may be provided on direct referral
from a correctional agency or on referral from another element of the criminal
justice system such as the police or courts. It may call changing the offender
through some combination of services, for controlling him by surveillance, or
for reintegrating him into the community by placing him in a social situation
in which he can satisfy his requirements without law violations. A community-
based program embrace system or any combination of these process.
Community-based Corrections would be a better substitute for the
traditional institutional corrections. Researches have shown that no form of
treatment or combinations of treatments have proven effective in reducing the
repetition of the crime and delinquency or imprisonment, even under the best
possible condition, is debilitating and self-defeating, because of the nature
of compulsory confinement to discourage intimacy suppress the expression of
aggression, and prevent the assumption of responsibility; and the stigma of
imprisonment, a persistent disqualifying mark for prisoners after release.
Moreover, the occurrence of prison violence, whether sexual or non – sexual
assaults; and economic, psychological and social victimization helped to
support the conclusion that there must be a better way of correcting criminals.
The community is the only place in which the correctional process can be
successfully completed. Just as the community provided the original setting for
the crime, so it must provide the ultimate testing ground for the
rehabilitation process. It view of this, all the resources of the community
need to be mobilized to help offenders restore family ties, obtain employment
and education and discover their place in society. The institution should be
the last resort for correctional problems.

B. Three “Revolutions” in the History of Corrections

1. Age of Reformation – replace corporal punishment, exile, and physical
disfigurement with the penitentiary.
2. Age or Rehabilitation – assumed that criminals were handicapped persons
suffering from mental or emotional deficiencies. Under this, individual
therapy aimed at healing these personal maladjustment, because the
preferred style.
3. Age of Reintegration – society become the “patient” as well as the
offender. Much more emphasis is placed on the pressures exerted on the
offender by the social groups to which he belongs and on the society
which regulates his opportunities to achieve his goals.

C. DIVERSION
This is a formally acknowledged and organized effort to utilized alternative
to initial or continued processing into the justice system. In terms of
processing, diversion implies halting or suspending formal criminal proceeding
against a person who has violated a statute, in favor of processing through a
non-criminal disposition or means. Diversionary tactics are aimed at keeping
people out of the criminal justice system and particularly out of its
institutional components.

ORIGIN OF DIVERSION

Informal Diversion has occurred since the birth of the criminal justice
system, but with only unofficial recognition. The wide exercise of discretion by
police officers, particularly in the diversionary handling of juveniles, is a
case in points. In fact, informal diversion occurs at every stage of the criminal
justice processing. The prosecuting attorney diverts when he declines to
prosecute prosecutable offenses. The court diverts when it avoids imposing a more
severe disposition, opting for a lesser or suspended sentences. Probation is
diversion epitomized.

1. Influences which have paved the Way for Diversion.

a. The insufficiency of the criminal justice system.
b. The desire of the citizen to become actively involved in the system’s
working.
c. Recognition of the fact that crime is actually spawned in the community.
2. Other Factors to which Contributed to the Development of Diversion;
a. The fact that the stigma or incarceration might be avoided.
b. Professional and economic opportunities would not be denied to the
convicted person
c. Less serious offenses might be more appropriately handled by some other
type of agency.
d. Recidivism would be reduced by lessened opportunity for criminal
contagion which is inevitablypresent in the penal institution.

NOTE:

Diversion should be entertained only for those offenders whose behavior can
be effectively dealt with in the community for the more hardened criminals,
especially those who had inflicted a serious degree of injury or death, or for
individuals whose psychotic or unmanageable behavior acquires the security of
custody, institutionalization is required.

3. Criteria for Screening person Eligible for Diversion

a. Relative youth of the offender.
b. Victim’s willingness to forego conviction
c. Mental or emotional impairment for which treatment is available in the
community
d. Crime being significantly related to a factor, such as employment or
family problems, that can be remedied 1- the community.

4. Guidelines for Screening

It is important that the agencies operating diversion programs clearly spell

out the selection and operational criteria since there is no standard criterion
for diversion yet. The diversion program should also be administered by the
criminal justice component directly concerned, such as the police, the
prosecutor, and the courts. Diversion should not be contemplated where criminal
behavior has not occurred, because it is alternative mode of handling those who
have violated criminal statute.

5. Advantages of Diversion
a. It contributes to decriminalization by reducing involvement in
institutional aspects of corrections;
b. It will prevent social stigma – Criminal record is a serious impediment
to rehabilitation.
c. It will prevent collapse of the criminal justice system. This is because
few are actually prosecuted which may result to the loss of faith by the
citizen in the system.
d. It offers an alternative to the counter – productive practice of
incarceration – aside from being costly, prison cannot check recidivism.
e. It enables the community resources to be more widely employed in the
correctional behavior.

6. Disadvantages of Diversion
a. Diversion by the court gives a dangerous degree of discretion to the
judiciary since there are no established guidelines.
 b. It could be subverted by individuals in the system to serve purely
personal objectives.
c. The possibility of screening out serious offenders instead of the lesser
offenders from whom diversion is more appropriate.

TYPES OF PRE – TRIAL DIVERSION

a. Dispute – Resolution Programs – Are mediation programs which seek to help

antagonistic parties resolve their disputes in face-to-face confrontations
as soon after the act that caused the criminal complaint as possible. The
goals of these programs are:

1. To speed justice to those who have been involved in minor criminal

conduct;
2. To reduce the court backlog;
3. To ease interpersonal tensions in the community;
4. To provide a form for citizens that will not interfere with their jobs;
and
5. To remove the stigma of an arrest record for those involved in minor
personal disputes.

b. Deferred Prosecution – Operates in one or two ways;

1. When an offender is arrested, he or she may be screened according to a

number of pre-established criteria to determine if the problem can be
handled through a formal diversionary program; if so, project staff will
explain the program to the accused offender, and if the offender is
willing to participate in the program, the court will be asked to defer
formal charging. Prosecutors are usually willing to dismiss the criminal
charges for those offenders who successfully complete their diversionary
programs.

2. Under the second model, formal charges are lodged before defendants are
screened for their eligibility for diversionary programs. If the court
and the offender agree, criminal proceedings are suspended pending the
outcome of the findings and conclusions of the program. A successful
solution through the program ensures that formal charges are dropped;
failure results in formal criminal charges.

c. Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC)

These are designed to divert drug abusers away from the criminal justice
system and into jurisdiction of agencies offering specialized support services.
TASC is centered around (1) a screening unit which attempts to identify the
drug users entering the criminal justice system and to offer the program to
those offenders who are eligible under locally determined criteria; (2) and
intake unit which diagnose each offender referred to it and recommends the
appropriate treatment program; (3) and a tracking unit which constantly
monitors the progress of its clients. Those violating the locally determined
success – failure criteria are returned to the criminal justice system for
appropriate actions.

D. PRE TRIAL RELEASE

Pre - trial release permits the release of defendants from jail prior to trial.
It offers a series of options that provides varying levels of supervision and
services and can be offered at points increasingly? Deeper?Into the criminal
justice system.
1. FORMS OF PRE – TRIAL RELEASE
A. Pre – Booking Release

Kinds of Pre – Booking Release

1. Fields Citation – This is discretionary method of diverting some of

the pre-arraignment population back into the community at the point of
arrest, and is effected by an arresting officer who has the option of
releasing of the spot any misdemeanant who does not demand to be taken
immediately before the court, and the date of initial hearing is set
for at least five days following the arrest.
2. Station House Citation – Occurs after a police officer has transported
a misdemeanant to a police station, where the information provided by
the arrested person is verified. It permits the police officer to make
a decision on the basis of valid information, avoids pre-arraignment,
and derives the misdemeanant of less liberty than if she or he is
booked.

B. Post Booking Release

1. Release on Own Recognizance – is the release without bail or without
supervision where defendant are put on their honor to report when
schedule.
2. Unsecured Bail – Permits release without either a deposit or bail
arranged through a bondsman; and differs from ROR only in that
defendants is obligated to pay the established fee upon default.
3. Third Party Release – This is one where a relative, friend, employer,
volunteer, or even social agency is given the responsibility for the
defendant/s appearance in court. If a social agency is given the
responsibility, various conditions, including supervision, are usually
involved.
4. Conditional Release – The defendant generally must agree to certain
conditions in addition to the court appearance, like remaining with in
a defined geographical area, etc., and is usually associated with
third-party or supervised release, rarely use by itself.
5. Monitored OR – Recognizance release and minimal supervision are the
components or this program, where the defendant must keep the pre-
trial release program officer advised of his address and continued
presence in the community by phone calls that prescribed intervals.
6. Privately Secured Bail – A private organization provides bail for the
indigent defendants who meet the agency/s eligibility requirements,
and provides services similar to those of a professional bondsman, but
no cost to the bailed.
7. Percentage Bail – is a publicly managed bail program under which the
offender deposits a percentage of bail amount, usually (10%) percent,
with the court clerk, when defendant appears in court, ninety percent
(90%) of that original ten percent is refunded.
8. Fully Secured Bail – the defendant his or her family, or professional
bondsmen puts up the security. Bondsmen may require collateral so that
they take little risk. If a defendant absconds, the bondsman usually
pursues with warrant and brings the defendant back.
9. Cash Bail – is demanded when the charge is not serious and the
scheduled bail is low.
10. Supervised Release –Involves more frequent contact with a program
officer, including phone calls and meetings, than monitored OR,
usually for the purpose of enforcing the conditions imposed.
11. Supervised Pre-Trial Work Release – Permits only partial release,
although permitted to participate in a work release program during the
day, the defendant is this confined in jail.
E. Innovative Programs Introduced in Corrections

1. Chicago Area Project – founded by Clifford R. Shaw, is a delinquency

prevention programs, and the first organized program in the U.S. to use
workers to establish direct and personal contact with the “unreached”
boys to help them find their way back to acceptable norm of conduct. Its
procedural principles are:
a. Development of youth welfare organizations among residents of
delinquency areas;
b. Employment of so-called indigenous workers whenever possible;
c. Fostering and preservation of the independence of these group.
2. Cambridge – Somerville Study – was the first relatively rigorous attempt
to test the effectiveness of individual counseling with troublesome
school boys who were regarded by the teachers as headed for delinquent
careers. The approach was friendly rather than professional. This
consisted in watching two groups of delinquent boys, one group was to be
let alone, thus serving as a “control” to the other experimental or
“treated” group. The outbreak of war however, forced to restrict the
period of operation of the study.
3. Synanon House – is a communal, voluntary setting for drug addicts, which
is a private project devoted to the communal rehabilitation of narcotic
addicts. Former drug addicts live and work together in a state of total
abstinence from drugs.
Newly arrived addicts are restricted to Synanon property,
participating in general housekeeping and maintenance chores, which is
known as the “first stage”. As the resident hopefully matures and gathers
strength, he “graduates to the “second stage” during which he works
outside of Synanon and returns which is the evenings. In the “third
stage” which is the final one, they former addict lives outside of
Synanon and returns for occasional meetings.
During his residence at Synanon, the addict participates in thrice-
weekly leaderless group therapy sessions patterned after those employed
by Alcoholics Anonymous. The group sessions most sharply focus on the
primary principles of group-supported attention which runs through the
entire program of activities. Synanon’s most valuable tool is the mutual,
continuous, day-to-day reinforcement among residents of the will and
intention o keep off drugs.

4. PORT Programs – PORT is an acronym for probationed Offenders

Rehabilitation and Training, established in Rochester, Minnesota, is a
live-in, community – based, community directed treatment program for both
adults and juveniles. The care of its treatment program is a combination
of group treatment and behavior modification.

The individual arriving at the institution is launched from the

bottom level of five stage classification system which proceed from
minimal to maximal freedom. (Maximal freedom is freedom commensurate with
that of an individual of the same age in the community). The community
and its resources are heavily utilized. Students from junior colleges are
employed as counselors, and paraprofessionals are used. The public
schools are involved, as are the traditional agencies such as Mental
Health and Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. The services provided
by community agencies are not duplicated in the center. In this way, the
community and its resources are the sustaining force of the program, and
therefore the community actually runs the program. A sixty-five-member
advisory committee brings legal, financial, employment, and preventive
expertise the projects; no vital area is left uncovered.
F. FOUR KEY – Citizen Roles in Corrections

1. Correctional Volunteer – Volunteers should be willing to assume

responsibility, more or less formalized for working directly with
offenders.
2. Social Persuaders – This is done by a person of influence in the dominant
social system who is willing to persuade others to support corrections
and its program. This is valuable in bidding for legislative support.
3. Gatekeepers of Opportunity – The custodians of access to important social
institutions such as employers, school administrators, and welfare
directors must be asked to participate and support correctional programs.
4. Intimates – peer groups on a non-official basis; correctional agents
could work with community workers in dealing with traditional peer
groups.

G. Basic Principles Underlying the Philosophy of Community – Based Corrections

1. All efforts consistent with the safety of other should be made to reduce
involvement of the individual offender with the institutional aspects of
corrections.
2. Need for extensive involvement with the multiple aspects of the
community, beginning with the offender and his world and extending to the
larger social system.
3. Community-based Corrections demand radically new roles for inmates,
staff, and citizens.

H. Significance of Community – Based Corrections

1. Humanitarian Aspect – to subject anyone to custodial coercion is to place

him in physical leopard, to narrow drastically his access to sources of
personal satisfaction and to reduce self-esteem.
2. Restorative Aspect – Concerns measure expected to achieve for the
offender a position in the community in which he does not violate the
laws. There measures may be directed at change, control or reintegration;
the failure of offenders to achieve these goals can be measured by
recidivism, and their success is defined by reasoning specific objectives
set by correctional decision makers.
3. Managerial Aspects – are of special importance because of the sharp
contrast between the per capital costs of custody and any kind of
community program. When offenders can be shifted from custodial control
to community – based programming without loss of public protections, the
managerial criteria require that such shift be made.