Community Based Intermediate Sanctions Case Study

Choose 2 community-based intermediate sanctions and describe their key features. The two intermediate sanctions that I choose to discuss are home detention and electronic monitoring. Beginning with home detention, this type of intermediate sanction was designed to ease the overcrowding in the prison system. It is viewed as a “net-widening” alternative to incarceration. This form of sanctions is generally used on petty offender; “many petty offenders are brought under correctional control who would best be handled by diversion, fines, or mental health services” (Latessa, 2015), as a way to control their movement throughout their stated sentence. As a punitive sentence, home detention was first used in 1984 in the state of Florida, called the

Home detention being the most widely used ISP, and coupled with electric monitoring, the two ISP’s together have been an almost indefensible team when it comes to ensuring the offender is where he/she is supposed to be, at the time indicated by the monitoring system. There are many factors that could lead to the offender’s failure in these programs. Failures do occur, and when it does occur, the failure at the time the offender may be exposed to alcohol, even though his/her drug of choice may be a different drug. This exposure could lead to the offender indulging in his/her drug of choice and then the failure to pass a drug test. A lack of attention to detail by the supervising official can also lead to the offender’s failure. If/when the offender see that the supervising official does not make face to face appointments very often, this lack of observation can give the offender ample opportunity to indulge in any activity that the offender wants, and then fail to meet the minimum standard of approval that was originally

Drug courts were first implemented in the late 1980’s, this innovative program spawned many other specialized courts like domestic violence courts, juvenile and family drug courts, and even “deadbeat dad” courts. Drug court specializes in the sobriety of the individuals that participate in this program “between one-fourth and one-half of all adult males arrested, and roughly one-half of all females arrested, were at risk for drug dependence; few had been treated for drug or alcohol use in the prior year” (Wilson, 2006). Not all drug courts operate the same way, many times the judge may impose different sanctions depending on the characteristics of the offender; leverage, population severity, program intensity, predictability, rehabilitative are just a few of the characteristics that a judge may use when rendering his/her