INTENSIVE SUPERVISION PROGRAMS.   Term Paper ID:21156 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Definition, function, purpose, costs & effectiveness of approach used in juvenile justice system.... More...

6 Pages / 1350 Words 4 sources, 8 Citations, APA Format $24.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Definition, function, purpose, costs & effectiveness of approach used in juvenile justice system. Paper Introduction: The American juvenile justice system is considered a system in crisis. It is not only overloaded by increased delinquency, but it is also a system seen as ineffective at the best of times. There has long been a tension in the system between the twin missions of punishment and rehabilitation, just as there is in the adult criminal justice system. With juveniles, however, there is the added belief that the offenders are less responsible for their actions than are adults, that the system has a role as substitute parent, and that alternatives to incarceration are particularly valuable to meld these missions. However, as juvenile crime has increased in incidence and severity, the public has become less patient and has demanded punishment over rehabilitation, seeing this as a way to protect itself against the depredations of young offenders. Community based corrections Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. However, as juvenile crimehas increased in incidence and severity, the public has become less patientand has demanded punishment over rehabilitation, seeing this as a way toprotect itself against the depredations of young offenders. R. The Wayne County evaluationfocused on the ability of the programs to contain or reduce delinquentbehavior so that the clients could remain in the community instead ofhaving to be placed in correctional institutions. Juvenile intensive supervision: theimpact on felony offenders diverted from institutional placement. Crime & Delinquency, 6-41. The results showedthat in-home programs are as effective as commitment for about one-thirdthe cost. Wiebush (1993), for instance, examinesjuvenile intensive supervision with a study of the 18-month recidivism ofjuvenile felony offenders who were placed into an intensive supervisionprogram instead of being committed to an institution. Barton and Butts conclude that in-homeprograms are a viable option for many young people who would otherwise becommitted and that for the state in-home programs can be more cost-effective as well. Crime & Delinquency, 42-6 . The evaluation wasintended to weigh the success of the programs against the costs associatedwith the alternative, or with commitment to the state. Clear and Hardyman (199 ) cite the fact that in the 198 s there was arevitalization of probation and parole based on a reliance on intensivesupervision programs. There has long been atension in the system between the twin missions of punishment andrehabilitation, just as there is in the adult criminal justice system.With juveniles, however, there is the added belief that the offenders areless responsible for their actions than are adults, that the system has arole as substitute parent, and that alternatives to incarceration areparticularly valuable to meld these missions. Third, Wiebush cites the fact that this approach has been widelyadopted and highly recommended and that it has been expanding as if itssuccess had already been demonstrated. (1993, January). Wiebush, R. Byrne believes that initial claims ofrecidivism reduction are not supported either by a critical review ofevaluation results or by the initial findings from an 11-site randomizedfield experiment conducted in 1989 (Byrne, 199 , 6-41). The authorsexamine these earlier ISPs and note several important lessons: 1) Intensive supervision is difficult to achieve. 2) Close contact does not guarantee greater success. Clear, T. L. References Barton, W.H. Butts (199 , April). Crime &Delinquency, 238-256. It is not only overloaded by increased delinquency, but it is alsoa system seen as ineffective at the best of times. Analysts note that there have been significant changes in thejuvenile justice system in the last several decades, with an emphasisplaced on rehabilitation, reform, and concern for the welfare of youngoffenders. Wiebush notes thatwhile intensive supervision programs have been very popular, there havebeen few empirical studies to examine their effectiveness as interventions. G. ISP does offer a goodapproach to a number of problems and can be effective--has indeed beenproven effective in certain situations and with certain goals. Communitybased corrections programs are seen as a viable alternative to "detentioncenters" in the eyes of the justice system and other professionals who workwith young offenders, but the creation of such programs must also protectthe public from juvenile crime and will certainly come under increasedcriticism for any failure to do so. The new intensivesupervision movement. Barton and Butts (199 ) also consider the value of intensivesupervision programs for juvenile delinquents by examining offenders at theWayne County Juvenile Court in Detroit, Michigan, which recently developedand evaluated three in-home, intensive supervision programs as alternativesto commitment for adjudicated delinquents. Second, he states that juvenile intensivesupervision programs seem to carry a strong intuitive appeal to people onboth sides of the debate over how to treat juveniles because they include aconcern for control and for accountability while also emphasizing servicedelivery and treatment. Byrne examines a number of these programs andfinds that they are in danger of being discarded as only the latest failedattempt to find a panacea, which ISP is not. Before suchprograms are adopted on a truly widespread basis, evaluations are needed ofcurrently implemented programs to provide the missing data and to offer aproper assessment of ISP. For instance, ISP will save money only if it is successful,and otherwise it will cost more money because ISPs are always moreexpensive than regular probation (Clear and Hardyman, 199 , 42-6 ). Two years after random assignment, the experimental and controlgroup cases showed few differences in recidivism either in terms ofofficial charges or self-report. Byrne, J. The American juvenile justice system is considered a system incrisis. The primary comparison group consisted of a sample of felonyoffenders sentenced to DYS during the same period as the ISU cases and whomet the same initial-screening eligibility criteria. Hardyman (199 , January). 3) Intensive supervision produces an interaction effect.The current ISP movement has several goals: 1) reduce prison crowding; 2) increase public protection; 3) rehabilitate the offender; 4) demonstrate the potential of probation; and 5) save money.The authors find that it is not only unrealistic to expect a program toachieve all these aims at the same time, but some of these goals arecontradictory. They find as well that the ISPs of the 198 s aredifferent from their predecessors in several ways. A second comparisongroup was used to provide an additional perspective, and this groupconsisted of a 2 percent sample of felony offenders who were placed ontraditional Court probation supervision during the same period. (199 , January). Crime &Delinquency, 68-89.----------------------- 1 Wiebush (1993) examines the Lucas County (Toledo) Ohio Juvenile Courtsystem during the 198 s when officer caseload was expanding dramatically.Traditional methods of intervention were brought under scrutiny. The future of intensive probationsupervision and the new intermediate sanctions. He finds the lack of data troubling for several reasons. Many of the studies that have been made of ISP andother approaches have been widely publicized and have therefore influencedthe development of community corrections thereafter, and yet many of thesereports are seriously flawed. They also note that the results of the earlierISP movement were inconsequential in the development of the newer versions. and J.A. More than 5 young offenderswere randomly assigned either to intensive supervision or to a controlgroup committed to the state for placement. Implementation of the in-homeprograms included an evaluation to determine whether they were cost-effective alternatives to state commitment. Byrne (199 ) also looks at ISP as it has been marketed in the UnitedStates today both as a solution to our current prison crowding problem andas the central component of a new surveillance-oriented probation image, ineffect a "get-tough" image. Resultsshowed that intensive supervision is an effective alternative toincarceration, though the results did not show that it was a solution tothe underlying problem of juvenile crime. and P. First, he notesthat the policy debate over the most appropriate response to seriousjuvenile offenders has not been resolved, and data on the effectiveness ofvarious alternatives is needed. Some of the new approaches involve degrees of supervision asalternatives to incarceration, and the concept of supervision has beenanalyzed in different settings to determine whether or not it can beconsidered an effective treatment. Byrne findsthat while the public may be interested in issues such as punishmentproportionality, diversion versus net-widening, and the cost ofcorrections, the primary concern on the part of the public today is forcommunity protection. The studies of ISP as it is currently constituted are too few toproduce meaningful results, and much more data is needed to evaluate theeffectiveness of these programs, the elements in them that work and thosethat do not, the cost-effectiveness of the programs, and the value of theprograms when compared to other methods presently available. The authors believethat a comparison of the earlier ISP type program and the current programsof this type show significant differences which help define the currentprograms more effectively. The Courthad historically committed a large number of juvenile felons to theDepartment of Youth Services (DYS) for institutional placement, and itsrate of commitment was the highest among the six major metropolitancounties of Ohio, increasing by 19 percent between 1984 and 1987.Alternatives were sought for several reasons, including overcrowding indetention centers. M. These programs also offer the possibility of costsavings. Viable options:intensive supervision programs for juvenile delinquents. While many practitioners seem to believe that ISP is something new, intruth it is not, and there are lessons to be learned from the earlierexperience that can aid in the shaping of the new experience. Also noted was the fact that ISPwas difficult to achieve in a cost-effective way without large-scalediversion (Wiebush, 1993, 6886). The evaluation was a quasiexperimental design to assessthe impact of the program on client outcomes with an experimental group offelony offenders who had been diverted to the Intensive Supervision Unit(ISU). Supervision is promoted as a viablealternative to detention, but the issue is raised whether supervision iseffective or whether lack of supervision produces less desirable results. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.