If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. When Probation Becomes More Dreaded Than Prison By JOAN PETERS ILIA Director, Criminal Justice Program, The RAND Corporation s PRISONS have become more and more priate and quite consistent with their demand to crowded, pressure has increased to di­ "get tough" and hold criminals accountable for A vert some serious offenders to community- their crimes. If this link were made, the criminal based sanctions. In response, most jurisdictions justice system could save money and operate a have established, or are experimenting with, vari­ system with more rehabilitation potential. ous kinds of intensive supervIsIon programs More theoretical, but possibly more compelling, (IS:[>s).l However, these alternatives to prison are these hypotheses question some basic assumptions themselves still on trial. It remains to be seen that underlie sentencing decisions, the structure whether ISPs can punish and control serious of sanctions, and resource allocation in the crimi­ offenders effectively enough to meet the dominant nal justice system. Consequently, those assump­ objectives of imprisonment: imposing "just des­ tions may be partly responsible for today's "crisis erts" and "incapacitating" criminals.2 in corrections." It would probably have been salu­ A major obstacle in testing their effectiveness is tary to question these assumptions long ago, but getting sufficient numbers of truly "prison-bound" under present circumstances it is imperative to do offenders into these programs. Judges seem hesi­ so. tant to impose community-based sanctions because of their concern for public safety, and Punishment for Whom? their belief that ISPs are not punitive enough for This country bases assumptions about "what such offenders. punishes" on the norms and living standards of This article focuses on the second concern: Are society at large. This practice overlooks two sa­ community sanctions punitive enough to convince lient facts: First, most serious offenders neither the public that the "punishment fit the crime"? accept nor abide by those norms-otherwise they Having studied the development of these interme­ wouldn't be offenders. Second, most of the people diate sanctions, I have discovered that some seri­ who even "qualify" for imprisonment today come ous offenders feel that ISPs are at least as puni­ from communities where conditions fall far below tive as imprisonment-if not more so. If this is the living standards most Americans would recog­ true, then offenders' perceptions should be consid­ nize. If their values and standards differ, why ered in structuring sanctions and in making sen­ should their perceptions of punishment be the tencing decisions. same? Nevertheless, criminal sanctions reflect Why is this issue worth studying? The most society's values-negatively. The demand that pragmatic reason is that ISPs offer some hope of .. serious criminal~ go to prison implies that prison relieving prison overcrowding-without draining imposes conditions that are intolerable and fright­ the public purse. If it can be shown that ening to the law-abiding citizen. The belief that other-less expensive-sanctions also have puni­ community sanctions ar~ too lenient implies that tive qualities, then perhaps the public might no matter what conditions probation or parole accept that community-based sanctions are appro- impose, remaining in the community is categori­ cally preferable to imprisonment.3 lISPs place offenders in the community under much more stringent When crime rates were lower and minor crimes conditions than traditional probation and parole impose. In most of these programs, offenders are required to observe curfews, hold jobs, could land a person in prison, many offenders pay victim restitution, submit to random urine and alcohol testing, and might have shared these perceptions. Apparently, pay part of the cost of their supervision. A growing number of pro­ grams also involve electronic monitoring of the offender's whereabouts. feelings are different among offenders who face Latest estimates suggest that more than 50,000 adults are now serving prison sentences today. In several states, given intensive supervision sentences (Herrick, 1988). the option of serving prison terms or participating '''Juat deserts" refers to imposing punishments that are commensu­ in [BPs, many offenders have chosen prison. rate with the seriouaness of the crime. Incapacitation refers to the effect of isolating an offender from the larger society, thereby prevent­ Pearson (1988) reports that about 15 percent of ing himlher from committing crimes in that society. offenders who apply to New Jersey's ISP program 'Several studies have shown that the public views probation as retract their applications once they understand lenient and that any term in prison is automatically judged more punitive than any term in the community (e.g., Erickson and Gibbs, the conditions and requirements. Under the New 1979; McClelland and Alpert, 1985). Jersey structure, this means that they will re- 23 24 FEDERAL PROBATION March 1990 main in prison on their original sentences. short period of detention as a ''badge of courage," One of the more striking examples comes from something to brag about when they return to the Marion County, Oregon, which has been cooper­ streets." (1989:29). And according to the Califor­ ating with researchers from The RAND Corpora­ nia Youth Authority, inmates steal state-issued tion in a randomized field experiment. Selected prison clothing for the same reason. Wearing it non-violent offenders were given the choice of when they return to the community lets everyone serving a prison term or returning to the commu­ know they have "done hard time." nity to participate in ISP. These offenders have As for employment opportunities, imprisonment been convicted, and the judge has formally im­ has had increasingly less effect for the people in posed a prison term. After conviction, they were question. As William Julius Wilson (1987) makes asked if they would agree to return to the com­ painfully clear in The Truly Disadvantaged, em­ munity and participate in ISP, rather than go to ployment opportunities have been shrinking for prison. During the I-year study period, about a people of lower economic status, especially in third of those eligible for the experiment have urban areas, so the effect of a prison record may chosen prison instead of ISP. not be as dramatic as it was when jobs were What accounts for this seeming aberration? more plentiful. Why should anyone prefer imprisonment to re­ Some have argued that for poor people, prison maining in the community-no matter what the may be preferred, but few scholars take such conditions? Can we infer from this that prison discussions seriously. It is undoubtedly true, how­ conditions seem less "punishing" than ISP ever, that the quality of a person's lifestyle when requirements to these offenders? To consider this free certainly has some bearing on the extent to possibility, we first need to understand why im­ which imprisonment is considered undesirable. prisonment may have lost some of its punitive The grim fact-and national shame-is that for sting. most people who go to prison, the conditions in­ side are not all that different from the conditions Has the Punitive Power of Imprisonment outside. The prison environment may be far below Diminished? the ordinary standards of society, but so is the Zimring and Hawkins (1973:190) note that environment they come from. As the quality of sanctions are most likely to deter if they meet life that people can expect when free declines, the two conditions: "the social standing is injured by relative deprivation suffered while in prison de­ the punishment," and "the individual feels a dan­ clines. ger of being excluded from the group." It is hard Social isolation is another presumably punitive to imagine that prison terms have either of these aspect of imprisonment. Again, the values of soci­ attributes for repeat criminals. ety surface in the belief that when a person goes Possessing a prison record is not as stigmatiz­ to prison he is "among aliens." In prison, he is ing as in the past, because so many of the offend­ isolated from the kinds of people he would cus­ er's peers (and other family members) also have tomarily (and by preference) be among. For to­ "done time." A recent survey shows that 40 per­ day's inmates, that is less likely to be true. The cent of youths in state training schools have par­ newly admitted inmate will probably find friends, ents who have also been incarcerated (Beck et al., if not family already there. 1988). Further, about a quarter of all U.S. black The warden of Pontiac Penitentiary described it males will be incarcerated during their lives, so thus: the stigma attached to having a prison record is not as great as it was when it was relatively When a new guy comes up here it's almost a homecoming­ undoubtedly there are people from his neighborhood and uncommon (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1985). people who know him... (as quoted in Jacobs, 1984:33). In fact, far from stigmatizing, imprisonment evidently confers status in some neighborhoods. He goes on to recall how a ranking gang mem­ Particularly for gang-affiliated and career crimi­ ber, upon entry to prison, received a "letter from nals, a prison sentence enhances status when the the ranking chief welcoming him into the family." offender returns to his neighborhood, especially in As for real family, the warden in a Washington, the inner cities. California's Task Force on Gangs DC, jail recently noted that his facility currently and Drugs (1989) reported that during public contained three generations of a particular family testimony, gang members themselves "repeatedly at once. He remarked that, "It was like a family stated that incarceration was not a threat reunion for these guys." because they knew their sentences would be mini­ Some even suggest that prison serves as a mal.