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Taking Quality Into Account - Assessing the Benefits and Costs of New Jersey's Intensive Supervision Program (From Intermediate Punishments, P 85-97, 1987, Belinda R McCarthy, ed. - See NCJ-105334)

NCJ Number
105339
Author(s)
F S Pearson
Date Published
1987
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper describes specific problems arising in an external cost/benefit evaluation of New Jersey's intensive supervision program and their solution.
Abstract
The program has seven major components: intensive supervision contacts, employment or vocational training, community service work, community sponsor and network team support, special counseling, selective intake of offenders, and emphasis on individual responsibility. In assessing such components, standard cost-benefit analysis is often inadequate because hard-to-quantify, but real, program benefits may be overlooked. To deal with this problem, external evaluators are expanding the scope of their analysis. This expanded analysis includes specifying particular affected groups, reporting admittedly problematic measurements of important outcome variables: and trying to examine multilevel program options and estimate marginal net benefits. 9 references.