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Diversion from Prison by Sentence-Planning: Evaluation of a Program in Greenboro, N.C.

NCJ Number
113315
Journal
The Justice System Journal Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: (Winter 1987) Pages: 335-358
Author(s)
S H Clarke; W L Wallace
Date Published
1987
Length
24 pages
Annotation
An experimental evaluation measured the effects on prison sentences of a defense-oriented sentence-planning program serving indigent nonviolent felony defendants.
Abstract
Most of the program's clients were statistically predicted to receive active prison sentences of a year or more without the program's service. Short active sentences (6 months or less) coupled with community service or restitution were more frequent for the service group than for the control group and the median active sentence length was considerably shorter for the service group than for the controls. The mean active sentence was somewhat shorter for the service group than for controls, but the difference was not significant. The program's greatest effect was on high risk defendants (predicted to receive sentences of at least one year), it had little or no effect on low risk defendants. The program apparently affected high risk defendants' mean active sentence more than it affected the mean for low risk defendants, but none of the differences was statistically significant. The results suggest that the program's sentence planning and advocacy produced what attorneys and judges regarded as fairer distribution of imprisonment and community sanctions rather than a reduction of imprisonment. Legislation creating the program sought to relieve prison overcrowding, but this may have been unrealistic without an explicit legislative policy favoring community sanctions for some nonviolent felons who normally receive substantial imprisonment. (Publisher abstract).