NCJ Number
144251
Date Published
1993
Length
10 pages
Annotation
To understand the role that intensive probation supervision (IPS) may play in future corrections policy, the U.S. General Accounting Office evaluated the IPS program in two Arizona counties in terms of its direct operating cost compared to the cost of a comparable prison sentence and how well the program controlled crime.
Abstract
The crime control component of the evaluation included two comparisons, first, of subsequent arrests of offenders sentenced to the IPS program with those sentenced to standard probation, and second, with offenders sentenced to prison during the same time period. Using arrests for new crimes as an indicator of crime commission, the findings showed that IPS offenders were arrested at lower rates than offenders on standard probation. However, once offenders finished the IPS program and moved to standard probation, they were arrested with increasing frequency. The number of offenders sentenced to prison who had been rearrested was slightly lower than the number of offenders in the IPS program who had been rearrested. The cost analysis showed that the cost of sentencing to IPS was lower than that for sentencing to prison except in the cases of offenders who committed the least serious crimes and who were most likely to reoffend. Both county programs probably represented cost-saving alternatives to incarceration in terms of direct operating costs. 4 tables, 13 notes, and 1 appendix