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Law Enforcement Assistance Administration During a Time of Austerity (From Proceedings of the One Hundred and Ninth Annual Congress of Correction, P 199-204, 1980 - See NCJ-74427)

NCJ Number
74447
Author(s)
H S Dogin
Date Published
1980
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The operations of LEAA under a limited budget and suggestions for corrections in a time of austerity are considered.
Abstract
Although recent legislation has streamlined LEAA's operations and expanded many of its responsibilities, financial support has been cut by about one-third. In the area of discretionary programs, this has necessitated funding only programs of proven effectiveness or that offer a high probability of improving criminal and juvenile justice functions. The focus of corrections efforts under the new legislation are increasing alternatives to pretrial detention, developing programs to deal with the needs of drug dependent offenders, increasing community-based halfway houses and other community-based rehabilitation programs, developing alternatives to maximum security confinement, reducing inmate violence, and encouraging State participation in prison industry programs. However, reduced support for those areas may place a greater strain on correctional facilities. Thus, correctional planners must develop more alternatives to incarceration, not only because this serves rehabilitation efforts, but because the cost of imprisonment is so much greater. Also, diversification of funding resources should be increased. Because LEAA will continue to support the standards implementation and accreditation processes, correctional planners must focus on bringing operations into line with accepted standards of performance if limited funding is to be received from the Federal level. No references are included.