Measuring Diversion: The Florida Community Control Program

Abstract

The prison crowding crisis has caused many states to implement intensive community supervision programs in an attempt to divert convicted offenders from prison. The Florida Community Control Program (FCCP), which places offenders under house arrest or electronic survelliance, is the largest, best-established prison diversion effort in the United States. During the last six years, Florida courts have used objective guideline criteria to sentence more than 25,000 offenders to the community control program. This article describes an effort to evaluate the impact of the FCCP on prison crowding in Florida. The research compares the characteristics of offenders sentenced to prison before and after the FCCP implementation and attempts to account for changes in sentencing policy in order to measure the diversionary effect of the program.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Austin, James and Barry Krisberg . 1982. “The Unmet Promise of Alternative to Incarceration.” Crime and Delinquency 28(3):374-409.

Baird, Christopher . 1989. “The Corrections Crisis in Florida.” Madison, WI: National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

Blomberg, Thomas . 1983. “Diversion's Disparate Results and Unresolved Questions: An Integrative Evaluation Perspective.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 20(1):24-38.

Bureau of Justice Statistics . 1988. “Prisoners in 1987.” BJS Bulletin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

Byrne, James M. , Arthur Lurigio , and Christopher Baird . 1989. “The Effectiveness of the New Intensive Supervision Programs.” Research in Corrections Series 2, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

Chiricos, Theodore . 1989. “Washington and California: A Comparison of Sentencing and Correctional Policies.” Tallahassee: School of Criminology, Florida State University.

Clear, Todd R. 1987. “The New Intensive Supervision Movement.” New Brunswick, NJ: School of Criminal Justice. Rutgers University. (mimeo)

Erwin, Billie S. 1987. Evaluation of Intensive Supervision Probation in Georgia. Atlanta: Georgia Department of Corrections.

Florida Criminal Justice Estimating Conference . 1988. “Prison Population Projections.” Tallahassee, FL: Author.

10.

Justice Research Associates . 1988. “Quantitative Assessment of Factors Impacting Prison Populations.” Tallahassee, FL: Author.

11.

National Council on Crime and Delinquency . 1989. Bureau of Justice Assistance Prison Capacity Program: Description and Accomplishments. Madison, WI: Author.

12.

Pearson, Frank S. 1987. Research on New Jersey's Intensive Supervision Program. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.

13.

Tonry, Michael and Richard Will . 1988. “Intermediate Sanctions.” Preliminary report to the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC.