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Issues in Criminal Justice (JF)
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For Probation to Succeed, Rehabilitative Programs Must Be Available—and Funded |
By Kathryn Wiley|Published Date: November 23, 2009 A recent study reports that high recidism in one county in Ohio is the result of poor risk-assessment and few, if any, rehabilitative programs.
The intensive probation program in Cincinnati's Hamilton County is so ineffective that the ex-offenders it supervises are more likely to commit crimes than others convicted of similar crimes who never receive supervision, says the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
That poor showing comes despite the fact that the county gets the most state money and spends more per probationer than other urban counties, according to an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Now, prison officials are threatening to pull the $1.7 million they give the county court for the program, which is designed to keep people out of prison.
Mike Walton, who oversees Hamilton County's Probation Department, defended the program, saying the people in it are among the most difficult to supervise and that the state is looking at the issue from a fiscal perspective, not a public safety one.
For Walton, the biggest frustration is that, while the state pays for the probation officers, it does not provide money for the programming needed to help rehabilitate people.
The department's probation officers are therefore urging judges to give people in the program a second chance. Rather than sending a violator to prison, for example, they suggest that a short jail stay or increased drug screens or more community service would be more effective.
Such steps have made the Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) successful. The HOPE program requires short jail stays immediately after rule violations—such as illegal drug use and missing probation appointments, treatment and drug tests.
As a result, missed appointments are down by eighty five percent and positive drug tests by ninety one percent, according to a Pepperdine University study. HOPE probationers have had arrest rates three times lower than a comparison group.
For more information, please visit Justice Fellowship’s Probation and Parole resource page. For more information about HOPE, click here. |
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