Graduated Sanctions essay
The systems of up-bringing, motivation, control of young generations have always been important and developed, aiming at increase of young people’s self-consciousness and accountability. One of effective recently developed approaches is considered to be juvenile graduated sanctions. The programs of graduated sanctions, supported by the use of valid decision making instruments, help to ensure that intervention services for youth are appropriately identified (Matese, 1997, p.2). Graduated sanctions reveal the best perspectives for community based corrections, especially for young people, providing the appropriate correction, control and support methods and guaranteeing the reduction of recidivism cases.
Further this paper will be concentrated upon definition of graduated sanctions, the key levels of interventions, discussion of possible helpful resources, related to graduated sanctions.
First of all it is necessary to be clear about the notion of “graduated sanctions”, generally it is defined as “a set of integrated intervention strategies designed to operate in unison to enhance accountability, ensure public safety, and reduce recidivism by preventing future delinquent behavior” (Matese, 1997, p. 2). The major aim of using such system is concrete subdivision of crimes, committed by young people, when limited interventions are used in case of less serious offenses, whereas more restrictive ones follow some serious crimes. “Graduated sanctions systems make use of a “multi-tiered continuum” of intervention of services and programs that allows the juvenile justice system to match these to specific characteristic of the juvenile offender” (DeComo & Wiebush, 2005, p. 5). Any system of graduated sanctions usually consists of three components: “the program component, the assessment and decision making component, and the management information component” (DeComo & Wiebush, 2005, p 6).
It is necessary to mention, that there is a long list of possible synonyms to the word “sanctions” in this case, like fore example graduated responses, graduated consequences and so on. According to certain number of specialists in the sphere of juvenile justice, the term “sanctions” is absolutely not an appropriate term for the system, the main aim of which is to support young people in making correct choices and avoid continued criminal activities and actions. On the other hand, there is a need to have constant and stable control over the situation with juvenile delinquency.
The wide discussion of such sanction systems started around 1997, when the Congress of America provided 16.5 million for development and support of such programs for young people. “The funds were to specifically support Innovative Local Law Enforcement and Community Policing (ILLECP)) programs in states that provided assurance that they had in effect, or were working on these kinds of programs” (Wilson & Howell, 1993, p. 13). One of the key tasks of these programs was to control the application of accountability based sanctions to all young offenders and criminals in correspondence to their actions.
As soon as graded sanctions are discussed, it is necessary to comment in detail upon each of the levels, of which there are usually five pointed out: immediate sanctions, intermediate sanctions, community confinement, secure confinement, after care.
Immediate sanctions are usually applied in case of non- chronic offenders for not serious crimes. They belong to the early intervention system of sanctions, aimed at correcting illegal behavior and provision of the necessary services. “Typical immediate sanctions include community service, restitution, curfew restrictions, informal supervisions, and mandated involvement in short-term programs (shoplifter program or substance abuse education)” (Matese, 1997, p. 8). The cases of diversion from formal court processing are the most frequent basis for application of immediate sanctions.
The second level sanctions are called intermediate sanctions. Logically, they come after immediate sanctions, in case juveniles continue their type of crinimal behavior. Also sometimes intermediate sanctions are good for violent offenders, who are inclined to special forms of supervision, probation and corrections.
Community confinement includes sanctions useful for well developed community – based settings. Special programs are worked out for the young individuals, who committed property crimes or crimes against other individuals. In such cases the risk of recidivism is minimal, if any, and there is no need to take the offender out of his home atmosphere for treatment.
The next level of sanctions, secure confinement, is usually applied towards chronic law-breakers or juveniles, committing serious crimes with violent delinquency. Typically, these young people are inclined to recidivism, and this fact should be considered, when choosing the sanctions system. For such offenders there are special correctional facilities created, mostly, they are small institutions with concrete treatment organization and orientation, because they are proved to have much stronger impact than large institutions.
The final level of sanctions received the name – after care, from this it is already clear, that we are talking about the system of sanctions, which should be applied to the offenders at the moment of their return to the usual life, to the community after going through secure care. This level is of the highest importance to all categories of offenders, integrating back into social life. “A model after care program referred to as intensive supervision program should consist of the following elements:1) short term transitional placement in secure confinement, 2) day treatment, 3) outreach and tracking, 4) intensive supervision, 5) routine supervision, and 6) case closure” (Wilson & Howell, 1993, p. 25).
According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, a certain list of risk factors needs to be considered before working out the course of graduated sanctions to a concrete offender. The list of these individual factors includes: “drug dealing, antisocial behavior, gang involvement and physical aggression; family factors including sibling gang involvement and parental absenteeism; school factors like frequent absences and academic failure; poverty and violence in the neighborhood; and peer behavior like drug and alcohol use and gang activity” (Matese, 1997, p. 10). All these risk factors play vitally important role for the choice of the correction program, which in its turn is responsible for preventing recidivism. Usually young offenders are aware of the fact, that there is a possibility of application of tougher sanctions and graduated sanctions in this care play a perfect crime preventive role. This is one of the serious advantages of graduated sanctions systems, because it allows applying the treatment method which is neither too hard nor too mild and is the best to prevent recidivism in some concrete case. Enough attention, which is paid to the individuality of the offender, is one of the ways to reduce the repeated offenses.
When working out the system of graduated sanctions it is necessary to consider the application of decision making instruments. On the one hand the system of graduated sanctions is responsible for making young people accountable for their behavior and for the choices young offenders make; on the other hand, there is a strong need in creation of concrete range of programs and services, which would support young people in their “decision-making processes”, i.e. providing treatment interventions and services, helping to create a structured decision making model, in accordance young people’s needs and supporting them.
Graduated sanctions are in many ways connected to community corrections, the main target of which is to guarantee public safety and help to avoid future criminal behavior (Wilson & Howell, 1993, p. 26). Most of the prisoners and criminal offenders would have to reenter the communities again, and unfortunately this process might be rather sophisticated especially for young people, who get quickly used to the schedule and rules of some controlled environment and might get lost, when they cross the borders of it. “Returning prisoners usually face five challenges: substance abuse, physical and mental health, negative peer pressure, employment and housing” (Matese, 1997, p. 12). In order not to make them cope with these challenges alone and to avoid the risk of recidivism, it is necessary to provide the community corrections services.
Overall, this paper is devoted to the problem of graduated sanctions in relation to community-based corrections; for better understanding of the importance of the graduated sanctions and their potential for juvenile offenders it was necessary to study the notion of graduated sanctions, the five levels of their application and finally their relation to community based corrections. It is evident, that the system of graded sanction has sufficient advantages, especially for the juvenile offenders and for their further correction processes.
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