A More Effective Probation

by Matt Kelley · 2009-07-20 05:25:00 UTC
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UCLA Professor Mark Kleiman writes in Washington Monthly about a promising shift in the focus of probation and parole underway in Hawaii. Hawaii Judge Steven Alm (above) said he saw the probationers coming through the system again and again - they were facing years in prison for failing drug tests or for not showing up in court, but nobody wanted to send a drug addict to jail for ten years. Probation officers and judges were reluctant to revoke probation, however, because it meant years in prison. Alm decided to try small, certain punishments for violators rather than murky threats of years on prison. And it worked.

When someone violates probation, they have a hearing within 48 hours and spend several days in jail. Probationers are told about the program before they're enrolled. Immediately, the number of violations fell drastically.

The pilot program has since expanded to a statewide program called HOPE (Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement), and probationers in the HOPE program now have their probation revoked only one-third as much as those in traditional probation. From Kleiman's article:

A  solid body of social science and criminological research dating back to the eighteenth century tells us that behavior can be changed by punishment that is certain and swift even if it is not severe. Conversely, if punishments for wrongdoing are sporadic and delayed, increasing severity has only modest impact. That’s why quintupling the prison and jail population has failed to get us back to the crime rates of the early 1960s. (Averaged across major crime categories, current rates are about 250 percent of 1962 rates.) The importance of swift and predictable consequences is plain common sense, understood by every parent. But that lesson has not been incorporated into our corrections system.

Kleiman explores this topic in much greater detail in his forthcoming book: "When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment."

Alm has found a formula that works, and one that makes more sense than sending drug addicts to prison for years at a time. And by reducing recidivism, the HOPE program is increasing the chances of community reintegration. When probationers are less likely to violate, employers are more likely to hire them. Other states across the nation are eying Hawaii's experiment, and we may see more from HOPE in the years ahead.

Via Daily Dish

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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