Intermediate Sanctions

Our textbook defines intermediate sanctions as "A variety of punishments that are more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and costly than incarceration. In other words intermediate sanctions can be used a secondary form of punishment for offenders leaving room for serious offenders in prisons. Intermediate sanctions can be used alone or combined with other sanctions. Intermediate sanctions can include house arrest, intensive probation, boot camps, electronic monitoring, and assignment to halfway houses. Intermediate sanctions are a result of the need to find a solution to help reduce the overcrowding of prisons and jails. Of course we could have just built more jails and prisons to house offenders, but that would be quite expensive. Intermediate sanctions help to prevent repeat offenders and save taxpayers the cost of housing an offender. As a result of intermediate sanctions offenders are eventually released into society, with the tools necessary to become productive members.

There are several types of intermediate sanctions. Fines can generally be issued along with another sanction According to our text over $1billion in fines are collected annually in the U.S. Community service is unpaid work for a set number of hours. Community service may include task such as graffiti removal, cleaning a park, repairing a house, picking up litter. Forfeiture is when the government confiscates items that were derived from criminal acts. The argument against forfeiture is that it is a violation of a citizen's right to seize property without a hearing. Restitution involves paying a sum of money to the victim, victim's family, or a crime victim's fund. A Fine is much more likely to be seen than restitution, many victims do not want payments from offenders and many states have victim compensation programs. Intensive supervised probation can be a result of a probationer receiving a negative report from their parole officer. This can result in multiple random visits, random drug testing and mandatory complication of a treatment program. One of the arguments against Intensive supervised probation is that because the conditions are so extreme it can be seen as an attempt to set the offender up for a trip back to prison. House arrest allows an offender who is sentenced to jail term to serve a portion of their sentence at home rather than being confined to jail. The offender's ankle is outfitted with and electronic monitoring device that is linked to a computer thru a telephone line. The computer records the dates and times of any signal interruptions. If there is an interruption during a time when the offender should be at home, the violation is checked by the parole officer and the offender could be subject to arrest. Boot camp exposes offenders to military style drills and physical exercise. Many boot camps use scared straight tactics where officers shout at and ridicule the offenders. Halfway houses are residences