FROM THE JUDGES DESK
Alternatives to Incarceration D
uring the period between 1982 and 2007, the number of Americans incarcerated in prisons and jails increased a staggering 274%. The United States also witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of persons on community supervision during this time period, largely because of the collective belief that communitybased supervision could alleviate prison overcrowding and increasing incarceration costs. Researchers, however, have determined that the increase in the community-supervised population is correlated with a subsequent increase in revocation rates, thus producing evidence that offenders revoked from community supervision comprise a significant portion of the incarcerated population. Recent statistics reveal that the percentage of parolees re-incarcerated after release currently stands at 32%. Although these rates have decreased since 2008, it is apparent that community re-entry continues to remain a difficult transition for offenders. As such, state criminal justice systems are faced with a difficult challenge: to obtain a decrease in the inmate population and an increase in rehabilitation efforts for communitysupervised offenders while operating within fiscal limitations. Alternatives to incarceration have become a popular approach to deal with such a challenge and for good reason: they promise to reduce offender incarceration and recidivism while maintaining public safety and limiting state expenditures. Although many types of alternatives to incarceration exist (e.g., house arrest, halfway houses, electronic monitoring, drug courts, and diversion), one particular alternative that has gained notable attention over the last two decades is the Day Reporting Center. Day Reporting Centers (DRCs) are facilities that offer offenders rehabilitative programming and daily supervision. Offenders assigned to DRCs generally report during daytime hours and return home after daily programming is complete. Unlike other alternatives to incarceration, DRCs provide offenders
32 Dayton Bar Briefs May 2016
By Hon. Barbara P. Gorman Montgomery Cty Common Pleas Court
with practical reentry programming while providing state criminal justice systems the opportunity to monitor and supervise offenders as they remain living within the community. Thus, DRCs are perceived to be cost-effective ways to manage offenders who are under community supervision. The Montgomery County Common Pleas Court-General Division is opening a Day Reporting Program on the grounds of the Bennett J. Cooper Complex. This program will be operated by the Adult Probation Department and is designed to address the re-entry population (ex-offenders, probationers, parolees, homeless, etc.) and the community need for access to social services. It is also in close proximity to the Secure Transitional Offender Program (STOP), which is the Court’s residential drug and alcohol intervention program for male and female offenders. STOP provides programming and services for male and female offenders that are on probation supervision to the Court. STOP is utilized as a cost effective alternative to incarceration and was implemented to assist in reducing crowding in the Montgomery County Jail and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The Court sanctions offenders to STOP in lieu of a 180 day sentence to the jail or a prison sentence. The Day Reporting Program will provide the Judge with yet another sentencing option for up to 180 days. The offender would be required to attend the program a minimum of 30 days, unless otherwise specified by the Judge. The Day Reporting Program will be an on-site cognitive restructuring program designed to change an offender's adverse thinking patterns, provide education and job training to enable long-term employment, and hold unemployed offenders continued on page 33
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