Net Widening

The term net widening has been used to describe a particular phenomenon associated with the utilization of various alternatives to traditional sentencing, such as diversion programs, probation, parole, and community sentencing. When offenders are included in these various programs, a wider array of the population comes under the oversight of state agencies. The creation of these various programs produces a need for them to be inhabited. Many of these measures were introduced to reduce the prison population, to lower the court dockets, or to develop a more appropriate and effective offender program, but there has been an unintended effect of increasing the total number of the population under state control while the target population has not been reduced. In addition, the recidivism rate for many new programs (indeterminate sanctions, excluding probation and parole) does not show a lowering of recidivism in comparison to more traditional probation and parole programs—albeit the cost for these alternative programs is lower. Ultimately an effect is created in which the capacity to punish increases. This issue is especially pertinent for the United States, which already has the highest rate, percentage, and number of people incarcerated of all countries in the world. The rate of crime engagement and victimization in the United States, however, is very similar to those rates in other industrialized nations, with exception of homicide.

Before these various alternative sanctions, a police officer, through the use of his or her discretion, would be less inclined to send an offender through the formal criminal justice system. Now, an officer is more inclined to utilize such a formal process. Currently, various procedures have been implemented in which formal sanctioning has increased.

According to data from the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, in all categories of probation, jail, prison, and parole, there is an increase of the total population under direct control of a correctional agency. In 1980, there were 1,840,400 people total in the correctional population (probation, jail, prison, and parole). In 2009, this number jumped to 7,225,800, a 293 percent increase. Those on probation in 1980 totaled 1,118,097; in 2009, this figure was 4,203,967, a 276 percent increase. Individuals on parole in 1980 were 220,438. In 2009, the figure was 819,308, a 217 percent increase. These percentages do not include various other diversion and community programs.

Also from data from the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, there was an overall increase of the number held in jail and supervised outside a jail facility within a 10-year time span (1995–2005). The total for those in jail and outside jail in 1995 was 541,913. In 2005, this increased to 747,529, a 51 percent increase. This increase was echoed in a variety of programs during the same time period: Electronic monitoring saw a 68 percent increase; home detention, a 9 percent increase; day reporting, a 270 percent [Page 260]increase; community service, a 51 percent increase; weekender programs, a 639 percent increase; and other pretrial supervision, a 379 percent increase. The only two areas in which there has been a percentage decrease are other work programs, with a 37 percent decrease, and treatment programs, with an 81 percent decrease. (For treatment, the percentage calculated is between the years 1996 and 2005.) This was during a period of an overall crime decrease, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

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