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Intermediate Sanctions

Intermediate sanctions are community-based corrections that are more restrictive than probation, but less restrictive than prison. Some intermediate penalties include intensive supervision probation, community residential corrections centers, and electronic home monitoring. Intermediate sanctions are designed to reduce incarceration and to lower the costs of holding offenders in the most restrictive environments. They are also meant to provide more supervision than that which can be offered through regular probation or a similar sanction. Finally, intermediate sanctions also offer incremental alternatives in resentencing probation and parole violators. Instead of sending or returning these violators to jail or prison, intermediate sanctions can be used to increase the supervision and services offered to probationers and parolees.

Current Practice

Though the various practices considered to be intermediate sanctions can be traced to the start of the use of community-based programs for offenders, the modern categorization of these sanctions began in the early 1980s when U.S. prison and probation populations grew dramatically. At this time, it was thought that intermediate sanctions could help lower the numbers of those confined or placed on probation. In practice, this has not been the case.

Intermediate sanctions are designed to (1) provide a wider variety of sentencing alternatives for offenders, (2) decrease the costs for the corrections system, (3) reduce the rate of reoffending, and (4) maintain community safety. Several intermediate punishments are often used in combination with one another or in addition to regular probation or parole. The most common of these sanctions are fines, restitution, community service, day reporting centers, intensive supervision probation or parole, home confinement, electronic monitoring, residential community corrections centers, and boot camps.

Fines, Restitution, and Community Service

The punitive nature of fines, restitution, and community service is all the same: financial. The amount someone is fined as punishment varies based on the level or seriousness of his or her offense. Often the fine may be part of a restitution program that repays victims for damages resulting from an offense. In contrast, community service does not involve an upfront payment of any sort. Instead, it requires an individual to participate in unpaid labor with public or private nonprofit agencies to benefits society in general.

As they stand alone, fines, community service, and restitution are not more restrictive than regular probation. However, when imposed in addition to probation and other intermediate sanctions such as home confinement or electronic monitoring, they fit within the definition of intermediate sanctions. In addition, in certain cases, imposing a fine or community service may provide an alternative to using overcrowded jails and prisons.

Day Reporting Centers, Intensive Supervision, Home Confinement, and Electronic Monitoring

Day reporting centers, intensive supervision, and home confinement provide surveillance without incarceration. Day reporting centers monitor offenders who live in their own homes. Individuals must report to the centers several times throughout a week, if not daily, for various activities, including drug treatment and drug testing, counseling services, and vocational and educational assistance. The first day reporting centers appeared in Connecticut and Massachusetts in the mid-1980s. By the mid-1990s, there were more than a hundred of such centers in several states.

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