Community corrections is a system imposed by the court on individuals who have committed a crime in which they serve all or part of their sentence or sanction through community-based placements and programs as an alternative to incarceration. Like incarcerated corrections, community corrections have similar goals: to promote public safety, to administer punishment, and to rehabilitate individuals, but unlike incarcerated corrections, this is done in a very different way.

In this chapter, we will consider how these different community corrections options reach each of these goals. We will highlight various different programs available through the Community Corrections parts of the justice system. Along with highlighting and defining these options, we will discuss what the current research, government, and community groups are reporting about program effectiveness.

Diversion

This chapter deals with official actions from the courts on individuals in the community while they are under some sanction. However, a large number of individuals do not even make it that far in the system due to some form of diversion. Diversion is a process whereby an individual, at some stage, is routed away from continuing on in the formal justice process. Diversion is an action that would effectively keep a person in the community and, in some cases, out of the criminal justice system altogether.

Different Diversion Points in the System

Diversion can come as early as the initial contact with a law enforcement officer. The discretion an officer uses could be considered a diversion, as the officer decides whether the individual needs to continue on the justice path. It could be a verbal warning, a warning ticket, or just a decision by the officer not to issue a formal ticket (citation).

Officers may also recognize the person has a need that is not being fulfilled and thus identify an underlying reason the person may be committing a crime. For example, a person is trespassing on someone else’s property to find a place to sleep. The officer has the legal authority to issue a citation for trespass if the property owner allows and thus arrests the person, but the underlying issue may be the person’s housing needs. Could the officer divert the person to a shelter or other housing option instead of issuing the citation and arresting them? One such diversion program in Marion County, Oregon, is Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD). The program partners law enforcement officers with community resources and mentors. It trains officers to identify these underlying needs, thus finding support for those they are coming into contact with in the community and not just automatically routing them through the justice system without any support for the underlying issue. Check out Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) [Website] if you would like to learn more.

Diversion can also be more formal. For instance, a diversion can be issued by a judge in lieu of a judgment or as a condition of a judgment. In a formal diversion process, a judge could offer a person the chance to complete a diversion program in place of a sentence, making it a condition of the judgment. Let’s say the person committed a crime due to a substance abuse problem. The judge could offer the person substance abuse treatment and then effectively nullify the judgment once the person has successfully completed the diversion. In figure 9.1, you will find a graph outlining how diversion could be applied at various points in the justice system.

It is difficult to know the exact amount of diversions that occur in the United States, especially across the variety of places where diversion can occur. It is also difficult to determine if there are inequities in how diversions are applied across populations. These diversion options could save the courts or corrections systems hundreds of millions of dollars and keep individuals in the community instead of incarcerating them. Check out the Prison Policy Initiative article, Building exits off the highway of mass-incarceration: Diversion programs explained [Website], to learn many of the ways diversion can be implemented to address incarceration issues nationally.

Licenses and Attributions for The Role of Community Corrections

Open Content, Shared Previously

“The Role of Community Corrections” is adapted from “9.1 Diversion”, “9.2 Intermediate Sanctions”, “9.3 Probation”, “9.4 Boot Campus/Shock Incarceration”, “9.5 Drug Courts”, “9.6 Halfway Houses”, “9.8 House Arrest”, “9.9 Community Residential Facilities”, “9.10 Restorative Justice”, and “9.11 Parole” by David Carter in SOU-CCJ230 Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System by Alison S. Burke, David Carter, Brian Fedorek, Tiffany Morey, Lore Rutz-Burri, and Shanell Sanchez, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Modifications by Megan Gonzalez, revisions by Roxie Supplee, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 include minor updates for clarity.

Figure 9.1. Case Flow Diagram by The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention/U.S. Department of Justice is in the Public Domain.