Reintegrating the Concept of Community into Community-Based Corrections

Abstract

Police administrators across the country are developing a range of community-oriented policing strategies at a time when community corrections administrators are moving in the opposite direction by applying traditional, offender-based policing concepts to probation and parole practice. I highlight the limitations of this new wave of intermediate sanction programs and then discuss the importance of community context (i.e., community attitudes, tolerance, support, and structure) to the development of effective adult supervision strategies. I conclude by describing the four key characteristics of a community-oriented approach to probation and parole supervision: (1) service brokerage, (2) advocacy for offenders and victims, (3) triage, and (4) location in the community.