ATS1423 Chap.5 Community Corrections and Reintegration
Community Corrections and Reintegration
Community Corrections and Reintegration asks what happens when punishment is served in the community or after release. The lecture sets out four types of order, diversion, suspended sentences, probation and parole, along with intermediate sanctions for breaches, and the philosophies and drivers behind them.
It then turns to rehabilitation: desistance theories, the needs of people leaving the system, risk-need-responsivity and the Good Lives Model. The required reading by Hart, Gelb and Martinovic proposes a throughcare framework built on the capability approach and desistance theory, while the textbook warns that community orders can widen the net and become an appendage to prison rather than an alternative.
The week's tutorial moves from what prison takes away to the harms people face after leaving it, asking groups to research housing, employment, family reconnection, staying substance-free and stigma.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Origins and growth of community corrections
- 02
Diversion, suspended sentences, probation and parole
- 03
Intermediate sanctions for breaches
- 04
Community protection, rehabilitation and restorative philosophies
- 05
Desistance: ontogenic, sociogenic and identity theories
- 06
Risk-need-responsivity and the Good Lives Model
- 07
Throughcare and Victorian support services
- 08
Net widening and the appendage critique
Worked example · free
Match a client to the right model
- 1Separate static from dynamic factors: the criminal history is static, while alcohol use and employment are dynamic and can be targeted.
- 1RNR: assess risk and give intensive treatment matched to it, targeting dynamic needs such as alcohol use.
- 1Responsivity: deliver the program in a way that suits this person's learning style and motivation.
- 1Good Lives Model: build on strengths such as family support and the goal of excellence in work, while still reducing risk.
- 1Combine them: the lecture calls RNR too deterministic on its own, so a strengths-based plan that also treats the alcohol use fits both.
Key terms
- Probation
- A front-end order in which a person stays in the community under supervision instead of going to prison, and can be imprisoned for a breach.
- Intermediate sanctions
- Responses to low or moderate breaches of probation or parole, such as curfews, testing or community service, that stop short of revoking the order.
- Desistance
- The social process through which a person reduces and finally stops offending, explained by age, new social bonds or a changed identity.
- Good Lives Model
- A strengths-based rehabilitation model with two goals, promoting human goods and reducing risk, that asks what a person can contribute.
- Throughcare
- Continuous support that begins in prison and carries on after release, delivered through a lasting relationship with the same worker.
- Net widening
- The effect in which community programs draw in people who would not otherwise have been processed and add controls instead of replacing prison.
Community Corrections and Reintegration FAQ
What is the difference between probation and parole?
Probation is a front-end order served in the community instead of prison. Parole is a back-end order: conditional, supervised release after part of a prison term, usually after a non-parole period has been served.
Why do some community orders increase prison numbers?
Strict conditions produce breaches, and breaches can send people to prison. The textbook also records that Victoria's abolition of suspended sentences sharply raised prisoner numbers instead of increasing the use of alternatives.
What does the throughcare framework add to RNR and the Good Lives Model?
Hart and colleagues argue those models lack the specificity needed to design programs, so they add practical domains such as accommodation, employment, relationships and community inclusion, delivered through continuous worker relationships from before release.
Can employers refuse to hire someone because of a criminal record?
The lecture notes that Victorian equal opportunity law does not stop employers from refusing work because of a criminal record, which is one of the barriers community corrections cannot remove on its own.
What are the three families of desistance theory?
Ontogenic theories point to the age-crime curve, in which people grow out of crime. Sociogenic theories point to new social bonds such as work, partners and parenthood. Identity theories point to a rebuilt life story in which a better self emerges.
Assessment move
Make a four-row table of the order types with when they apply and what happens on breach, and test yourself on front end versus back end. Learn RNR and the Good Lives Model as a pair, with one strength and one weakness each.
If you are writing on essay prompt 4, collect evidence on housing, employment and debt from Weeks 5 and 6 together, because the prompt asks you to analyse economic forces and reintegration practices side by side.
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