Alternatives To Prison Sentences

This report surveys and summarizes the literature on the use of alternative sanctions in 12 western countries with a particular focus on its effectiveness and efficiency.

Introduces the reader to the basic principles central to understanding alternatives to imprisonment as well as descriptions of promising practices implemented throughout the world. This handbook offers information about alternatives to imprisonment at various stages of the criminal justice process.

An outline and critical appraisal of alternatives to custody, this book is written in response to escalating prison costs, severe overcrowding and rising recidivism rates. It assesses the validity of punishment in the community as a means of solving some of these problems.

As the UK and many other western societies face up to the consequences of a rapidly increasing prison population, so the search for alternative approaches to punishment and dealing with offenders has become an increasingly urgent priority for government policy and society as a whole. This book reports the results of the research programme commissioned by the Coulsfield Inquiry into Alternatives to Prison, which was funded by the Esmée Fairbairn 'Rethinking Crime and Punishment' initiative. It is written by leading authorities in the field, and provides a comprehensive, authoritative and wide-ranging review of the range of issues associated with the use of noncustodial sanctions, examining experiences in Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as England and Wales.

Originally published: Syracuse, N.Y.: Prison Research Education Action Project, 1976.

Alternatives to Prison Sentences