Part I of our assignment was to analyze five scenarios and determine which intermediate
sanction would be appropriate for the situation, and why.
The first scenario I chose was a male juvenile who constantly sneaks out of the house despite
his parents’ attempts to prevent him. He leaves home at night to meet friends, use drugs, and
commit acts of vandalism.
In this instance, I would utilize Home confinement with electronic monitoring, this would allow
the juvenile to complete community service and pay victim restitutions because of the acts of
vandalism that they caused, and would also limit the juvenile to their home within the hours
that they would normally be out with friends using drugs. This type of punishment is
commensurate with the crime committed as it gives the juvenile a chance to realize the severity
of their actions, and not have to be sentenced to prison. It would be more beneficial to juveniles
because it is geared more towards rehabilitation.
My second scenario was a female offender who “keyed” the car of a neighbor who kept parking
on the curb nearest to her own side of the street.
For this case I would use Restitution as my intermediate sanction. This form of punishment
requires the offender to make a payment to the victim. This is often a judgement made when
victims have experienced some type of financial setback due to a crime being committed. I
would use only restitution as a punishment for the first offense, but if this was a common
occurrence I would escalate the severity of the punishment.
Third was a young male who has been committing petty acts of vandalism.
In this scenario, with a young male who has committed non-violent acts, I would utilize
Community service with restitutions as my intermediate sanctions. This would allow the
offender an opportunity to be rehabilitated at a young age without having to have a serious
criminal record. It would also teach him valuable life lessons and allow him to pay back to
victims of his crimes for the value of his acts of vandalism.
Fourth was a male teenager who made threatening prank calls to various people in the
community.
With the offender being a teenager and only having made prank phone calls I would call for
Community service as my intermediate sanction in this scenario. With this type of deviant
behavior, I feel as though community service would allow the offender rehabilitation and get
him on the right track at such a young age. This would force the teenager to give up their time
while also benefiting the community from the needed labor.
And Fifth, A middle-aged male who continues to drive while drunk. This is his second DWI
offense. He has never been to prison.
In this scenario, the least useful form of intermediate sanction that I could see being beneficial
would be Drug court with intensive supervised probation. This would force the offender into
References:
attending alcohol addiction treatment programs, while also being placed into the supervision of
an officer that can monitor his progress. This will require frequent check-ups to ensure that the
individual is not consuming any alcohol, and is getting his life back to together.
Part II of our assignment was to outline the benefits and drawbacks of two intermediate
sanctions, and note the types of penalties I advocate using and why.
The first intermediate sanction that I chose to analyze was Community Service. This is also one
that I strongly advocate using. As stated in our textbook “Community service serves a dual
purpose: to rehabilitate and punish offenders.” The benefits of using community service as a
punishment are that it has very low overhead costs, and provides the community with much
needed labor and aid in improving the quality of life within the community. This could also
assist the offender in developing skills that could aid in their rehabilitation. It would allow the
offender to see the product of hard work and the impact that they can have on their
communities in a positive manner. Some studies have documented how community service can
have long term benefits for an offender as it allows them a sense of belonging and
camaraderie,
benefits not seen inside of a prison or detention center. (Andrews & Bonta, 2003)
Conversely, some of the drawbacks regarding community service as an intermediate sanction is
that the offender will not fully give themselves to the cause, weak efforts to serve the
community will usually make the offender more vulnerable to committing future crimes, which
will in turn defeat the rehabilitative process.
The second intermediate sanction that I want to analyze is Supervision with GPS Monitoring.
Our textbook shows that the annual cost savings associated with 100 offenders can amount to
$1.2 million. This technology allows supervision officers to detect when an offender is not
where they are supposed to be at any given moment. There are usually alarms attached to this
units that can be activated by the supervising officer, so that if they are hiding or cannot be
found for whatever reason, the audible alarm can alert the officer to the exact location it is
almost deafening described in our text, this acts as a very good deterrent and a warning to
community members. I highly advocate the use of this penalty in regard to the punishment for
eligible offenders.
Some of the drawbacks in regards to Supervision with GPS monitoring are that it is of course
limited by our current technology. In bad weather or heavily forested areas, the connection to
the device can be spotty or non-existent. And currently the implementation of this technology
may be out of reach of smaller departments due to the high costs associated with it.
Community Service | National Institute of Justice. (2017). National Institute of Justice. Retrieved
30 January 2017, from https://www.nij.gov/topics/courts/restorative-justice/promising-
practices/pages/community-service.aspx
Community Service. (2017). Restorative Justice. Retrieved 30 January 2017, from
http://restorativejustice.org/restorative-justice/about-restorative-justice/tutorial-intro-to-
restorative-justice/lesson-3-programs/community-service/
Andrews, DA & Bonta, J. (2003). The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, ISBN 1-58360-544-4
Hanser, R. D. (2017). Introduction to Corrections, 2nd Edition. [Yuzu]. Retrieved
from https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781506306773/
