The Cost-Effectiveness of Criminal Justice, Essay Example

There are several alternatives to traditional prosecution, including diversion, deferred prosecution, and deferred sentencing. There are four forms of diversion programs that are similar in nature but have different requirements. Broadly, these four types include statewide pretrial diversion programs, prebooking diversion programs, postbooking diversion programs, and post-plea diversion programs. Statewide pretrial diversion programs are managed and funded by a combination of institutions including a combination of the Administrative Office of the Courts of a particular state, the probation department, community corrections agencies, and nonprofit organizations. These diversion programs typically involve community service and victim restitution. This alternative is advantageous because it receives funding from several different institutions. However, a concern is that statewide pretrial diversion programs are not available in all of a state’s jurisdictions (Broner et al., 2005).

Prebooking diversion programs allow the criminal justice system to intervene before an offender is charged with a crime (Cowell et al., 2004). This is an advantage because it helps keep offenders out of jail in the first place, which helps protect against prison overcrowding and saves state funds. It is also an advantage because it helps individuals with severe mental illnesses, which provides police with additional training that will help them identify the symptoms of mental illness in the field. A disadvantage of this system can occur when a police officer mistakenly identifies an individual as having symptoms of mental illness, when in fact he does not. It is difficult for police to be sure that an individual is experiencing mental illness without the examination of a doctor.

The postbooking diversion program is the most common type of pretrial diversion program. This type of program is also concerned with identifying individuals with mental illnesses and keeping them out of prison so they can get more beneficial treatment. This diversion program is distinct because it involves reaching negotiations between the diversion staff and criminal justice personnel after an individual has been charged with an offense. This type of diversion program is advantageous because it is closer to many ideas of what a rehabilitation program should be. During this process, the diversion staff team works in the courts to serve as either case managers or monitors to help bridge the gap from the courts to the providers of community service. This is advantageous as well because it helps the diversion team have a greater understanding of the progress that each individual is making. Furthermore, this type of program allows the individual to give back to the community for the damage that he or she caused. However, a disadvantage of this type of diversion program is that the ability of the mentally impaired individual will restrict the type of community service that can be performed. A related issue is that the individual may have to be closely monitored to ensure that the task is performed correctly, while considering that the individual may not make errors on purpose it is important to ensure that support is provided so that the tasks issued can be properly carried out.

The final type of diversion program is the post-plea diversion program in which offenders are required to plead guilty to their charges to be able to be diverted from prison. Once this occurs, they will be told to participate in community service, treatment, or related programs. When the assigned program is completed, the charges and pleas of the defendant will be completely thrown out or dismissed. This program is advantageous for smaller crimes in which the individual make small damage in the community, or for a situation in which fines were not able to be paid. However, this is not the case for larger crimes. A disadvantage is that in some cases after completing the community service or treatments, the individual will not have learned their lesson and commit the crime again. Therefore, it is important to consider that throwing out the charges and pleas of an individual will not always completely lead to rehabilitation.

A deferred prosecution agreement is a voluntary alternative to a court hearing (Giudice, 2011). In this process, prosecutor agrees to grant amnesty for an individual that committed a particular crime in exchange for requiring the defendant agreeing to complete a program. In this sense, deferred prosecution could be considered a diversion program as well because a primary function of this is to keep these individuals out of prison. Typically, the types of crimes that will be considered for a deferred prosecution agreement are non-violent crimes that are typically considered white collar. An example of this may be corporate fraud that results in the defendant paying fines, implementing reforms in their business practices, and agreeing to allow the police to investigate other aspects of their practices. This is advantageous because it will allow law enforcers to gain access to more information about the particular case and the defendant has incentive to agree to the terms. However, this is disadvantageous because a financial punishment is typically not going to impair the type of individuals that would commit this crime to any significant extent. Furthermore, even if this individual agrees to the terms of the investigators, it does not guarantee that the individual will ensure that he or she does not commit this type of crime in the future.

A deferred sentence allows sentence to be decided after the defendant has completed community service or a related program referred to them by the case investigators (NAPSA, 2009). If the terms of the referred program are followed as intended, it is possible for the judge to throw out the sentencing and the guilty plea. This will allow the incident to be removed from the individual’s record. However, if the terms are violated, the defendant will be required to immediately carry out the terms if the sentencing. Typically, before this process can begin, a plea bargain must be reached that ensures that the defendant will plea guilty in exchange for a deferred sentence. An advantage of this method is that it helps keep individuals out of prison, which ultimately saves funds. Furthermore, it helps indicate the difference between the defendants that are committed to their rehabilitation and would not be likely to commit the crime again and those who believe that it is not important to follow the program they are given. This ultimately allows the correct groups to be assigned to the rehabilitation and remain out of prison, while indicating which individuals should not be given this chance and be required to serve their sentence. A disadvantage of this process is the length of time it takes for an individual who intends to violate his or her plan for rehabilitation to enter prison, when it would have been ideal for this person to be sent there in the first place.

References

Broner, N.,Mayrl, D.W., and Landsberg, G. (2005). Outcomes of mandated and nonmandated New York City jail diversion for offenders with alcohol, drug, and mental disorders. The Prison Journal, 85(18).

Cowell, A.J., Broner, N., and Dupont, R. (2004). The cost-effectiveness of criminal justice diversion programs for people with serious mental health illnesses co-occurring with substance abuse: Four case studies. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 20:292.

Giudice, Lauren. (2011).Regulating Corruption. Boston University Law Review, 91.

National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA). (2009). Pretrial diversion in the 21st century: A national survey of pretrial diversion programs and practices. The NAPSA Monograph.