Author: Stemen, Don
Title: Alternative Sentencing Policies for Drug Offenders: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Kansas Senate Bill 123, Final Report
Summary: The number of individuals arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for drug possession in the United States has grown substantially over the last thirty years, with drug possessors accounting for an increasing share of criminal justice resources. Approximately 1.4 million arrests for drug possession were reported in 2008, representing roughly 10 percent of all arrests in the United States and a 210 percent increase in drug possession arrests since 1982 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1983, 2009). By 2004, 161,000 persons were convicted annually of felony drug possession in state courts, up from 58,000 persons in 1986 (Durose & Langan, 2007; Langan, 1989). These increases in arrests and convictions have fueled a significant increase in the number of prison admissions for drug possession, with persons convicted of drug possession now representing roughly 15 percent of all commitments to state prisons, up from just 1.3 percent in 1983 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1986, 2006). Like other intermediate sanctions focused on prison diversion, Arizona‘s Proposition 200 (Arizona Revised Statutes §13-901.01), California‘s Proposition 36 (California Penal Code §1210), and Kansas‘ Senate Bill 123 (Kansas Statutes Annotated §21-4729) were largely motivated by a system level goal of reducing overall prison populations (see, e.g. Petersilia & Turner, 1990a, 1993; for goals of specific legislation, see Drug Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act of 1996; Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee, 2003; Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000). At the same time, the reforms elevated the primacy of treatment and emphasized the need to achieve an individual level goal of reducing the recidivism rates and substance abuse problems of program participants. These goals are complementary. The system level goal of reducing prison populations is generally achieved by both diverting individuals from prison at sentencing and reducing returns to prison following revocation or reconviction (the product of achieving individual level goals and, at the least, changes in organizational responses to technical violations). To address some of these and other limitations of the research on state-wide drug treatment initiatives and to provide a more comprehensive policy focus on their context, processes, and impacts, we undertook a NIJ-sponsored evaluation of Kansas‘ Senate Bill 123 (SB 123). Enacted in 2003, SB 123 created mandatory community-based supervision and drug treatment for nonviolent offenders convicted of a first or second offense of simple drug possession (Kansas Statutes Annotated §21-4729). Unlike Proposition 36, SB 123 clearly defined eligible offenders in terms of offense of conviction and prior criminal history, created a mandatory sentence requiring judges to impose a community-based sentence with treatment and requiring offenders to accept that sentence and treatment, and articulated clear rules limiting the use of revocation for violations of the SB 123 sentence. These factors had the potential to overcome many of the deficiencies that undermined the impact of previous state-wide intermediate sanction efforts – ensuring diversion at the sentencing, reducing recidivism rates for targeted offenders, and, as a result, reducing overall prison populations. This study examines SB 123‘s combined impact on diversion, recidivism rates, and overall prison populations. It then explores the impact of SB 123 on the work routines of criminal justice system actors and the process of implementing SB 123. The goal is to provide an assessment of the functioning and impact of SB 123 in Kansas and a set of recommendations for the effective implementation of similar mandatory diversion/treatment programs in other states.
Details: Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, 2012. 264p.
Source: NCJ 238012: Internet Resource: Accessed March 20, 2012 at
Year: 2012
Country: United States
URL:
Shelf Number: 124586
Keywords:
Drug Offenders (Kansas)Evaluative StudiesSentencing (Kansas) |
