Smart Sentencing: The Emergence of Intermediate Sanctions

In search of remedies to the growing problem of correctional crowding, federal, state, and local policy makers have begun to experiment with a range of new "intermediate" sanctions. These sanctions have taken a variety of forms--intensive probation supervision, home confinement, boot camps, day fines, residential community corrections, day reporting centers, and community service programs. In Smart Sentencing a distinguished panel of experts offers an in-depth assessment of the design, development, and impact of each of these intermediate sanctions while also discussing the most controversial issues surrounding the use of alternative punishments (e.g., the purpose of sanctions, effectiveness issues, gender bias, overrepresentation of minorities). The contributors also look at the future of intermediate sanctions and consider the many questions posed by criminal justice professionals and students regarding their continued development. "New concepts in sentencing are explored, including home supervision, electronic monitoring, boot camps, day fines, community service programs, residential community corrections, and day reporting centers." --The Women′s Advocate "Smart Sentencing is a rich, critical collection evaluating various intermediate sanctions such as community service, drug treatment programs, and electronic monitoring. Twenty articles by leading U.S. researchers ably chronicle progress made--and not made--by the movement for intermediate sanctions." --Update "Smart Sentencing is a rich and stimulating collection of reports from the field. Contributors to this volume are astute observers of criminal justice operations, and they rarely hesitate to describe problems when they see them. . . . Smart Sentencing is highly recommended and well worth reading. . . . While this volume strongly supports the ′intermediate sanction movement,′ it goes well beyond rhetoric by providing professional assessments of what works and what doesn′t work. It also outlines a direction for future studies of intermediate sanctions." --Federal Probation "A major contribution to the study of this resurgent field. . . . Smart Sentencing includes previously unpublished works from some renowned authorities on intermediate sanctions. The book is aimed at academics and correctional administrators who desire a better understanding of intermediate sanctions. In concert with that aim, the contributors keep the use of complex inferential statistics to a minimum, instead relying on descriptive methods of measuring diversion and cost savings. . . . Just as important, almost all of the articles lay conceptual and theoretical foundations for a particular sanction, something frequently neglected by in-house correctional researchers and administrators." --The Criminologist "This book provides a fairly detailed account of the experience of intermediate sanctions in America. . . . Overall, this is a useful book and the general quality of the contributions is high." --The Magistrate

James M. Byrne, Ph.D. Dr. Byrne is Professor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Director of the Global Community Corrections Initiative ( www.glob.cci.org) . Professor Byrne received his undergraduate degree in Sociology (Summa cum Laude) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1977), and his Masters (1980) and Doctoral degree (1983) in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University. He is the author of several books, monographs, journal articles, and research reports on a range of criminal and juvenile justice policy and program evaluation issues. His edited texts include: The Social Ecology of Crime (1986), Smart Sentencing: The Emergence of Intermediate Sanctions (1994), The New Technology of Crime, Law and Social Control (2007), and The Culture of Prison Violence (2008).

Professor Byrne’s contribution to the field has been recognized by the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Corrections and Sentencing; in 2011, he was the recipient of both the Distinguished Scholar Award and the Marguerite Q. Warren and Ted B. Palmer Differential Intervention Award.

Dr. Byrne was recently appointed to serve as a member of the Independent Review Committee responsible for advising the U.S. Attorney General on the design and implementation of the Risk Need Assessment System that is a central component of the Congressionally mandated 2018 First Step Act, a major federal prison reform initiative. Dr. Byrne also currently serves as a member, Panel of Experts – Correctional Services Advisory and Accreditation Panel, Ministry of Justice, United Kingdom. He previously served as the External Inspector of Prisons, Office of the Inspector General, Queensland Correctional Services, Australia (2014), where he conducted an independent review of the prison assault problem across Queensland′s prisons.

 Dr. Byrne is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Victims and Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy, and Practice. Dr. Byrne also serves on the editorial boards of two other journals, Criminology and Public Policy, and the European Journal of Probation, and on National Advisory Committee for the journal, Federal Probation, a publication of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Loyola University
Associate Dean for faculty
Professor of Criminal Justice & Psychology
College of the Arts and Sciences



Contact Information:
Email: alurigi@luc.edu