3. How well can community sanctions serve the purposes of criminal punishment? The degree to which community sanctions serve the purposes of criminal punishment depend largely on the underlying philosophy of criminal punishment in society. Specifically, to the extent criminal punishment is intended as retributive punishment, community sanctions do not serve the purpose of criminal punishment. Conversely, to the extent criminal punishment is intended to rehabilitate prisoners to facilitate a successful return

Community Corrections as a Social Service With around 2 million Americans incarcerated in the nation's prisons and jails at a cost of tens of billions of dollars each year, policymakers are scrambling for alternative solutions and many have identified community corrections as a viable option. Using parole and probations programs, community corrections provide a valuable social service to the country by giving juvenile and adult offenders the opportunity to rejoin mainstream

corrections models in the United States have changed significantly over the past several generations, from a rehabilitative toward a punitive paradigm. After World War Two, a strong sense of national security and prosperity prevailed in the United States, leading to a corrections system that was based more on rehabilitation than on punishment. During these idealistic times, criminals were believed to be "ill," and correctable via a treatment model ("History

Juvenile Corrections Juvenile delinquency is a common phenomenon in the globe today. Owing to the severe crimes, committed, different states handle the matter differently. On one hand, some states utilize the "punitive approach" that prioritizes crime control, punishment, and incarceration; on another, the restorative model, which stresses human rights, youth development research, and restoring the community. In the United States, the law does not tolerate juvenile delinquency; this explains the utilization

incarceration in the United States exhibits extreme racial disparity. There are significantly more African-Americans in the prison system than there are in the general population in fact, almost 50% of those incarcerated at any given time are black men and yet the U.S. population is comprised of only 12% African-Americans. (Clear & Cole 2002, Chapter 19) Cole and Clear give three main explanations for this disparity, differential criminality among

S. General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates' in 1991 stated that nearly 30% of those incarcerated had used drugs daily in the month before committing the offense for which they were in prison. By the year 2003 there were approximately 6.9 million individuals either on probation, in mail, or in prison which equals 32% of all U.S. adults residents or 1 out of every 32 adults. (U.S. Bureau of Justice Corrections