Home Confinement Offenders' Perceptions of Treatment Effectiveness

• In Event: Approaches to Offender Surveillance in Corrections

Abstract

In California, sentencing reform has created the opportunity for low-level felony offenders to serve a portion of their sentences through home confinement. In some cases, these offenders are receiving treatment to reduce recidivism. In regards to offender treatment, the risk-need-responsivity model has received significant scholarly attention as a way to reduce recidivism. The following study used semi-structured interviews of 30 randomly selected participants from a California county currently sentenced to home confinement due to prison realignment. Additionally, the criminality of all the offenders in this study stemmed from drug and/or alcohol addiction. The participants were asked about the effectiveness of their treatment in relation to program completion and recidivism. The findings demonstrate uneven results regarding offenders’ perceptions of the treatment’s effectiveness towards program completion and recidivism. Both men and women found certain aspects of treatment constructive, but other components ineffective. Policy implications discuss how counties might want to spend their finite treatment funds to develop a more cohesive treatment program.

Authors

• Ryan Patten, California State University, Chico

• Matthew O. Thomas, California State University, Chico

• Jonathan W. Caudill, California State University, Chico

• Sarah Anne Messer, California State University, Chico