The following article was sent out in my City View Newsletter, which you can sign up to receive here.
The state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) has been in the news a lot recently because of the data errors over prisoner release dates. But there’s another little noticed story from the DOC that is very worthy of highlighting.
In 2010, the City Council hosted UCLA Professor Mark Kleiman at Seattle’s Town Hall to talk about his new book on how to have less crime and less punishment. It was a packed event. Professor Kleiman talked about an innovative approach in Hawaii for how parole violators were supervised involving a shift away from sporadic and severe sanctions when parole violations were discovered to more modest sanctions applied consistently.
The old model: you may have multiple parole violations, you likely won’t get caught, but when you do you’ll be in big trouble (weeks, months or even years back in jail or prison).
The new model: if you violate the terms of your release, you will be held accountable for your actions immediately, but sanctions will be much more modest (a day or two in jail).
Perhaps not surprisingly, the new model was way more effective at curbing criminal behavior, while at the same time saving resources and reducing jail time. What’s not to like?