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WASHINGTON – While the percentage of federal criminal offenders who are sentenced to prison time has increased, the percentage receiving alternative sentences – such as probation or house arrest – has decreased, according to a new study released by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

The report, Alternative Sentencing in the Federal Criminal Justice System, tracks the sentences of federal offenders – excluding non-citizens – from 1997 until 2007, the most recent data available.

The Anti-Drug Abuse Amendment Act was passed in 1998 authorizing home detention and electronic monitoring as sentences for some offenders, and alternative sentences – such as probation, confinement in community treatment centers or halfway houses, home detention or intermittent confinement – for other offenses.

Still, the number of offenders sentenced to prison rose from 75.4 percent to 85.3 percent during the period of the study. The number of offenders receiving any of the alternative sentences dropped from 13.1 percent to 7.7 percent.

“Despite the availability of alternative sentencing options for nearly one-fourth of federal offenders, federal courts most often impose prison for offenders,” the report stated.

The report noted that the benefits of increasing the use of alternative sentences include cutting federal incarceration costs and cutting the rate of recidivism in offenders.

“Effective alternative sanctions are important options for federal, state and local criminal justice systems,” the report stated. “For the appropriate offenders, alternatives to incarceration can provide a substitute for costly incarceration.”

-Kimberly Atkins

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