Center on Sentencing and Corrections

CSC offers an array of services to help sentencing and corrections officials who are confronting challenges such as shrinking budgets, overextended staff and physical plants, and the churning of repeat offenders through the system. Our research and analysis services give officials a solid understanding of their jurisdiction’s operations and expose specific problems and opportunities for reform. The center can also recommend strategies and policies tailored to a jurisdiction’s specific circumstances.

• Promoting fairness and consistency in sentencing—In Illinois, CSC staff are providing technical assistance and research support to an independent, bipartisan commission charged with making sentencing policies and practices fairer and more consistent.
• Enhancing community supervision—CSC staff are assisting state and local officials in Alabama to expand a continuum of community-based supervision options in order to reduce the state prison population and control costs without endangering public safety.
• Addressing jail and prison overcrowding—Center staff are helping officials in Los Angeles County, California, diagnose and address systemic factors leading to overcrowding in the jail system.

Why We Do This Work
Over the past 20 years, the prison population in the United States has almost tripled. Today, nearly 1 in 100 adults are in jail or prison. Some of these individuals are high-risk, violent offenders. But just as many are low-risk, nonviolent offenders. Once they are released, roughly half of all prisoners are incarcerated again within three years, either for a new offense or for violating the conditions of release. This high reliance on incarceration brings with it substantial fiscal and social consequences, including large corrections budgets and weakened communities. CSC helps officials find more cost-effective ways to protect public safety. Our research and analysis can pinpoint inefficient and ineffective policies and identify alternative approaches that work. Our technical assistance brings practitioners together to examine these findings and engage in problem solving that is focused and productive.

For more information, contact center director Peggy McGarry.