9 ~,~i - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

180 THE PRISON JOURNAL / June 1993
RESIDENTIAL CENTERS
Because prisons are so expensive to build, many urban areas have renovated
existing buildings, turning them into part-time or full-time residential
facilities. In many ways, these progrmns resemble the traditional work release
center or halfway house. Part-time programs are the most common, and they
allow the offender to be away during work hours and for some social time,
returning to sleep at night. Full-time programs usually restrict the offender's
ability to be away from the facility to only special occasions.
Residential centers normally incorporate a treatment regime into their
programs. Commonly, they use group-based approaches such as "guided
group interaction" to help offenders confront their lifestyles. They also
commonly restrict their populations to specific target groups: probation
failures, substance abusers, persons owing restitution, and so forth. This
enables the treatment programs to concentrate on a more homogeneous
population. With drug-involved offenders, residential centers have often used
"therapeutic community" methods. (DeLeon, 1987).
FINANCIAL PENALTIES
Financial penalties such as fines, restitution, and forfeitures have recently
been advanced as an alternative approach to punishment. Advocates of
financial penalties argue that they are particularly well suited to a capitalist
society that places importance on monetary incentives and the accumulation
of wealth. Not only can the fruits of crime be eliminated through monetary
sanctions, but also substantial punishment can be inflicted on offenders by
imposition of a financial penalty, all without the severe costs of incarceration
(Hillsman & Greene, 1992).
The aim of fines and forfeitures is essentially punitive and deterrent, not
reformative. The severity of a fine can even be adjusted to the seriousness of
the offense and to the offender's financial circumstances taking into consideration
the amount of the offender's income and assets (called the "day fine").
Some observers have argued that, potentially, fines are very different--and
much fairer--than forfeitures, which can be arbitrary and disproportionate
in impact.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Community service--labor performed by the offender, generally for a
public agency or nonprofit organization--has many attractive features: The
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