The term community correction is an umbrella term that encompasses everything from pretrial diversion to intermediate punishments. By definition, it includes any non-incarcerative, yet supervised way of dealing with offenders who are facing conviction or who have already been convicted. Probation and parole are the most well-known forms of community corrections, but the term also includes house arrest, electronic monitoring, day fine programs, work release, furloughs, halfway houses, restitution, community service, drug/alcohol checks, check-in programs, curfews, mediation and restorative justice centers, and any other offender monitoring or reporting program that walks the line between trust and safety.
There is tremendous variation by jurisdiction in how community corrections are done. However, there are at least four things that all programs tend to have in common. First an emphasis on residential stability, the place the offender is kept or located is either their home, a group home, or someplace made to look like a home, this being the philosophy of reintegration, maintaining family and residential ties to the community. Second the provision of voluntary, and sometimes mandatory, professional services of a medical or psychological nature, this being the philosophy of rehabilitation, and also of trust, especially if the treatment or services provision is voluntary. Third a focus on accountability, for both offender and supervisor, which means that a plan is put in place for the offender to measure progress as well as a system is put in place for the supervisor to frequently report progress, and fourth the function of economic efficiency, not only in the way offenders are expected to find and hold a job, or pursue an education, but in the way they would pay some or all of the costs. Community corrections helps alleviate prison overcrowding, keep the costs of criminal justice down, and represent a whole new way of looking at corrections as the end of the criminal justice process, (Tonry, Michael).
