Glossary of General Terms

General Terms

Aftercare services—Longer term, outpatient support after the intensive phase of drug or alcohol treatment is concluded. Services can include case management; individual, group or family counseling; monitoring and drug testing. Experience shows that addicts face a lifetime struggle to remain substance free, often referred to as continuing care.

Aggravating factors—Elements present in a crime which the judge can take into consideration at the time of sentencing.

Anger management—A type of treatment program which teaches new coping mechanisms to offenders convicted of crimes of violence, such as assault and abuse, to better manage their behavior when angry.

Arraignment—The reading of a charge and the entering of a plea of guilty or not guilty by the defendant, usually at the defendant’s first court appearance.

Bail—Amount of money or security determined by a judge or clerk/magistrate to be posted by the defendant to guarantee his/her appearance in court.

Boot camp—A form of special probation/split sentence which requires offenders, usually between the ages of 16 and 30, to reside in a quasi-military residential program for 90-120 days.

Classification of offenders/ risk assessment—Procedures which gather information about an offender for law enforcement, correctional, or court agencies, including an offender’s behavior patterns, needs, skills, and aptitude as well as factors related to criminal conduct.

Client-specific planning—Development of an individualized sentence, usually by defendant’s counsel, to fit the crime committed, the risk the defendant poses to the community, and particular activities geared to the defendant’s needs and community safety. The plan is then recommended for consideration by the judge.

Cognitive behavioral therapy—A form of treatment that focuses on helping the client learn and use new thinking skills to modify negative behaviors.

Community Corrections Acts—Statewide legislation providing a structure and funding for community correctional programs.

Community corrections programs—A variety of local, state, or federal activities involving punishment and management of offenders within their local communities through such programs as community service, restitution, day reporting centers, drug and alcohol treatment, and electronic monitoring.

Community courts—Pioneered in New York City, these courts provide speedy adjudication of minor crimes and misdemeanors, as well as restitution and supervision of offenders.

Community justice—A concept which recognizes the importance of the role of the community in dealing with offenders, and the need for offender, victim, and community to be restored.

Community prosecution—District attorneys focus their activities upon certain locations in their community and develop problem-solving strategies in conjunction with other agencies.

Community sentence—Allows the offender to remain in the community, with supervision and conditions required, according to the severity of the crime and past history of the criminal.

Community service—Imposed by the judge as a condition of probation, community service requires the offender to work a certain number of hours as reparation to the community. An offender can work alone for a local government or nonprofit agency, or as part of a work crew on projects such as picking up litter on highways or in parks, or provide service at public hospitals and nursing homes.

Contract—A written agreement that is binding between two or more parties, such as the county program and the service provider, or the offender and a day reporting center or reparative board. The contract outlines the responsibilities of each party during a specified period of time, and establishes the process and resources that will be used.

Cross-designation—Law enforcement agencies or prosecution participation by multiple criminal justice agencies where there may be overlapping jurisdiction in more than one venue.

Day fines—A punishment used more frequently in Europe than in America. First, the court sentences the offender to a certain number of day-fine units (e.g., 15, 60, 120 units) according to the gravity of the offense, but without regard to his or her means. Then the value of each unit is set at a share of an offender’s daily income (hence the name day fine), and the total fine amount is determined by simple multiplication. The basic idea assures routine imposition of equitable fine sentences, the punitive impact of which is in proportion to the crime.

Day reporting center—An intermediate punishment which requires mandatory attendance at a facility on a daily or otherwise regular basis at specified times for a specific length of time in order to participate in activities such as substance abuse counseling, social skills training, or employment training.

Defense-based Planning—Development of an individualized sentence, usually by defendant’s counsel, to fit the crime committed, the risk the defendant poses to the community, and particular activities geared to the defendant’s needs and community safety. The plan is then recommended for consideration by the judge.

Determinate Sentencing—Has decreased use of judicial discretion in individual sentencing cases in an effort to make sentencing more equitable overall.

Drug and alcohol treatment—See Substance Abuse Treatment and Relapse below.

Diversion programs—Activities which, if successfully undertaken, allow an offender to avoid having a record.

Drug courts—A court in which the judge, the district attorney, and the public defender or private defense attorney work together in a non-adversarial fashion to help chemically dependent offenders obtain needed treatment and rehabilitation in the hopes of breaking the cycle of crime and addiction. Offenders appear frequently before the judge at status hearings while undergoing appropriate treatment and have other supervisory constraints (including drug testing) for at least one year.

Drug treatment—In-patient or out-patient, drug treatment is proven to reduce drug use and the associated criminal behavior among the number of drug addicted people in the justice system.

Economic sanctions—A range of financial punishments that include payment of costs, fees, fines, and forfeiture of property or licenses.

Electronic monitoring—Surveillance technology, usually by means of a wrist or ankle bracelet, to monitor an offender’s movements from a central location on a 24-hour basis.

Felony—A crime which is or may be punishable by death, is or may be punishable by imprisonment in the State’s prison, or is denominated as a felony by statute. Any other crime is a misdemeanor—a term for less serious offenses. In most states felonies are punishable by at least one year in prison.

Fine—A financial penalty based on the crime committed and the offender’s ability to pay.

Halfway houses—Places where offenders work and pay rent while undergoing counseling and job training.

High risk—Supervision level for offenders with high risk/high need. Close supervision with at least two personal contacts per month.

House arrest—An intermediate punishment which requires an offender to be confined to his or her residence for a period of time unless authorized to leave by the court, Parole Commission, or supervising officer. House arrest may or may not be accompanied by electronic monitoring.

Incarceration—Another term for imprisonment.

Indictment—A formal accusation made by a grand jury charging a person (named or unnamed) with a specific crime.

Intensive supervision—An intermediate sanction for high risk offenders. The offender is supervised by a team of two officers. The case load is small, approximately 30, and the number of contacts with the offenders is high to address both control and treatment (five contacts weekly).

Intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment—This type of treatment can serve as an alternative to residential or inpatient substance abuse treatment. It consists of several hours per day of service, several days per week, for a specified period of time. Intensity of attendance usually decreases over time as the individual experiences success with sobriety. Content varies from program to program, but generally there is education about addiction, group therapy, family and/or multi-family therapy, relapse prevention, continuing care, social and recreational activities, and introduction to and involvement with 12 Step Programs, such as Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. Participants progress through the phases of the program by completing the tasks associated with each phase. This method of treatment is appealing because it is less expensive than inpatient or residential substance abuse treatment, and the individual can remain in the home community and continue to work while receiving treatment.

Intermediate punishments—Also known as intermediate sanctions, these punishments are more severe than traditional probation, but less costly than prison. They encompass community corrections measures such as day reporting centers and electronic monitoring. Together with prison and probation, they form a ladder of punishments, with probation at the bottom, prison at the top, and intermediate punishments on the middle rungs.

Intermediate sentence—Allows the judge to choose between imprisonment or a community sentence under close supervision, and if in the community, with attendance at rehabilitative programs and victim restitution probably required.

Jail—A county facility reserved for those awaiting trial and for those convicted of misdemeanors. Increasingly, jails are used to hold federal and state prisoners awaiting transportation to prison or to another jurisdiction.

Judicial discretion—The choice allowed a judge by statute of type and length of punishment.

Mandatory sentences—Sentences required by law to be imposed for certain crimes. New York State, for instance, requires that second-time offenders be given four and one-half years in prison for selling as little as $10 worth of cocaine.

Maximum—Supervision level at the mid-range of supervision. Can be the beginning level for medium risk/medium need offenders or as a step down from High Risk. One personal contact per month.

Mediation—A process which brings disputing parties together in the presence of an impartial third party, who helps the disputants work out an agreement. The disputants, not the mediator, decide the terms of this agreement. Mediation often focuses on terms of restitution and on future behavior. Mediation may be used to divert offenders from criminal prosecution, resolve civil disputes or in addition to civil or criminal adjudication.

Minimum—Supervision level for low risk/low need offenders. Can be a beginning level or usually as a step down from Maximum. One personal contact every 60 days.

Misdemeanor—An offense less severe than a felony, that is normally punished by a fine, a community sanction or time in county jail.

Mitigating factors—Elements present in the commission of a crime which may be taken into account by the judge to lower or increase a sentence to prison or jail, or to select a more appropriate sentence than incarceration.

Parole/post-release supervision—A conditional release granted by the Parole Commission, the Court or the Department of Corrections, of an offender from prison or jail, to serve the remainder of the sentence in the community under supervision and conditions imposed by the responsible agency.

Pretrial services—A system of screening services and investigation which may lead to community supervision, including electronic monitoring, for selected individuals who otherwise would be in jail while awaiting trial.

Prison—A state-run facility where a person convicted of one or more felonies serves the sentence behind bars. Prisons can vary in security, from maximum to medium, to minimum, to pre-release.

Probation—A community punishment which requires the offender to comply with certain court-ordered conditions, such as curfew or attendance at a day reporting center, and may subject him/her to various levels of supervision based on public safety and rehabilitative needs.

Recidivism—The term used to express the return to criminal activity of persons previously convicted of crimes. Recidivism rate refers to the percentage of those who return to crime, once sentence has been served.

Rehabilitation programs—Conditions of probation designed to reduce the likelihood of recidivism by involvement in educational programs, job training, vocational programs, or counseling and treatment.

Relapse—This word signifies a concept in the field of substance abuse treatment: "Relapse is a part of recovery." As with all chronic illnesses or behaviors, change comes slowly. We expect from time to time persons with diabetes will "relapse" by going off their diet, failing to exercise or to take their medication. This is also true for persons addicted to alcohol and other drugs. They may fall back into believing that they can manage their addiction on their own, that they no longer need AA or NA, that they can participate in the same activities with the same old friends that they did before they stopped using, that they can "handle" their addiction and have "just one more drink," or that they are justified, based on resentments and rationalizations, in seeking solace from their drug of choice. As with other illnesses, relapse does not mean that one must "start over" from the beginning, but simply pick up where one left off in the recovery process.

Restitution—Act of giving money or services to the victim by the offender, often imposed as a condition of probation.

Restorative justice—Restorative justice emphasizes the way in which crimes hurt relationships between people who live in a community. Crime is seen as something done against a victim and a community—not simply as a violation against the state. In restorative justice, the offender becomes accountable to those he or she has harmed. Justice is done for victims, victimized communities, and offenders. Restorative justice involves the community in preventive and intervention programs, and requires the offender to take responsibility for his or her actions.

Revocation/technical revocation—The administrative or court action which removes a person from either probation or parole status in response to his/her violation of the conditions of probation or parole, and results in imprisonment. Technical revocations are for breaches of conditions imposed (such as frequently an "out-of-bounds" bar or failing to meet a curfew), but not the commission of a new crime.

Sentence—The judgment formally pronounced on an individual by the Court after conviction in a criminal prosecution.

Specialized courts—Provide adjudication and supervision of offenders for particular problems such as substance abuse and domestic violence.

Structured or Presumptive Sentencing—Has decreased use of judicial discretion in individual sentencing cases in an effort to make sentencing more equitable overall.

Substance abuse treatment—Screened offenders are assessed for drug and alcohol abuse to determine what service approach is best: long-term or short-term residential treatment, intensive or regular outpatient treatment, chemical detoxification, or some other education modality. The substance abuse treatment is based on the offender’s risk of recidivism, the severity of the offender’s substance abuse treatment "need," and the offender’s responsiveness to different types of treatment.

Unsupervised/administrative probation—A period of time set by the Court, where a person convicted of a criminal offense must abide by conditions set by the Court in lieu of a period of incarceration without probation monitoring.

Vertical case prosecution—A method of coordinating prosecution between levels of government and law enforcement agencies in order to gather all the evidence and solve crimes more efficiently.

Victims’ services—A range of activities, usually provided by the District Attorney’s office, which attend to the needs of victims and witnesses, coordinate their testimony, and support them until their case is resolved in the criminal justice system.