Alternatives to Imprisonment: Intentions and Reality

Alternatives to imprisonment become all the more important with the almost worldwide increase in incarceration. While knowledge about the destructive effects of imprisonment is well-documented, there is less scientific evidence as to the effectiveness of its alternatives. In Alternatives to Imprisonment, Ulla V. Bondeson undertakes a unique socio-legal and criminological study of the impact of three alternative sanctions: conditional sentence, standard probation, and probation with institutional treatment. Bondeson thoroughly researches the history of alternative treatments, the genesis of the Swedish Penal Code, and the goals of criminal policy. She further examines the implementation of the sanctions by the courts, probation officers, lay supervisors, institutional staff, and how treatment is perceived by offenders throughout the process. Bondeson's extraordinary work also includes a recidivism study demonstrating considerable and surprising differences among rates of relapse, even when controlling for risk groups. She finds that those sentenced to conditional prison sentences had the lowest rates of criminal relapse. Those on probation had higher rates of relapse, while a combination of probation and institutional approaches had the highest rates. The author shows that despite the legislator's intent to improve the possibilities for re-socialization, principally the opposite result ensued. However, compared with the results of treatment in correctional institutions, the alternatives to imprisonment prove much more effective and less costly. Based on her findings, Bondeson makes a considerable number of practical suggestions for effective reform of penal law and treatment of offenders. Many of her proposals have also been subsequently implemented.

Ulla V. Bondeson has been professor of criminology at the University of Copenhagen since 1980. She has been a guest professor at several American universities including Harvard University. Yale University, and the University of Minnesota, and is the 1995 recipient of the Thorsten Sellin & Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck Award from the American Society of Criminology