An Evaluation of the DRC in the Context of Douglas County, Nebraska

• Author: Dae-Young Kim,Cassia Spohn,Mark Foxall
• DOI: 10.1177/0032885507307144
• Date: 01 December 2007
• Published date: 01 December 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

434

An Evaluation of the DRC

in the Context of Douglas

County, Nebraska

A Developmental Perspective

Dae-Young Kim

University of Nebraska at Omaha

Cassia Spohn

Arizona State University

Mark Foxall

University of Nebraska at Omaha

As an alternative to incarceration, the day reporting center (DRC) has become

an increasingly popular sentencing option in many jurisdictions. The DRC as

a mechanism of social control has played an important role in the context

of Douglas County, Nebraska. In this regard, the goal of this study is to

(a) understand the roles of the DRC in this jurisdiction and (b) identify the

types of effective treatment for clients’ reintegration and demographic and

case variables that are related to clients’termination and recidivism. A number

of significant variables were found, such as education, relapse prevention,

employment, and age. The findings from this research will contribute to the

development of effective treatment for the DRC’s clients. Finally, this study

suggests the following two-level strategy for the DRC: a short-term strategy

designed to prevent clients’ termination and a long-term strategy designed to

prevent clients’ recidivism.

Keywords: community-based corrections; day reporting center; developmental

perspectives; termination; recidivism

Since the early 1990s, there has been a substantial increase in arrest rates

under the county’s “zero-tolerance policy” (Institute for Law & Policy

The Prison Journal

Volume 87 Number 4

December 2007 434-456

© 2007 Sage Publications

10.1177/0032885507307144

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Authors’ Note: A previous version of this article was presented at the American Society

of Criminology conference in November 2005. We would like to acknowledge the helpful

comments of the editor and the anonymous reviewers. This research is supported by the Douglas

County Department of Corrections.

Planning, 1998). Douglas County has been struggling with overworked

criminal justice systems, especially overcrowding in the jail. This, in turn,

has led to a number of related problems, such as growing housing costs, jail

management, and other internal services problems. To avert a crisis, the

Douglas County Board of Commissioners has turned its attention to less

expensive and more efficient alternatives to simply expanding the capacity

of the current jail.

In the Douglas County Department of Corrections, community-based

corrections programs (i.e., pretrial release, work release, house arrest, and a day

reporting center [DRC])1have been developed as alternatives to jail sentences

in response to jail management problems. Especially, the DRC plays a sub-

stantial role in community protection and in offender reintegration. Proponents

of the DRC assert that the DRC can fulfill all five rationales of punishment—

retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and community

protec tion—which the existing dichotomized systems (i.e., incarceration and

probation) cannot effectively meet (Marciniak, 2000). Highly structured

supervision, which is provided by daily participation at the DRC, in part

satisfies the rationales of retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and community

protection. An offender’s daily participation at the DRC functions as a

punishment by restricting an offender’s freedom and, on the other hand, serves

the objective of incapacitation by depriving an offender of opportunities to

commit crimes during his or her participation. Also, intensive treatment

programming provided on or off site contributes to an offender’s rehabilitation

and reintegration (Marciniak, 2000). On the other hand, the DRC also contri-

butes to cost-effectiveness through utilizing all available resources of commu-

nities and charging program fees to offenders.

As a preliminary evaluation of the DRC in Douglas County, this study

will determine whether the program has been working as intended. Thus, this

study will identify the individual and case variables that determine successful

completion of the program (i.e., graduation) and recidivism. The present

study, which also will identify the types of effective and ineffective treatment

for an offender’s reintegration, has important policy implications.

DRC in the Context of the Douglas County,

Nebraska, Court System

The Nebraska judicial system has one important characteristic that distin-

guishes it from other state judicial systems. Nebraska has an indeterminate

sentencing system in which the legislature sets minimum authorized sentences

Kim et al. / Day Reporting Center 435