I. Incentive Tools

Supervision based on the principles of behavior management moves offenders up and down the ladder throughout the period of supervision, depending on compliance with their supervision plans and behavioral contracts. It does not view offenders' sanction levels as static or stationary. Rather, as they move through the stages of change, progressing and/or slipping back, they move along the ladder correspondingly. An offender who has committed a minor violation might be kept at the same supervision level and at a day-reporting center, but assigned additional community service hours or drug testing requirements. An offender who has tested clean for three consecutive months might be moved to a lower level of supervision or have his drug testing schedule relaxed. By moving offenders in both directions along the ladder, staff is able to manage behavior using not only "sticks" (sanctions), but "carrots" (rewards) as well.

Extensive sanctioning of probation and parole violators has been a large contributor to the growth of the nation's prison population. Roughly one in every three inmates admitted to state prisons is there due to revocation from supervision rather than on a direct sentence from court. The behavior management approach, through the use of swift, certain, and graduated responses, provides for continued punishment of technical violators in a way that should both hold offenders accountable for compliance with conditions of release and help control the flow of violators into prisons by changing behavior and reducing recidivism.