The Severity of Intermediate Sanctions

In the state of Texas, 128 recently convicted offenders used a modified magnitude estimation procedure to rate the severity of 26 felony punishments, ranging from 6 months regular probation through a variety of intermediate sanctions to 5 years in prison. Average ratings suggest that intermediate sanctions provide a true continuum of sanctions and that substantial scope exists for interchangeability among punishments. Also, 75% of offenders rated one or more intermediate sanctions as more severe than an incarcerative sanction; thus the current approach to sentencing, focusing on the distinction between prison and probation, is inappropriate from the viewpoint of desert and deterrence. Because all of the most cost-efficient sanctions were community based, increased use of intermediate sanctions would be an effective use of scarce resources. Different types of offenders rated sanctions differently, and proposals for exchange or sanction units will ultimately need to take these differences into account.