ABSTRACT
Joan Petersilia chapters Diverting Nonviolent Prisoners to Intermediate Sanctions: The Impact on Prison Admissions and Corrections Costs", represents an outstanding contribution to our knowledge about California's prison population and the social costs and benefits of incarceration as well as various types of intermediate sanctions programs. This chapter focuses on four issues raised by Joan Petersilia who really goes to prison in California and nationally; the case for investing more in intermediate sanctions; the politics of "get-tough" sentencing policy; the possibility of a new intellectual consensus on crime policy. Likewise, as Petersilia notes in her chapter, respected criminologists have argued that nationally about a third of prisoners are committed to prison not for new crimes but rather for violations of the technical conditions of their probation or parole. Petersilia's preliminary findings on really goes to prison, Petersilia case for beefing up probation and parole, and her arguments in favor of drug treatment and several other intermediate sanctions programs are compelling.
