Impact of the Reform to Non-Custodial Sanctions in Chile

Another programme that shares some features with ISP is the Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) programme, which started in Probation Hawaii and is currently implemented in more than 40 jurisdictions across the United States (Cullen et al. 2018). Like ISP, this programme also changed the way in which probation is executed by providing close monitoring and frequent random drug testing, alongside other measures. However, one of its main features is that supervision is carried out under a “swift, certain and fair” (SCF) approach, by which the programme introduced certain but not severe graduated sanctions to deter probationers from violating the conditions of their probation (Lattimore et al. 2016). The theoretical grounds that support this approach are again based on deterrence; however, emphasis is put on certainty and celerity rather than the severity of the response in line with recent evidence (Durlauf and Nagin 2011, p. 14). By contrast, rehabilitation under the HOPE model was de-emphasised and thus was provided only to those who requested it or those who failed multiple drug tests (Hawken 2010; Hawken and Kleiman 2009; Cullen et al. 2018).
Results from a randomised control trial done by O’Connell et al. (2016) and a four-site RCT done by Lattimore et al. (2016), in which they assigned more than 1500 probationers to either probation as usual or to the HOPE programme, have shown no significant differences in the average number of arrests or convictions nor in the time that it took participants to get rearrested. Especially in the case of revocations, which are particularly addressed by the swift and certain approach, these showed no differences between participants in the HOPE programme and those on regular probation.