Responding to Community Supervision Violations with Alternatives to Incarceration

Imposing Alternative Sanctions
Graduated sanctions are a structured continuum of incremental responses to behavior that doesn’t comply with the rules of supervision. They provide a range of responses that correlate to the seriousness of the violation, sometimes up to incarceration. An example of this is Rhode Island’s law requiring the adoption of guidelines that govern swift, certain and proportionate sanctions to respond to probation violations. Some statutes directly reference graduated sanctions, like Maryland’s described above, while others may use a similar structure but not explicitly label them as such.
Idaho requires the establishment of a matrix of swift, certain and graduated sanctions by the board of correction. This allows supervision officers to address violations without the need for a hearing by the board. Tennessee similarly mandates the development of graduated sanctions.