Handling parole violations fairly and predictably is hard.
For example, a violation could be a missed check-in or a failed drug test. Depending on the parole officer’s prerogative, it might be the first missed check-in, the fourth or even sixth that triggers an official sanction. Once in front of a judge, the punishment may be disproportionate to the minor infraction, if the judge hands down a sanction at all. To say the least, it’s a subjective and uncertain process for all parties involved.
Not so, however, in Washington state. The state restructured probation and parole, collectively called “community supervision”, to avoid uncertainty; they call it Swift and Certain (SAC). SAC’s sanctions are immediate, proportional and predictable. Instead of waiting for multiple violations to trigger a trip to a judge and possibly jail, SAC’s sanctions happen quickly and are predetermined based on the violation.
To better understand SAC, Washington State University recently released a report titled “Evaluation of Washington State Department of Corrections Swift and Certain Policy Process, Outcome and Cost-Benefit Evaluation.” Produced by WSU criminal justice and criminology professors Zack Hamilton and Jacqueline van Wormer, it’s 73 pages of analysis, tables, outcomes and recommendations.
To save you some time, the Huffington Post published “10 things you need to know about Washington’s Swift and Certain community supervision program and how it’s improving the criminal justice system.”