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9 Alaska Just. F. 1 (1992-1993)

handle is hein.journals/aljufor9 and id is 1 raw text is: ALASKA JUSTICE FORUM A Publication of the Alaska Justice Justice Center Statistical Analysis Unit Spring 1992 UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE Vol. 9, No. 1 Parole Violators: A Glance Samuel Trivette It has been suggested that many probation and parole violators who have been returned to prison because of their violations might instead be better served by other sanctions, thus relieving somewhat the overcrowding within the Alaska prison system. In 1991 the Alaska Parole Board compiled a profile of offenders appearing before the board at parole revocation hearings. It was hoped that the information assembled in the profile could contribute to the overall discussion of sentencing issues. The following article presents the results of this research on the characteristics of probation and parole violators. The analysis involved the 67 revocation cases heard by the Alaska Parole Board during summer quarter 1990. Overall, the board conducted 284 revocation hearings throughout 1990. A match of several data items with the total data base for recent years revealed that the 1990 summer quarter data were typical of other revocation data. Background data on offenders in the 67 revocation hearings were taken from the Parole Board's risk HIGHLIGHTS INSIDE THIS ISSUE * The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports on a nationwide survey of prosecutors in state courts (page 2). * Research to explore the relation- ship of Yupi'k culture and the American legal system (page 4). * A further look at the nonenforce- ment activities of Village Public Safety Officers (page 5). score sheets for the parole violators. The risk score sheet has been used for all parole applicants for over a decade, and the board has been using the same instrument on a trial basis on revocation cases for the last year. Recently the board began to use the score sheets on all prisoners being released on mandatory parole; as a result, scores will be available for all future revocation hearings. Summer 1990 Revocation Cases The risk score sheets include a variety of offenses and offender characteristics, including prior criminal history. Information on prior convictions, offense history and offense severity is included. Among the 67 Summer 1990 cases examined, fourteen (21%) offenders had only one felony conviction. Fifty-three (79%) offenders had two or more felony convictions. In only four cases (6%) did the offenders have no misdemeanor convictions. In 15 cases (22%), offenders had one to three misdemeanors and in 48 (72%) cases the offenders had four or more misdemeanor convictions. Type of prior offense is also important in risk assessment. In 44 cases (66%) the offender had at least one conviction for burglary, criminal trespass, forgery, checks or credit card crime; in 23 (34%) the offender had no such conviction. In 19 cases (28%) the offender had a conviction for a sexual assault crime, while in 48 cases (72%) the offender had not been convicted of a sexual assault crime. Of those with a sexual assault conviction, none had completed an institutional sexual offender program. Substance abuse history plays a role in risk assessment. In 52 cases (78%) the offender had an alcohol abuse history, while in 15 cases (22%) there was no alcohol abuse history. In 32 cases (48%) the offender exhibited no significant drug abuse, while in 35 cases (52%) the offender did. In three cases (5%) the offender had no probation or parole revocation. A majority of the offenders examined had already incurred at least one probation or parole revocation. In 19 cases (28%) the offender had one revocation; in 45 cases (67%) the offender had two or more revocations. Of the violators reviewed, 30 (45%) committed their violations before completing three months of supervision; 49 (73%) of the viola- tions were committed before the offender had completed six months of supervision; and only five (7%) completed more than a year of supervision before committing the violation. Overall, the range of time on supervision before the violation was committed was 0 months (1 to 29 days) to 16 months. The average length of the jail sentence for which the offenders were on mandatory supervision was 4.4 years. If these offenders lost -no good time, they would be on mandatory parole about 18 months. The shortest supervision length was four months and the longest supervision length was 35 months. Forty per cent of the offenders had supervision lengths of less than a year. Fifty-one per cent had supervision lengths of one year to 25 months. Only nine per cent of the offenders had supervision lengths of 25 months or longer. More offenders had supervision lengths of Please see Parole Violators, page 3

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