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12 American J. Crim. Just. 1 (1987-1988)

handle is hein.journals/acnjrlocm12 and id is 1 raw text is: AJCJ, Vol. XI, NO. 1 (1987) FELONY PROBATION: A RE-EXAMINATION OF PUBLIC RISK JOHNNY MCGAHA, MICHAEL FICHTER, AND PETER HIRSCHBURG Southeast Missouri State University ABSTRACT The California Rand study focused major attention on the potential threat that felons on probation presented to the public. Their findings of a 65% rearrest rate during a 40-month follow-up of 1672 felons raised considerable concern but left one key question unanswered: are those disturbing results unique to California or are they representative of a nationwide crisis generated by the critical prison overcrowding problem? The authors of the present study replicated the Rand report for the State of Missouri in an attempt to answer those questions. A total of 2083 felons from the most urban population of Missouri were tracked for the same 40-month period utilized by Rand, with very different results. The Missouri rearrest rates were found to be a respectable 22%. The obvious conclusion is that felony probation is an effective alternate to prison in Missouri, and the Rand study may not be representative of felony probation in general. INTRODUCTION Much has been written regarding the increase of prisoners in our state and federal institutions. Growth rates continue at an alarming rate with prisoner overcrowding the number one problem in criminal justice. The number of adult males combined in state and federal prisons on December 31, 1985 was a staggering 503,601. This represents an increase of 62% just since 1980 (BJS Prisoners, 1985). Incarcera- tions continue to rise, with most states attempting to compensate with new prison construction. Even with widespread expansion, the demand exceeds the prison capacity. As in any system, when one component of an organization becomes overloaded, others are affected. One component of the criminal justice system that has been dramatically affected due to the prison over population is probation services. Before this crisis, 1