In Tempe, Arizona, community supervision clients have the opportunity to exchange the cost of their monthly fees for participation in voluntary classes, community service, career development, and personal improvement programs. The City of Tempe Community Supervision Program’s (CSP) Incentives Program provides an alternative method of paying fees that avoids trapping individuals in the never ending loop of debt and punishment. Engagement in prosocial activities is also a protective factor against criminal recidivism and can reduce costs to the city through the value of the community service performed and savings from reduced efforts to reprocess cases with unpaid fees.
The Incentive Program is among the diversion, probation, and home detention services offered by CSP. As part of the Incentive Program, people arrested on misdemeanor charges and placed on supervised probation or deferred prosecution can receive credit towards their monthly supervision fees for participation in activities including: completing job interviews, attending anger management classes, opening a bank account, or maintaining sobriety.
To evaluate participants’ satisfaction with the program and its impact on their everyday lives, the authors disseminated surveys and conducted semi-structured interviews. The research team found that, in contrast with confusing court experiences, participants expressed high levels of satisfaction with the Community Supervision Program services and staff. Participants had two main motivators for enrolling in the Incentive Program: financial relief and self-improvement. For participants who did not have the ability to pay monthly fees, the Incentive Program offered an alternative to payment that not only alleviated the stress of financial hardship, but also promoted psychosocial wellbeing and increased support networks.
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Recommendations
For cities or counties looking to implement a similar program, the authors drew three main recommendations from participants’ feedback:
- Ensure caseload capacity allows for sustained contact. CSP staff maintain anywhere from 160 – 180 people on their caseload, which only allows for an initial meeting. Given how highly participants spoke of CPS staff, additional contact or check-ins may be useful.
- Improve website accessibility to have an up-to-date account of a person’s fines and fines and provide confirmation of completed activities. When possible, have direct links to incentive activities.
- Expand current incentive programs to be mindful of participants’ different demographics, and the needs those demographics might imply (age, race, ability, housing situation).