Day Reporting Centers

Abstract

The day reporting center (DRC) is an intermediate sanction that blends high levels of control with intensive delivery of services needed by offenders. The development ofDRC' sin the United States during the 1980's grew out of Great Britain's popular use of day centers, as American correctional administrators sought ways to reduce rising jail and prison populations and associated costs. This report updates a 1990 study that identified 13 DRC's across the country. The authors developed a nationwide listing ofDRC' s by contacting practitioners who had visited three pioneering centers in Massachusetts and Connecticut and inquiring whether they had established similar programs. Supplementing this list through a telephone survey of probation and parole officials in states not represented by the visitors, 114 DRC's were found in 22 States by mid1994. To obtain information about these programs, researchers mailed survey forms, to which 47 percent (541114) of the DRC directors responded. In addition, the authors conducted site visits to four DRC's.