9.2. Intermediate Sanctions 
DAVID CARTER 
Community corrections as a whole has changed dramatically over the last half-century. Due to a rapid and 
overwhelming increase of the offender population, largely based on policy changes, we have witnessed an 
immense increase in the use of sanctions at the community level; this includes probation. It has only been 
within the most recent 10 years that we have seen a decrease in community corrections. Individuals on 
probation hover around 3.7 million, with another million in some form of community-level control, for a 
total of about 4.6 million under community supervision, probation, or parole. 
1 Because of the sheer volume 
of these intermediate sanctions, it is important to put it in the perspective of jails and prisons. Below is a 
graphic to demonstrate how much we are talking about. 
U.S. Correctional Control 
1. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2018). Probation and Parole in the United States, 2016. Available at: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/
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