American Exceptionalism in Community Supervision

Abstract

In recent years, increasing public attention has been drawn to the causes and consequences the rapid expansion of imprisonment in the U.S. to the point of mass incarceration. However, as numerous recent reports and academic articles have highlighted, the U.S. is “exceptional” not just for its massive prison population, but also for its rates of community supervision. In this review piece, we will detail these cross-national differences, concluding with a discussion of how community supervision practices are different in the U.S. as well. Our central conclusion is that the U.S. could have a much smaller population on community supervision (including both fewer admissions and shorter terms) with few public safety repercussions.