Stated and Latent Functions of ISP

The available evidence suggests that intensive supervision probation (ISP) programs do not achieve their stated goals of substantially reducing prison crowding, saving public monies, or reducing recidivism. Many probation officers and departments support ISP enthusiastically, however, and its more punitive features are strictly enforced in many jurisdictions. The proliferation of ISP in the United States in the last decade appears to have had less to do with its stated goals than with its effectiveness at achieving latent bureaucratic, organizational, political, professional, and psychological goals of probation departments and officers.