in the majority, "are sentenced not to prison but to probation" (DiIulio, 1997, p. 40). At the end of 1996 there were 3.2 million adults on probation in the United States, "up from almost 2 million in 1985 and 1.1 million in 1981 (Petersilia, 1997). Since those under formal supervision by law enforcement (probation or parole) commit a very high percentage of all crimes, and the percentage among juvenile offenders is even higher, people have come to perceive criminal justice as a "revolving-door adult system" accompanied by, and being swelled by, a "no-fault juvenile system" (DiIulio, p. 40). There is, however, a difference between recidivism among felons and misdemeanants. As many as 75 percent of adults on probation for misdemeanors complete their periods of supervision satisfactorily yet it is the high number of recidivist felonies that receive all the attention when probation is discussed (Petersilia). The result has been that the American public constantly calls for tougher approaches to the treatment of criminals in and out of prisons. Thus while the overloaded system has little choice but to reduce probationers' cases almost uniformly to the status of "custodial disposals," the public demands that the system rectify recidivism by getting tougher with them (Sheldon, 1994, p. 225).
But as crime has increased probationers now amount to 58 percent of the adults under correctional supervision while probation departments must struggle to meet this increased demand with state and local funding that accounts for less than ten percent of corrections budgets (Petersilia, 1997). Escambia county, with a budget of around $2 million, is one case in which the department's budget is, however, directly tied to the level of activity. Of this figure only $200,000 is allocated by the county while $1.8 million derives from fines and payments levied on criminals (Ward). On the average urban probation officers carry caseloads that are, by t...