Shock Probation

For many a first offender, the worst part of prison comes in those shocking first days behind bars. Stunned by the strip search on entering, the frightening, unfamiliar vastness of the prison and the long incarceration stretching ahead, the new inmate is overwhelmed. On the theory that the first taste of prison may have at least as much curative effect as the full dose, a few states, including Indiana and Ohio, have quietly been practicing what they call "shock probation."

Eight months ago, Kentucky be came the latest state to try the experiment. Under its law, an offender sent to jail for a misdemeanor or felony may be granted probation by a judge after serving between 30 and 60 days. Not every applicant gets the early probation; one judge reports turning down ten requests for every one he grants. The procedure is generally used for first offenders in borderline cases where the judge has had a problem deciding whether to commit a man at all.

So far, 101 Kentucky prisoners have been released on shock probation. Of them, only three have been returned to prison. One Viet Nam veteran who faced a year for selling amphetamines got out after two months and claims, "There is no chance I'll ever be in trou ble again." A 19-year-old sentenced to ten years for selling heroin was surprised by "how good they all were to me -- the judge, the public defender, every one." Says his mother: "We thought we had lost him completely."

Those preliminary results parallel the experience of Ohio, the first state to try the shock-probation process. There, 4,014 prisoners have been released after serving only two or three months since the plan went into effect in 1966. Only 9% of them have had to go back to jail while the national recidivism rate is estimated as from 65% to 80%.

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