You asked for a summary of the law establishing the Alternative Incarceration Program. You also asked when it was created and whether eligibility standards have changed in recent years.

SUMMARY

The legislature created the Alternative Incarceration Program (AIP) in 1989. It allows certain sentenced offenders to avoid spending time in prison if they satisfy certain conditions, such as performing community service or participating in certain residential or nonresidential programs. Statutory eligibility standards have not been altered since the program's inception.

The legislature also established an alternative incarceration program for young male offenders in 1989 (PA 89-390). Unlike the alternative incarceration program, this law requires imprisonment for up to 180 days in a special alternative incarceration unit in addition to satisfying various probation conditions. Statutory eligibility for this program also has not changed since its inception.

ALTERNATIVE INCARCERATION PROGRAM

CGS 53a-39a authorizes courts to order certain defendants convicted of some felonies and any misdemeanor to participate in an AIP instead of going to prison. The legislature created the program in 1989 (PA 89-383) and made it permanent in 1994 (PA 94-128). Eligibility standards have remained the same since the law's inception.

An AIP includes, but is not limited to, intensive probation, community service, or residential and nonresidential programs approved by the chief court administrator.

The program applies only where either the stated plea agreement or statutory penalty provides for a prison term.

The program is unavailable to people convicted of a capital or class A felony or of crimes that carry a mandatory minimum sentence. (We have enclosed an OLR memo that lists the offenses that carry a mandatory minimum sentence.)

The program is also unavailable to those convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, manslaughter in the second degree, manslaughter in the second degree with a motor vehicle, misconduct with a motor vehicle, sexual assault in a spousal or cohabitating relationship, or the sale of illegal drugs.

If the court decides to consider AIP for a defendant, it first must order the Office of Adult Probation to assess the desirability of such placement. If the Office of Adult Probation recommends placement in the AIP, it must submit a proposed alternative incarceration plan to the court. The court then decides whether to order a defendant into the AIP. If the court orders a defendant into AIP, it must suspend any prison sentence and make participation in an AIP a condition of probation.

ALTERNATIVE INCARCERATION PROGRAM FOR YOUNG MALES

The law authorizes courts to order certain male defendants between 16 and 21 years of age, as a condition of a sentence of probation of one to five years, to satisfactorily complete a program of incarceration for up to 180 days in a special alternative incarceration unit of the Department of Correction (DOC) (CGS 53a-39b). The law authorizes the DOC Commissioner to transfer an inmate to a regular incarceration unit if the commissioner determines after a hearing that the inmate is not benefiting from the special alternative incarceration program.

The program is only available for defendants who have never served a sentence in an adult correctional institution. It is not available to people convicted of a capital felony, a class A felony, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault in the first degree, felony sexual assault, or robbery in the first degree.

DOC does not have an alternative incarceration unit; thus the law is not being used. Apparently it was designed for a "boot camp" type of incarceration program organized around strenuous physical exercise and strict military-type discipline.

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