Decarceration in Massachusetts: A Study of Disjointed Incrementalism

Abstract

The planning and implementation of innovative correctional policies has confounded practitioners and academicians. Recently most attention has been directed toward the development of comprehensive planning models. Recognition of the limited success of these models has led to disillusionment. In this article an alternative approach, disjointed incrementalism, is proposed. Developed in the public administration literature, the model better addresses the obstacles that impede social change. It will be arguedfurther, however, that to be used to explain and plan major policy change, the model must be revised to include five additional factors: character of change, timing, leadership, "broad vision," and control over the arena of change. To demonstrate the utility of the revised model, both as an explanatory and planning tool, it is used to examine the decarceration of juvenile delinquents in Massachusetts between 1969 and 1973.

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