This approach is being used a by a judge in Hawaii, with regard to its probation program:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law-july-dec13-hawaiihope_11-...

JUDGE STEVEN ALM: I thought to myself, well, what would work to change behavior? And I thought of the way I was raised, the way my wife and I would– were trying to raise our son. You tell him what the family rules are, and then, if there’s misbehavior, you do something immediately. Swift and certain is what’s gonna get people’s attention and help them tie together bad behavior with a consequence and learn from it.

MEGAN THOMPSON: These seemingly simple reforms in Hawaii soon produced remarkable results. An arm of the department of justice funded a study five years after the program launched. That study found that compared to people in regular probation, HOPE probationers were half as likely to be arrested for new crimes, or have their probation revoked. They ended up spending about half as much time in prison. And were 72% less likely to use drugs. The results from Hawaii caught the attention of criminal justice experts across the nation.