The Sentencing Study

Similar to the Sentencing Reform Act, the purpose of the United States Sentencing Commission is to prevent inequity of sentencing among federal judges. It’s role is to serve as a strict guideline for Judges to adhere and limits the discretion at which a Judge may alter the length of sentence. The goal of this commission is to hamper factors such as race, sex, socioeconomic status, etc to affect the length of sentence, and aims for the guideline to stand on a neutral ground.

The increase in violent rapes and murders being committed by paroled prisoners in Victoria, such as those committed by Adrian Bailey in 2012, and Sean Price in 2015, have led to the tightening of parole laws, removal of suspended sentences, and introduction of new mandatory sentencing laws. However, while these laws can be an effective way of reducing crime, reducing reoffending by 17-20 percent (Helland and Tabarrok, 2007), they also are a departure from the doctrine of the separation of powers (Solonec, 2015). The purpose of this essay will be to assess how detrimental the removal of objective sentencing will be to society, through the implementation of policies such as mandatory sentencing, stricter parole laws, and the removal of

Public opinion surveys show that more and more people believe that crime is increasing. People feel less safe in their environment and have thus started to take measures to protect themselves. Matt Taibbi states, “In 1991 there were about one million Americans behind bars. By 2012, the number was over 2.2 million, a more than 100% increase.” But is this view accurate? Statistics show that the population two decades ago America’s population was approximately 266 million compared to today's population which stands at approximately 322 million. Since the population of America 20 years ago was less than it is today, you can’t possibly compare today’s the crime rates and prison population to rates that were calculated years back. It’ll obviously seem

The recording is based on research founded by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, who is a research analyst for the sentencing project. The sentencing project is a non-profit group that advocates for the criminal justice reform. She also, is an author of a report called “Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies, which is about her study of police shootings disproportionately affecting African American and how media coverage shows racial bias against African American. In addition, a 2002 survey found that people made an estimate that 40 percent of those that committed violent crimes were African American, but the real percentage was only 29 percent. According to Nazgol Ghandnoosh (2015), a research

In 1973, New York State passed the first harshest statewide anti-drug law in the country. Named after New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the Rockefeller Drug laws required a mandatory lengthy prison sentences for all felony-level drug and possession offenses. The intent of lengthy prison sentence was meant to deter drug abuse and drug crimes. Between 1970s and 2000s, the Prison population tripled from 11 percent (12,579) in 1973 to almost 35 percent (70,154) in 2008 (DCJS, 2011; Feinblatt, Berman & Foxx, 2000). The overcrowding of prison in response to drug-related crime created a new opportunity for reformers to find alternative ways in treating drug offenders instead of placing them in prison. As drug courts began to grow exponentially during the 1990s, advocacy groups led the charge in coordinating efforts to lobby efforts in reforming the Rockefeller sentencing. In 2009, under Governor Paterson, the State legislature enacted legislation that shifted away from mass incarceration towards a public health model.

from late 90’s to 2007, the amount of parole violator ingresses grew by 79%. One in 28 people in Pennsylvania was convicted, on probation, or on parole. In a result it costs taxpayers more than $1.8 billion during the year 2007. The state's confinement rate increased 280% since 1982. The prisoners population has increased by 40% within the last nine years. The Commonwealth will soon have four new prisons to house an inmate population that is growing by about 2,000 people every year. Housing nearly 51,000 inmates in prisons designed to hold 43,000 is currently being attempted.

The United States is the world leader in the increasing prison rate, in both as a percentage of population and raw figures. As per a fresh report which employs data of each and every state, a record 2,319,258 citizens were in prison or jail at the beginning of 2008; which means one amongst every 99.1 adults.

Preview and Thesis: We, the United States of America are the world leaders in incarceration, but sadly, according to the webpage Federal Bureau of Prisons, under the section titled “Inmate offenses”, 46.2 percent are behind bars due to

Increases in the number of prisoners are likely to reduce crime, rising crime rates also translate into larger

Circles were found by the Native American cultures of the United States and Canada. These circles are used for many purposes. In the 1980s, the criminal justice system adapted and developed as the people of a first nation. Local justice officials had attempted to start building closer ties with the community and formal justice system. Going into 1991, Judge Barry introduced the “sentencing circle.” The sentencing circle means that the justice process will be shared with the community. The best-known sentencing circles were called the “Hollow Water First Nations Community Holistic Healing Circle.” The members of the community would gather around to deal with a high level of alcoholism. These circles represented a safe zone. Many had begun to

What will no prison time do for a criminal who has a history of attempted murder and robbing and stealing? Tsotsi is a teenager who lived in South Africa in the poor part of a township in Johannesburg and takes part of a small gang. He should be considered guilty and charged for his actions such as robbing, stealing and attempted murder. However, the strict, unforgiving Apartheid laws that took place in his town has an impact for what he has commit and must take some of the blame. Therefore, he should receive alternative sentences like community service or probation, which could be far more beneficial for him.

In the United States there are four main goals when it comes to punishment which are retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation (DeJong, 2016, p. 288). The main goals for these punishments are to maintain order over society and to prevent recidivism (DeJong, 2016, p. 288). This ties into the Ecology perspective. By maintaining order over society and preventing recidivism, it ties into all of the issues regarding the Ecology perspective which requires for each issue to address the individual, family, community and society. Maintaining order over society and preventing recidivism strives toward making a safer environment for the individual, family, community and society. There is no universal agreement for making the severity of punishment just or fair (DeJong, 2016, p. 288). When it comes to retribution the person who is getting punished deserves the punishment (DeJong, 2016, p. 289). Retribution refers to when an individual commits a certain crime then that person must receive a punishment proportionate to that crime or suffering that they may have caused towards the victim (DeJong, 2016, p. 289). Regarding deterrence there are two types, general deterrence and specific deterrence (DeJong, 2016, p. 289). General deterrence focuses on the society in general and wants to scare everyone away from committing crimes (DeJong, 2016, p. 289). Specific deterrence focuses on criminals that have already been convicted and wants to prevent them from

Between 19 77 and 2004, New Jersey’s female prison population grew by 717% with an average annual percent change of 8.8% per year. Throughout the period from 1977 to 2004, New Jersey’s female imprisonment rate was 33 female prisoners per 100,000 female residents. In 1977 there were 180 total female sentenced prisoners in New Jersey. In 2004 there were 1,470 total female sentenced prisoners in New Jersey.

Every year the number of prisoners in USA who return to jail increased gradually. Prison’s in the USA need to be improved. The graph below illustrates the proportion of released offenders in some states of USA, who returned to prison for either committing a new crime or a technical violation as well as those who

Research by Traum (2013) supports the growth of incarceration rates in the United States traces back to the legal policies that have gone to the increase of the lengths of prison sentences and the imprisonment. Mitchell et al. (2016) studied the imprisonment rate of the United States in the year of 2012 to be 471 per 100,000 residents; if the ones who are in jail are to be included, then the rate would increase to 707 per 100,000 residents. According to Mitchell et al. (2016) states that given that the United States has these rates for imprisonment makes it to exceed than any others in the