Sentencing Corrections

Originally published: 2012. First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback 2015.

This volume addresses major issues and research in corrections and sentencing with the goal of using previous research and findings as a platform for recommendations about future research, evaluation, and policy. The last several decades witnessed major policy changes in sentencing and corrections in the United States, as well as considerable research to identify the most effective strategies for addressing criminal behavior. These efforts included changes in sentencing that eliminated parole and imposed draconian sentences for violent and drug crimes. The federal government, followed by most states, implemented sentencing guidelines that greatly reduced the discretion of the courts to impose sentences. The results were a multifold increase in the numbers of individuals in jails and prisons and on community supervision—increases that have only recently crested. There were also efforts to engage prosecutors and the courts in diversion and oversight, including the development of prosecutorial diversion programs, as well as a variety of specialty courts. Penal reform has included efforts to understand the transitions from prison to the community, including federal-led efforts focused on reentry programming. Community corrections reforms have ranged from increased surveillance through drug testing, electronic monitoring, and in some cases, judicial oversight, to rehabilitative efforts driven by risk and needs assessment. More recently, the focus has included pretrial reform to reduce the number of people held in jail pending trial, efforts that have brought attention to the use of bail and its disproportionate impact on people of color and the poor. This collection of chapters from leading researchers addresses a wide array of the latest research in the field. A unique approach featuring responses to the original essays by active researchers spurs discussion and provides a foundation for developing directions for future research and policymaking.

With recent sentencing law changes at the state and national level, the United States will continue to use long-term confinement more than any other nation in the world. In this authoritative yet accessible volume, scholars, correctional authorities, researchers, and prisoners examine the use of long- term incarceration as a response to crime, the effects of long- term incarceration, and the strategies used by long-term inmates to adjust to confinement. Long-Term Imprisonment explores the prison experience of both male and female inmates and discusses the correctional management challenges posed by long-term incarceration. The core of this collection, edited by Timothy Flanagan, is a set of articles first published in The Prison Journal, the official journal of the Pennsylvania Prison Society and the oldest journal in the field of corrections. These articles are complemented with research reports on the effects of long-term confinement, a comprehensive analysis of long-term inmates currently confined in American and Canadian prisons, and essays written by long-term prisoners. If you are interested in the use and operation of prisons, and in the impact of these institutions on the people confined within them, this book is for you. In addition to students studying imprisonment, the book informs correctional administrators and policymakers about the nature of long-term inmate population and the impact of long-term imprisonment. "Timothy Flanagan began studying the effects of long-term incarceration over two decades ago when he conducted one of the first major studies of prisoners serving long sentences. Since then, many changes have occurred in corrections and sentences practices that have greatly increased sentence lengths and the number of prisoners serving long sentences. The collection of the essays contained in Long-Term Imprisonment represents the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and definitive review of literature regarding the effects of long-term incarceration on prisoners. Flanagan provides readers with a variety of perspectives of long- term imprisonment by including articles written by prison researchers, corrections officials, and long-term prisoners. This book is must reading for anyone interested in life in prisons and the unique world of the long-term prisoner." --Kevin N. Wright, Binghamton University

Canadian Corrections offers a comprehensive introduction to correctional practices in Canada. This user-friendly text combines description, analysis of critical issues, current research and case students to teach students the inner-workings of the Canadian correction system. The second edition includes all current research findings and up-to-date statistical material as well as new information on trends in Canadian corrections, the challenges of probation in the 21st century and the privatization of corrections in Canada.

This study focuses on the practice of punishment, as it is inflicted by the state. The author's first-hand experience with penal reform, combined with philosophical reflection, has led him to develop a theory of punishment that identifies the principles of sentencing and corrections on which modern correctional systems should be built. This new theory of punishment is built on the view that the central function of the law is to reduce the need to use force in the resolution of disputes. Professor Cragg argues that the proper role of sentencing and sentence administration is to sustain public confidence in the capacity of the law to fulfil that function. Sentencing and corrections should therefore be guided by principles of restorative justice. He points out that, although punishment may be an inevitable concomitant of law enforcement in general and sentencing in particular, inflicting punishment is not a legitimate objective of criminal justice. The strength and appeal of this account is that it moves well beyond the boundaries of conventional discussions. It examines punishment within the framework of policing and adjudication, analyses the relationship between punishment and sentencing, and provides a basis for evaluating correctional practices and such developments as electronic monitoring.

Despite falling crime rates, more rights for inmates, and better training for correctional officers, Canada’s prisons are overflowing, and outbreaks of violence continue to grab headlines. Applying Goffman’s frame theory and drawing on interviews with inmates and correctional officers in provincial and federal prisons, Michael Weinrath offers an unprecedented look at how inmates and officers perceive themselves, their relationships with others, and new developments and ongoing issues in prisons, including boundary violations by officers and the rise of prison gangs. Although progress has been made, prisons continue to be plagued by problems that prevent inmates from forging positive relationships among themselves and with correctional officers.

Synthesizing the latest scholarship in law and the social sciences on criminal sentencing and corrections, this book provides a thorough, balanced, and accessible survey of the major policy issues in these fields of persistent public interest and political debate. After three decades of explosive growth, the American incarceration rate is impracticably high. Drawing on leading research in law and the social sciences, this book covers a range of topics in sentencing and corrections in America in a manner that is accessible and engaging for general readers. Tackling high-level issues in the criminal justice system, it outlines the scale and causes of mass incarceration in the United States. To complement this, it details the roles and relative power of judges and prosecutors, the severity of punishment for drug offenders and white-collar offenders, the abuse of prisoners and the enforcement of prisoner rights, and repeat offending by released prisoners. It examines challenges that come with a high incarceration rate, such as the management of mental illness in the criminal justice system, the management of sex offenders, and the impact of parental incarceration on children. Looking ahead, it considers prospects for reducing current incarceration levels, the availability and effectiveness of alternatives to incarceration, and the future of capital punishment.