Chapter 14
Sentencing
The Purpose of Punishment
 Rehabilitation: seeks to treat and reform the lawbreaker
 Prison/release programs should try to turn the wrongdoer into a
productive member of society
 Job training, counseling, educational programs
 Restitution: seeks repayment
 Offender pays the victim or community in money or services
 Incapacitation: seeks to isolate a criminal from society to protect
ordinary citizens
 Confinement in a secure prision
The Purpose of Punishment
 Deterrence: seeks to prevent further crimes
 Specific deterrence: targets the criminal in question and hopes that
the memory of punishment will deter that criminal from future
crime
 General deterrence: targets other potential criminals- others will see
the punishment and be discouraged from committing the same crime
 Retribution: seeks revenge
 Oldest theory of punishment- that a society has to retaliate against a
person who commits a crime
 Dates back to “eye for an eye” philosophy
Sentencing Laws
 Sentencing hearings are held shortly after the defendant is found guilty
 Before the hearing the judge is presented with a pre-sentencing report that
includes background information about the defendant
 Family background, previous convictions, character, ect
 The report helps the judge to understand the defendant and whether efforts
at rehabilitation may be effective
 Prosecution and defense may present information to the court and make
sentencing information
 Victims may make a statement on how the crime affected them
 Judges may consider many factors in sentencing:
 Crime, the offender’s actions, the weapon, criminal record, psych state, age, ect
The Purpose of Punishment
 Sentencing structures vary depending on the state
Indeterminate
Sentences
Determinate
Sentences
No pre-determined
time to serve
Fixed-term sentencing
Usually stated as a
range of years
How much time the
prisoner actually
serves is left up to the
state parole board
which determines
when they should be
released
Many claim this can
create unjust prison
terms
Mandatory
Sentencing Laws
Take away the option
of alternative
Judges sentence
sentences (community
defendants to a specific service, restitution,
time based on the
halfway house)
severity of the crime
Require judges to
Prisoners know at the sentence offenders to
time of sentencing
prison terms
when their prison
term would end
Ex: Anti-Drug-Abuse
Act of 1986 sets
mandatory minimum
sentences for drug
offenses
Sentencing
Guidelines
Provide formulas for
judges to use in all
sentencing decisions
Some states have grid
system with crime’s
severity and offender’s
criminal historyjudges have to simply
determine where the
crime falls on the grid
Federal Sentencing: Crack v. Cocaine
 1980’s saw crack epidemic
 Violence, deaths, crack babies
 Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 & 1988
 Created Office of Nat’l Drug Control Policy & set harsh penalties for
dealers in cocaine (100-1 Ratio)
 Crack was given even harsher penalties b/c Congress saw it as more
addictive, more linked to violent crime and more likely to be dealt in
small quantities
 This drew police attention to predominately black inner-city
neighborhoods
 80% of crack dealers sentenced in federal court were African-American
100-1 Ratio in Federal Sentencing
5 grams or more of crack
cocaine
OR
500 grams or more of
powder cocaine
5- year mandatory
minimum sentence
50 grams or more of crack
cocaine
OR
5,000 grams or more of
powder cocaine
10- year mandatory
minimum sentence
100:1 Ratio
 500 grams of powder
cocaine compared to 5
grams of crack cocaine
Federal Sentencing: Crack v. Cocaine
SUPPORTERS
 Crack devastated inner-city
neighborhoods
 Crack is far more addictive than
powder cocaine
 Laws may be misguided but not
racist
CRITICS
 Why punish separately- cocaine
can easily be made into crack
 Makes small-time crack dealers
suffer same punishment as highlevel cocaine dealers
 Question whether
crack=violence
 Violence can appear with
trafficking any type of drug
 Racism
Crack v. Cocaine: Court Challenges
 Defendants have challenged the 100:1 ratio in fed appeals court but
courts have refused to overturn sentencing laws
 Supreme Court has refused to hear any of these cases
 Challenges based on three legal grounds:
 100:1 ration discriminates against African-Americans and denies them
equal protection of the law
 Law violates due process because there are different punishments for the
same drug
 Law violates the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment
Fair Sentencing Act of 2010
 Passed by Congress
 Lowered the ratio to 18:1
 28 grams of crack= mandatory 5-year sentence and 280 grams of
crack= mandatory 10-year sentence
 Ratio for powder cocaine remains the same
 Act did away with mandatory five-year term for first time possession
of crack
 2011 U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to make the 18:1 ratio
retroactive- so 12,000 prisoners will receive reductions in their
sentence
Chapter 15
Prison
Overcrowding in Prisons
 The federal prison system and more than half of state prisons are
running over capacity
 Overcrowding can lead to: discipline problems, unrest, unhealthy
conditions, and violence
 Beginning in the late 1970s federal judges began ordering states to
upgrade their prisons and reduce overcrowding
 Lawyers charged that inmates were being subjected to “cruel and
unusual punishment”- violating the 8th Amendment
 Some federal court imposed rigid deadlines to end overcrowding-
leaving states in tricky situations
Overcrowding in Prisons
 The 1980s saw a surge of new prison construction
 Building prisons became a $17 billion a year industry
 In 1995 Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act
 Set up a process that court must follow when ordering a state to end
overcrowding
 Most notable example was California- recently ordered to reduce
number of prisoners
 173,000 behind bars/ 1 out of every 10 prisoners in U.S are in CA
 Brown v. Plata: Supreme Court case that upheld the decision
Attica State Prison Riot
 Sept 1971: 1,200 prisoners took 33 guards hostage to protest
“oppressive prison conditions”
 Prisoners immediately organized themselves
 Sick bay, clean-up detail, elected negotiating committee, security force
 Guards that needed medical aid were released
 Prisoners met with a mediating team that included NY director of
prisons, lawyers, journalists and local politicians
 Their demands:
 better prison conditions, freedom of Muslim worship, job training, right
to hold political meeting and amnesty for the takeover
Attica State Prison Riot
 Many of the demands were met except amnesty
 Due to injured guard who died in hospital
 By day 3 mediators felt an agreement was close but NY Governor refused
to come and give any agreement credibility
 On day 4 guards attacked the inmates with helicopters and nausea gas
 500 men firing rifles and shotgun poured into the prison yard
 33 inmates and nine hostages were killed and 100 seriously wounded
 Those left standing were stripped and beaten by guards
 20 years later a civil court awarded prisoners millions in damages for
violation of their civil rights and assault
Life at Attica
 All entered in leg shackles and
placed in isolation for two days
 After each prisoner given a 6x9
cell in which he spent 14-16
hours alone
 30 minutes for each meal and a
shower once a week
 Job training was working in a
laundry or in a tool shop that
never dropped below 100 F
New Mexico State Prison Riot
 Feb 1980: prisoners broke into the control room, seized the guards
and opened all the cells
 No one prisoner tried to organize
 Started doing drugs, smashed furniture, set fires
 33 prisoners hacked to death or tortured to death by other prisoners
 Most of the prisoners came out to surrender peacefully and those
who did not put up no resistance
 Similar abuses as Attica but also no individual cells
Policies Behind the Rise in Incarceration
Mandatory sentencing
Three strikes policy
Requires judge to sentence
Mandates lengthy, even life, for
offenders to prison termcertain third felony convictions
cannot shorten it, suspend it, or
give an alternate sentence
Federal law requires that the
three convictions must be
Harsh sentences for low-level,
violent felonies
non-violent, drug offenders
By 2010 more than ½ of all
federal prisoners were drug
offenders
Truth in Sentencing
These laws attempt to reduce or
eliminate parole
Force convicts to serve close to
their full sentence
1994 and 1995 federal crime
bills offered prison construction
aid to states that adopted truthin-sentencing laws for violent
offenders
Parole
 Process of returning prisoners to society if they have displayed good
behavior in prison and if they give their word to avoid further crime
 At the end of their prison terms, prisoners come before a parole board
where their behaviors and attitudes are examined
 Parole officer sees that the conditions of parole are met and the parolee
makes a successful transition to life on the outside
 Today’s trend is towards fixed sentences but even with states that have this
policy, prisoners can be released on parole
 Nationwide: 2/3 more people are on parole than are locked up in prison
 Disproportionate number of supervisors to parolees makes the process
challenging
Parole Process
 Parole boards are comprised of political appointees who have professional
staff members and case workers to advise them
 Case workers compile reports on prisoners eligible for parole:
 Behavior while in prison, family, opportunities for employment, access to
friends, housing availability, and the general climate of the community
 Employment is often key to winning parole board approval
 Success is more likely if a stable job is available
 If released, offenders must meet regularly with a parole officer to show
they are living up to the conditions of their release
 No alcohol or controlled substances, possession of firearms, or association
with other ex-cons
 Offenders must ask permission to change their residence, travel, marry or
even buy a car
Parole Officers
 Parole officers have two, sometimes conflicting roles:
Social Worker
Corrections Officer
Try to help parolee make a successful transition
from prison to the community
Watching for criminal tendencies
May have individual jailed pending an
investigation of parole violations or new
criminal act
 Ideal caseload: 35 per officer or as few as 20 for serious offenders
 In some areas, budget problems have pushed case loads up as high as
250 parolees per caseworker
 Less than 10 min per week per case- rarely adequate to check up on a
parolee
Chapter 16
Alternatives to Prison
Fines
 Most common punishment inflicted on convicted offenders
 ¾ of all cases
 Can be imposed as only punishment but usually doesn’t happen b/c
offenders would remain in the community unsupervised (no parole)
 Traffic violations, misdemeanors and some non-violent felonies
 Fines raise two problems:
Practicality
Fairness
Since most criminals are financially unstable, does Rich v. poor: $500 fine could be nothing for
it make sense to punish with fines?
someone with money but difficult for someone
poor
May push offender to committing a new crime to
pay for old one
To balance some jurisdictions are creating day
fines: calculated on how much a person earns
each day
Probation
 Offenders sentenced to probation can return to their community,
but must prove they are meeting conditions set by the court
 Court has right to cancel probation and imprison
 Developed in the mid-1800s to keep petty offenders away from
corrupt prisons
 More than 2x as many U.S. convicts are on probation than are
serving sentences in prisons and jails
 Probation offers benefits:
 Low cost, people on probation can still work and do not have re-entry
problems into their community
Probation
 Probation only works well if it is combined with effective
supervision
 Must report on a regular basis to a probation officer to make sure they
are meeting the conditions set by the court
 In recent years more courts are using house-arrest for criminals
 Tamper-resistant ankle bracelets to monitor their location
 Many jurisdictions are adopting b/c cheaper than jail time
 Can be used in conjunction with community service
 Also used to monitor those on parole or awaiting trial
Chapter 17
Capital Punishment
History of the Death Penalty in America
 All states with the death penalty use lethal injection
 In some states shooting, hanging, electrocution, poison gas and lethal
injection may be another option
 Most criminals sentenced to death are normally held in a max-
security prison on death row
 Little to no contact with other inmates
 In the American colonies legal executions took place as early as 1630
 In 1800s many people began to oppose capital punishment and the
feelings grew stronger after WWII
Statistics
 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/methods-execution
 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-execution-rates
Public Opinion on the Death Penalty
 Public opinion on the death penalty has come in waves over the years
 By the 1990s, following decades of anxiety over crime and violence, some
states were showing high % of the population for executing criminals
 California was at almost 80%
 In 1991, researcher Robert M. Bohm did an analysis of 21 different polls
on the death penalty
 Found that factors such as religion, age or occupation showed little relation to
their attitude on capital punishment
 Other factors did: men more likely to favor than women, whites supported it
more than blacks, Republicans more than Democrats, wealthy more than the
poor
 A surprise: people from the South were more likely to oppose capital
punishment than people from other regions
Are We Executing Innocent People?
 138 prisoners since 1973 have been released from death row
 Innocence Project
 2004- Congress passed the Innocence Project Act: gives federal
prisoners the right to ask a court for DNA tests to prove their
innocence
 Also provides grants to states that adopt measures that allow prisoners
easier access to DNA tests, preserve biological evidence used for DNA
testing, and issue minimum standards for court-appointed defense
attorneys