America’s Prison System

Sentencing Issues

Goals of Sentencing

• Deterrence –• General deterrence –• Specific Deterrence –

Incapacitation

• Gets criminals off the streets and protects the public

• Reduces…• What could be a possible disadvantage of

this?

Rehabilitation

• Changing the individual lawbreaker through correctional interventions

• Doesn’t…• Why has it failed?

Retribution

• “Let the punishment fit the crime”• Retributivists aim to dispense punishment

according to an offender's moral blameworthiness (as measured by the severity of crimes of which the offender was convicted).

• Ideally, the harshness of punishments should be proportionate to the seriousness of crimes.

Types of Sentences• Jails are short-term lock-up centers normally run by

counties and operated by county sheriffs. Inmates housed in jails include unconvicted defendants awaiting trial who are unable to make bail, convicted misdemeanants, and felons serving jail time as a result of probation violations.

• Prisons are long-term penal facilities operated by state and federal governments. Most prison inmates are convicted felons serving sentences of more than one year.

U.S. Prison System• A record 7 million people, one in ever 32 US adults,

were behind bars, on probation, or on parole by the end of 2006

• By 2011 the • Cost to American • NJ – 26, 827 prisoners • Cali – 174, 282 prisoners

US vs. the World

Sentencing Issues: Race• Dontez Orr

Stopped for unlighted license plate. Pled guilty after police found one rock of crack. Not granted intervention.

Brian Biddulph

Stopped after car chase. Pled guilty after police found crack and paraphernalia. Granted intervention.

Drug Statistics

• 2.3 million behind bars – 3x amount from 1987

• 25% are locked up for drug offenses• $70 billion year on corrections• Whites engage in drug offenses at a higher

rate, yet African Americans are locked up at a rate that is 10x more than that of whites

Solutions?

• Decriminalize drug possession