Reimagining Pretrial & Sentencing

Contexts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Pamela K. Lattimore ◽  
Cassia Spohn ◽  
Matthew Demichele
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Local Justice ◽  
Probation And Parole ◽  
Decision Points ◽  
Alternatives To Incarceration ◽  
Policies And Practices

In this article, we discuss the evolution of criminal justice reform efforts focused on pretrial and sentencing policies and practices that resulted in unprecedented rates of incarceration. There is an urgent need to identify a strategy of pretrial justice and sentencing that will reduce crime and victimization, ameliorate unwarranted disparities, and reclaim human capital currently lost to incarceration. A discussion of proposed policy reforms should begin by first identifying the costs incurred by pretrial decisions (and across further decision points in the justice system) on both the system and the collateral costs to the detained, their families and their communities. In the short-term, jurisdictions should reconsider probation and parole policies and practices that contribute to mass incarceration. Mid-term improvements require inter-agency approaches by law enforcement, prosecutors, and the courts to institute alternatives to incarceration and collaborate with health and community organizations to address underlying issues that lead to local justice system intervention. Importantly, what we highlight is the need for a long-term approach designed to slow the flow of individuals into jails and prisons and to reduce the lengths of sentences they are serving.

Conclusion

Outlaw Women ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 217-232
Author(s):  
Susan Dewey ◽  
Bonnie Zare ◽  
Catherine Connolly ◽  
Rhett Epler ◽  
Rosemary Bratton
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Frontier Myth ◽  
New Frontier ◽  
The U.S

Our Wyoming study offers direct implications for the U.S. prison system, which has reached a new frontier in terms of the sheer number of people incarcerated, on probation or parole, or experiencing the lifelong consequences of a felony conviction. Much like the frontier myth that continues to exercise influence in U.S. politics and dominant culture, mass incarceration is the result of popular acceptance of beliefs that ignore pervasive socioeconomic inequalities. These beliefs encourage the U.S. voting public to endorse addressing deeply rooted social problems, particularly addiction, through criminal justice solutions designed by the politicians they elect. Such is the nature of democracy in a society characterized by ever-widening inequalities between rich and poor, those with stable jobs and contingent workers, where the criminal justice system is fodder for countless films, series, and other entertainment, and where individuals rely far more on electronic communication than on meaningful social interaction. Social isolation and inequality breed fear, and three fear-based beliefs undergird the existence of the criminal justice system in its present form: drug-abusing women are a threat to public safety, law breaking is an individual choice rather than a community problem, and women released from prison pose a long-term risk to society.

Community Corrections

Criminology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth M. Huebner
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Community Corrections ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Boot Camps ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Alternatives To Incarceration ◽  
Community Sanctions

Most offenders under correctional supervision reside in the community. Community corrections includes a broad array of programs including alternatives to incarceration (such as boot camps or probation) and services, like parole, that aid offenders in making the transition to community life after imprisonment. Professionals in the field of community corrections have the dual role of ensuring accountability to both the criminal sanction and provision of services. There is substantial variation in forms of community sanctions, and these programs can be administered by a broad range of agencies within the criminal justice system, including corrections, courts, probation, and the police. In an era of mass incarceration, correctional agencies have been called on to supervise an ever-increasing number of offenders in the community. Subsequently, scholars and practitioners alike have called for the development and evaluation of community-based correctional programming. The following literature summarizes the prominent works in this area and provides sources of reliable data on a range of community sanctions.

“Let Me Be Bill-free”: Consumer Debt in the Shadow of Incarceration

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 978-1001
Author(s):  
Annie Harper ◽  
Tommaso Bardelli ◽  
Stacey Barrenger
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
New Haven ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
The City

Low-income U.S. households are increasingly burdened by unaffordable debt, with profound long-term economic and health consequences. Households of color are disproportionately negatively affected. This article examines the nexus of this rising indebtedness and mass incarceration through the experiences of a particularly marginalized group, people with mental illness. Drawing on qualitative research with 31 individuals with mental illness and recent incarceration in the city of New Haven, Connecticut, we show how carceral institutions and predatory financial practices intersect to create complex entanglements for poor and vulnerable people. While a growing body of scholarship focuses on criminal justice fines and fees, we highlight other types of debt that add to the overall burden, describing how incarceration deepens people’s existing debts of poverty and adds new debts from in-prison costs and identity theft. After release, those debts complicate the search for housing, employment, and financial stability, leading to further debt, stressing social relationships and reproducing social and economic inequality. The experiences of people with mental illness illuminates structures of marginalization and disadvantage that affect many others involved with the criminal justice system.

scholarly journals THROUGH OFFENDERS’ EYES: A PILOT STUDY ON EXPERIENCING SUPERVISION IN SERBIAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

TEME ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Batrićević ◽  
Jelena želeskov Đorić ◽  
Boban Petrović ◽  
Branislava Knežić
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Technology Initiative ◽  
European Cooperation ◽  
Probation And Parole ◽  
Supervision Process ◽  
Offender Supervision ◽  
Alternatives To Incarceration

Probation and parole are intended as alternatives to incarceration for eligible offenders. In various European jurisdictions research studies indicated the importance of the offenders’ perspective in supervision; however, the contribution of this factor is still unclear and underexplored. In the present study, we explored the offenders’ experience of the supervision process, based upon the experience of 22 convicts. To understand the offenders’ experience, we used the newly constructed tool, Eurobarometer, which measures eight core domains of offender supervision. The pilot study was conducted in Belgrade and was a part of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology initiative (COST) which was implemented in eight European jurisdictions. Results confirmed that the offenders’ perception of supervision can be significant in various domains of offenders’ life and that Eurobarometer can be significant in capturing that experience.

Monumental Promises, Incremental Gains

2021 ◽  
pp. 222-244
Author(s):  
Khalilah L. Brown-Dean
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
President Obama ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Key Policy

There were growing public demands to address ongoing tensions over biased policing, excessive sentencing, and the often lethal consequences of disproportionate minority contact. However, the Obama administration’s professed commitment to comprehensive criminal justice and mass incarceration reform was constrained by institutional norms, federalism, and a skepticism about individual responsibility that most frequently came from Republican detractors. Hyperincarceration in the United States has garnered substantial attention from scholars, activists, and analysts. Yet beyond crime rates, the racially disparate consequences of this autonomous system hold significant implications for the institutionalization of Black political power. African Americans are disproportionately represented in every realm of punitive control, from surveillance to arrest to conviction to incarceration to postrelease supervision. Crime control policies, then, shape individual access and communal representation. In this chapter, I interrogate President Obama’s record through the lens of what I term “concentrated punishment.” I begin by highlighting the behemoth growth of the criminal justice system that set the tone for the challenges President Obama attempted to address. From there, I analyze key policy reforms within these two domains to characterize President Obama’s legacy of criminal justice reform. Finally, I outline a reform path for future administrations.

THE ROLE OF SCIENCE IN REDUCING RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITIES IN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
Ethnic Disparities ◽  
Racial And Ethnic Disparities ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Juvenile Justice Policy ◽  
Policies And Practices

AbstractIn recent years, we have witnessed various efforts by the federal government to advance our justice system and improve public safety. Collaborations across justice and service agencies and research on what works in criminal justice policy have been central in criminal justice reform activities. Within the juvenile justice arena, reducing rates of victimization and delinquency, as well as implementing strategies to reduce racial and ethnic disparities remain priorities. In this essay, I discuss how research on neuroscience and brain development, and racial and ethnic disparities in justice system outcomes has informed juvenile justice policy and procedural protections for youth. I also review how school policies and practices can perpetuate racial and ethnic disparities in justice outcomes. Throughout the essay, I discuss the federal government’s role in supporting research to advance policies and practices designed to reduce these harms. I highlight the implications of these activities and ways in which data and research can continue to play a key role in realizing equal opportunity and justice for all youth, especially as they are the most vulnerable members of society.

Could Personalisation Reduce Re-offending? Reflections on Potential Lessons from British Social Care Reform for the British Criminal Justice System

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEX FOX ◽  
CHRIS FOX ◽  
CAROLINE MARSH
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Institutional Care ◽  
Care Experience ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
The Social

AbstractRising prison numbers and high rates of re-offending illustrate the need for criminal justice reform. In the social care sector, the ‘personalisation revolution’ has resulted in the near eradication of long-term, institutional care for the majority of people with disabilities and many frail older people, increasing satisfaction. This paper examines what this has entailed and considers the case for introducing personalisation in the criminal justice system. It concludes that criminal justice reformers can learn from the social care experience and suggests how personalisation might fit within the current criminal justice reform agenda. However, introducing personalisation will pose significant challenges, perhaps the biggest being the need to change criminal justice culture.

Crack and Criminal Justice in Canton, Ohio, 1987–1999: “The Drug Problem has Created a Monster”

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-182
Author(s):  
WILL COOLEY
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crack Cocaine ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
The City

AbstractThe rise of crack cocaine in the late 1980s propelled the war on drugs. The experience of Canton, Ohio, shows how the response to crack solidified mass incarceration. A declining industrial city of 84,000 people in northeast Ohio with deep-seated racial divides, it was overwhelmed by aggressive, enterprising crack dealers from outside the city. In response, politicians and residents united behind the strategy of incessant arrests and drastic prison sentences. The law-enforcement offensive worsened conditions while pursuing African Americans at blatantly disproportionate rates, but few people engaged in reframing the drug problem. Instead, a punitive citizenry positioned punishment as the principal remedy. The emergency foreclosed on more comprehensive assessments of the city’s tribulations, while the criminal justice system emerged as the paramount institution.

The downside of downsizing: Persistence of racial disparities following state prison reform

2021 ◽  
pp. 146247452110060
Author(s):  
Amy E Lerman ◽  
Alyssa C Mooney
Keyword(s):  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Prison Reform ◽  
State Prison ◽  
Probation And Parole ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Prison Populations ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Double Digit

Nationwide, prison populations have declined nearly 5% from their peak, and 16 states have seen double-digit declines. It is unclear, though, how decarceration has affected racial disparities. Using national data, we find substantial variation in state prison populations from 2005–2018, with increases in some states and declines in others. However, although declines in the overall state prison population were associated with declines for all groups, states with rising prison populations experienced slight upticks in prison rates among the white population, while rates among Black and Latinx populations declined. As a result, greater progress in overall decarceration within states did not translate to larger reductions in racial disparities. At the same time, we do not find evidence that a decline in prison populations is associated with a rise in jail incarceration for any racial/ethnic group. In additional exploratory analyses, we suggest that recent incarceration trends may be driven by changes in returns to prison for probation and parole violations, rather than commitments for new crimes. Our results make clear that while efforts to reverse mass incarceration have reduced the size of prison populations in some states, they have not yet made substantial progress in resolving the crisis of race in American criminal justice.

Criminal Justice Reform in a Transitional Context: Restorative Youth Conferencing in Northern Ireland

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
David O’Mahony
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Youth Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Transitional Environment

This article examines the incorporation of restorative principles and practices within reforms of Northern Ireland’s youth justice system, adopted following the peace process. It considers whether restorative justice principles can be successfully incorporated into criminal justice reform as part of a process of transitional justice. The article argues that restorative justice principles, when brought within criminal justice, can contribute to the broader process of transitional justice and peace building, particularly in societies where the police and criminal justice system have been entwined in the conflict. In these contexts restorative justice within criminal justice can help civil society to take a stake in the administration and delivery of criminal justice, it can help break down hostility and animosity towards criminal justice and contribute to the development of social justice and civic agency, so enabling civil society to move forward in a transitional environment.

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