Presentation Transcript

1. UNIT 2: Criminal Law and Juvenile Justice Chapter 15 Criminal Justice Process: Sentencing and Corrections

   STREET LAW

2. Sentencing & corrections are the final phases of the criminal justice process Once found guilty, a defendant will be sentenced by a judge or a jury (depending on individual state law) The sentence is the most critical decision in the process, as it can determine a defendant’s fate for years or even life
3. There are several sentencing options, ranging from a suspended sentence & probation to imprisonment, or even death Criminal sentences serve a number of purposes, including retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, & incapacitation Once the defendant has been sentenced, he or she enters the corrections system
4. Several treatment or punishment options are available: Community corrections Halfway houses Jails, & Prisons The convict’s entry back into society after his or her sentence has been served can be a difficult adjustment To help with this transition, the U.S. Dept. of Justice has developed a program called reentry that provides support & mentoring relationships between convicts & counselors
5. Sentencing Most criminal statutes set out basic guidelines for sentencing, but judges generally have considerable say in determining the appropriate sentence for a defendant Judges may have several options for sentencing
6. These options include: suspending the sentence—or allowing the defendant to serve the sentence at a later time; releasing the defendant to the supervision of a probation officer; & sentencing the defendant to serve his or her time at home
7. A judge may also issue a fine, require the defendant to pay back the victim for harm caused, or allow the defendant to work in the community during the day but return to prison at night or on weekends The most severe sentences a judge may impose are imprisonment & death
8. In response to public concerns about judges who were “soft on crime,” some states have moved toward determinate sentencing This approach does not allow the broad discretion formerly allowed to judges in sentencing criminal defendants Under the determinate sentencing approach, criminals are sentenced on the basis of an offender score
9. Rather than tailoring the sentence to the individual circumstances of the offender & considering the potential for rehabilitation, the judge sentences offenders within a limited range of punishment based on the seriousness of their present offense & their prior criminal record Judges can only go outside the range of punishment if specific mitigating or aggravating circumstances are found
10. Generally, the sentence becomes eligible for appeal when it goes outside the range of punishment Some judges, lawyers, & others are critical of sentencing guidelines & determinate sentencing They say it takes away from judges the discretion that they need to make fair sentencing decisions
11. States have also passed: Mandatory prison terms for crimes like narcotics & firearm offenses & murder Sentence “enhancements” for specific situations, i.e., when guns are involved in the crime Habitual offender laws that give mandatory minimum sentences to habitual offenders Three Strikes Laws Laws creating a civil commitment process for those sexual predators, in which the convicted are confined in a locked treatment facility once their criminal sentence has been served
12. In addition, federal & state laws have lengthened confinement times for violent, sexual, & drug crimes These statutes have all contributed to prison overcrowding
13. Home Confinement: The advantages to a sentence of home confinement are that the offender does not have to spend time behind bars & can maintain his or her job or school responsibilities This approach may be less expensive than prison The disadvantages to such a sentence are that the offender cannot leave his or her home except for essential purposes (work, school, doctor’s appointments) & that he or she must wear a monitoring device
14. Purposes of Punishment& Parole There are four general reasons given for punishing convicted defendants: Retribution Deterrence Rehabilitation & Incapacitation
15. Retribution is the idea that punishment should involve some form of payback ("an eye for an eye") Deterrence is the concept that punishment will discourage others from engaging in future criminal activities Rehabilitation is the idea that time in prison will allow the prisoner to change his or her ways & learn how to function as a productive member of society Incapacitation removes the individual from society in order to make the community safe from the threat he or she posed
16. Parole Parole is the release of a convicted person from prison before his or her entire sentence has been served Parole is a privilege granted to those convicts who seem to have reformed & appear ready to rejoin society
17. Capital Punishment Technically, capital punishment means imposition of the death penalty or life imprisonment However, we tend to think of capital punishment only in terms of the death penalty The U.S. Supreme Court typically hears several cases each term of the death penalty Courts must look at aggravating & mitigating circumstances before imposing the death penalty
18. The capital punishment cases mentioned in the text are: Furman v. Georgia, & Lockett v. Ohio In Buchanan v. Angelone, the Supreme Court ruled that the trial judge’s failure to instruct the jury on the concept of mitigation in general, as well as about specific mitigating factors, did not violate the defendant’s rights The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment under certain circumstances The Court has also considered the issue of whether someone who did not actually pull the trigger of the gun can receive the death penalty
19. In Enmund v. Florida the defendant had driven the getaway car after his cohorts robbed & shot to death an elderly couple Under state law, this was felony murder punishable by life imprisonment or death The Court reasoned that Enmund’s lack of intent & his physical absence during the killings would make the death sentence cruel & unusual punishment
20. Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism & Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) in 1996 Under this law, if a state is certified as providing adequate representation for death row inmates in post-conviction relief proceedings, a faster appeals process is established As of 1999, no state had qualified as providing adequate representation for death row inmates There has been significant debate over this law
21. Critics, including the American Bar Assoc. (ABA), state that in the same year Congress passed this law, it eliminated federal funding to organizations that provide services to poor defendants The ABA also notes that the one-year statute of limitations for filing federal habeas petitions set by the AEDPA left indigent defendants with little time & scarce resources to file for appeals
22. In 2003, officials in CA estimated that the state spent $90 million on death penalty trials & confinement This amount was beyond the ordinary costs incurred for trials in which life imprisonment was the harshest possible sentence
23. According to a 2002 report, the cost of the death penalty in Indiana was 38% greater than the total cost of life-w/o-parole sentences Idaho reported similar findings in 2003, saying that it costs taxpayers app. $1 million to imprison someone for life, compared to nearly $5 million to impose the death penalty
24. Public Opinion & the Death Penalty A May 2002 Gallup Poll revealed support for the death penalty was high (the highest since May 1995) with 74% of Americans in favor & 24% in opposition to the death penalty for those convicted of murder When given the choice of life imprisonment with “. . . absolutely no possibility of parole,” or the death penalty as punishment for murder, 53% favored death while 44% opted for life imprisonment
25. The Gallup Poll also indicated that one’s political affiliation can affect his or her position on capital punishment For example, 62% of political conservatives favored the death penalty & 36% favored life imprisonment In contrast, 37% of political liberals favored the death penalty, while 60% tended to favor life imprisonment
26. Level of education also appears to play a role in one’s preference for capital punishment Individuals with a postgraduate education indicated a preference for life imprisonment (62%), while those with a high school education or less leaned toward the death penalty (56%) A majority of Americans felt that the death penalty is applied fairly, & 48% said that the death penalty is not imposed often enough in the U.S.
27. Who’s on Death Row? The ABA calls the U.S. justice system “a haphazard maze of unfair practices with no internal consistency” It cites a growing concern about recently enacted federal & state laws that have limited appeals for death row inmates & funding for death row appeals The ABA’s Death Penalty Representation Project is designed to reverse the U.S.’s “fatally flawed” administration of the death penalty
28. Through the project, the ABA seeks to establish a national standard of practice that ensures every capital defendant receives a fair trial & competent legal representation: “Absent that, any resulting conviction is, by definition, unjust” The ABA has called for an immediate ban on the death penalty “unless & until greater fairness & due process prevail”
29. Corrections There are several treatment & punishment options available to the government, including halfway houses, mental facilities, & prisons Some aspects of the correctional system also focus on preparing the prisoner to re-enter society
30. Race & Corrections In 2003, the Maryland state legislature commissioned a study which produced the following results: In 2002, African Americans nationally were incarcerated at 7x the rate of Whites, & Latinos were incarcerated at 2.5x the rate of Whites African Americans & Latinos comprised 68% of all prisoners in 2002, even though African Americans & Latinos together make up just 25% of the U.S. population
31. If incarceration rates continue at the 2001 level, 1 in 17 White men (5.9%), 1 in 6 Latino men (17%), & 1 in 3 African American men (32%) born in 2001 will serve time in prison at some point in their lives
32. While Whites & African Americans use drugs at similar rates, African Americans represented 28% of the Maryland pop., but represented 68% of those arrested for drug offenses & 90% of those incarcerated for a drug offense in 2001
33. In 2002, <1% of White men were incarcerated in Maryland, whereas 5.6% of the African American male pop. of the state were incarcerated Over half (56%) of all young African American men in Baltimore were under some form of criminal justice control
34. The report also discusses some of the complex reasons why minorities are overrepresented in the prison system: Minorities tend to be arrested for certain behaviors more often than Whites even though both groups commit the same crimes at the same rates Whites may have better access to drug treatment facilities, which can reduce the likelihood of drug-related offenses
35. Whites may have access to better legal representation Sentences for Latinos & African Americans tend to be longer than sentences for Whites These data tend to raise questions about bias against African Americans & Latinos in the criminal justice system, especially in law enforcement’s anti-drug efforts
36. The impact of these facts is far-reaching, including one report that noted that 1 in 7, or 14%, of African American males is either currently or permanently unable to vote due to a felony conviction The issue of disproportionate minority confinement presents many critical issues for the criminal justice system & for society as a whole For example, if people perceive they will not be treated fairly, they may be less likely to cooperate at various stages of the criminal justice process—from coming forward & testifying as witnesses to serving on juries
37. The problem also threatens the validity of judicial decisions among members of minority & majority communities alike . . . [It] challenges the basic American assumption that everyone receives “equal justice under law”
38. The Prison System Political leaders face tough choices about how to keep their communities safe Many politicians know that their voters want them to be tough on crime, & one way to do that is to increase the number of prisons Advocates say the growth in the number of prisons & jails is good for communities because new facilities ease overcrowding & make it possible to put more dangerous people behind bars & away from society New prisons & jails also result in more jobs & boost local economies
39. Opponents think the expense of building more prisons is not justified in light of the trade-offs For example, they suggest that putting more tax money into schools, drug treatment programs, & job training would result in fewer criminals
40. Jails Versus Prisons Courts have held that pretrial inmates cannot be subjected to conditions that amount to punishment, since they have not been found guilty Inmates who have been convicted cannot be subjected to conditions that amount to cruel & unusual punishment Despite this theoretical difference between the rights of pretrial inmates & convicted inmates, the rights are generally the same in jail as in prison However, pretrial detainees have not been found guilty, & therefore their rights cannot be limited in the interest of rehabilitative efforts
41. Reentry Ex-offenders face the challenges of reconnecting with the outside world They must rebuild the trust of their friends & families, find a place to live, find a job, & learn how to live as law-abiding citizens Law-related education programs can play a significant role in helping offenders return to society by helping them negotiate the rules & laws of communities Specific lessons might feature employment, housing, child abuse & neglect, police procedures, community problem solving, etc.
42. Reentry programs can & should utilize community resource people like lawyers, judges, & police officers in order to help people build trust & learn how to access resources in their communities