Offender's Sentence

The corrections subsystem of the criminal justice system’s goal is to punish criminals, deter crime, and possibly rehabilitation of the offender. Moreover, during the sentencing portion adjudication should strive for proportionality, equality in sentencing, understanding offender’s public responsibility, and impartiality (Schmalleger, & Smykla, 2015). Consequently, the United States focus was the rehabilitation of offenders, but due to the belief that offender’s sentences were excessively lax, the system transitioned. The following transition was from the ideology of rehabilitation to incapacitation and deterrence. Thus, under the new principles, those who were not deterred by possible lengthy sentences were separated from society. Subsequently, the premise of incapacitation and deterrence did not work as efficiently as hoped, and the ideology of restorative justice is the rallying cry for those desiring further change. …show more content…
The first issue with sentencing principles is the proportionality of the punishment to the crime (Kirchengast, 2010; Schmalleger, & Smykla, 2015). Accordingly, with indeterminate sentencing the public complained that individuals were underserving their sentences; yet, under minimum mandatory sentencing opponents claim that punishment is excessive for the crime. The second issue to bridge differing sentencing principles is that the same crime is likely to receive different punishment in neighboring jurisdictions. Hence finding equitable sentencing principles still eludes the system regardless of which end of the scale we