Indeterminate Sentencing Pros And Cons

Decent Essays
An advantage to indeterminate sentencing is that the main focus is on rehabilitation for the inmate within a specified amount of time sentenced by a judge. With sentencing a minimum of imprisonment and a maximum it urges the inmate to lean toward rehabilitation in order to receive the minimum term. Inmates must prove to the parole board that they have changed and deserve to be released. This type of sentencing also helped to prevent increased prison populations.
A disadvantage to indeterminate sentencing is that judges tend to be inconstant with sentencing from case to case. Many will argue that one person was treated unfair because they did not receive the same amount of time as another individual who committed the same crime. Every situation

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The first article is written by Cyndy Caravelis, Ted Chiricos, and William Bales (2011) called “Static and Dynamic Indicators of Minority Treat in Sentencing Outcomes: A Multi-Level Analysis” and the second article is called “Sentencing with Discretion:Crack Cocaine Sentencing after Booker” by Ryan S. King and Marc Mauer in 2006. In addition, the last article is by Mona Lynch and Marisa Omori (2014) called “Legal Change and Sentencing Norms in the Wake of Booker: The Impact of Time and Place on Drug Trafficking Cases in Federal Court” from the Law and Society Review. Summary Caravelis, Chiricos, and Bales (2011) examines the “Habitual Offender” using a hierarchical generalized linear modeling to look at the direct effects of race using static…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harsh minimum sentencing practices around drug offences exist because of the Reagan administration’s rhetoric that blamed drugs as the primary cause of violent crime in the US during the 1980s. Prior to Reagan’s “War on Drugs” era, drug crime in the US was relatively minor, however, beginning in 1980, the number of prisoners in jail for drug related offences skyrocketed. While there were just 41,100 of these prisoners in 1980, by 2010 that number had tripled, an increase of 1,100%. One of the biggest reasons for this seemingly outrageous increase is mandatory minimums, a system devised to enact harsher sentences for first time offenders, with the goal of making them reluctant to commit the same crime again. In her book, The New Jim Crow, professor…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When it comes to federal and state courts their sentencing methods are different in away because federal courts deal with all federal crimes and the sentencing as well as the trial takes place in a federal court close to where the actual crime happen. Now in a federal court the judge uses a manual known as “The Federal Sentencing Guidelines” (avvo.com. n.d.). This helps them to calculate the penalties for a serious offense sentence. Unfortunately, this sentencing guideline cannot be used mandatorily; it is still used in helping make penalty considerations. Now in a state court penalties and sentencing are often guided by the state legislation.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Sentencing Proposal

    • 167 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Aaron I think it's cool you picked Idaho. To be honest I here about Idaho constantly living in Montana I'm glad you gave some incite in on the sentencing guidelines for the state of Idaho. I also read the Idaho I was thinking of doing my post on Idaho as well, and I read according to U.S. Probation & pretrial District of Idaho (2014), "The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 radically changed the philosophical model for sentencing offenders in the Federal Courts" (p. 1). After this occurred congress adopted a determinate based off of national guidelines. Which lead to the supreme court in 2005 ruling in the"United States v. Booker, 125 S.Ct.…

    • 167 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Smarter Sentencing

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Pages

    I am writing this letter requesting you vote in favor of the Smarter Sentencing Act. Sentences regarding possession and trafficking of controlled substances are due for much needed review. Taxpayers spend several thousand dollars to hold a single inmate in prison for a year, and there are thousands of individuals currently incarcerated for such offenses. By essentially halving the minimum sentence of these crimes the billions of taxpayer dollars saved can be applied elsewhere.…

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The goal of incapacitation, or using prison (or some type of imprisonment) as a way to remove more offenders (or potential offenders) off the streets, exists conjointly with the outlook and ideologies of the Crime Control Model. Those following the philosophies of this model cite that the best way to protect the community is to remove offenders from public interaction, so incapacitation would best serve the needs of both the offender and society. Society benefits from the lessened potential of an offender committing further crimes against the law abiding, and the offender must deal only with the restraints defined under his sentencing, and not further punishment (such as retribution). With the goal of incapacitation looming, it is easier to quickly and efficiently push offenders through and standardized criminal justice system without much thought for the outcomes for the individual. Citing the goal of incapacitation also provides more validity for the discretion of law enforcement officials, especially when making arrests or detaining parties.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This with indeterminate sentencing caused an overhaul of reform which introduced mandatory minimum and overhaul sentencing. As a means to fight illegal drug abuse minimum mandatory sentencing was created. Adapting to criminal life in prison has negative impacts on criminals serving time. They have to make mental adjustments to adapt to life in prison and this makes it hard for them to adjust to life outside of prison. In turn, because prison life is dictated for inmates after their release it difficult for them to make decisions and adequate choices on their own.…

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    An escape from the tyranny of an oppressive king was the cornerstone of the the founding fathers drafting of the Constitution. All men are created equal and in turn should be afforded equal justice. However, legislation from both the federal and state governments could threaten that very premise. Three strikes sentencing laws seek to break a cycle of recidivism from career criminals, but ensnare minorities and the poor at a disproportionate rate when compared to those not in need and whites in the United States. In order to understand the how these laws affect minorities and the poor it is important to first understand the history behind why governments pass such harsh sentencing laws.…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It takes the power away from judges, muzzling their ability to evaluate both the motives and the needs of a particular defendant. This practice leads to inequity and sentencing which is disproportionate to the crime committed. Aristotle says, “In cases that the issue happens to fall outside the universal formula, it is correct to rectify the shortcoming.” We need to do something about our inequity problem. We need to abolish minimum sentencing laws and instead follow Aristotle’s maxim that judges are to be the most virtuous among us.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Discretionary parole is the parole that is determined by the paroling authority such as the common parole board or the commissions after a case reviewing with the determination that the inmate can rejoin the community (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). On the other hand, a mandatory parole is set by law and requires the state to grant parole when an inmate serves a set period. The main argument for discretionary release is that it provides the prisoners with an incentive to change their ways for the better due to the promise of a reward if they comply. On the other hand, the mandatory parole is argued to be better because it cannot be “gamed” where a prisoner simply acts as if they have changed their ways just to be granted the discretionary parole.…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Frequent exonerations of innocent parties affect the entire legal system in a myriad of ways. Perhaps no challenge is greater to the integrity of the American criminal justice system than that of the conviction of innocent individuals. Since the1990’s when DNA evidence became more widely known and accepted, a great deal of attention has been focused on wrongly condemned individuals and their post-conviction exonerations. In many of these cases, defendants had been sentenced to death and were awaiting execution.…

    • 1776 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By decreasing the minimum amount of time prisoners are required to serve for their criminal acts and providing them with the opportunity to earlier release granted good effort on their part than the rate of overcrowding would be limited.…

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    A problem with the guidelines could be that they become too strict. For example, someone who is not as bad can get the same sentence as someone who is very bad. For example, someone who is charged with 1st degree murder and they are sentenced to life in prison. They cannot seek parole until at least most of their sentence has been served and anyways, they are going to be sentenced the same as others who have committed the same offense—not any…

    • 2082 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Criminal Sentencing Essay

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The criminal justice system maintains different goals when attempting to correct deviant and illicit behavior. In accordance to the sentencing guidelines established by United States Sentencing Commission (2011), punitive sentences are to incorporate a purpose for the sentence. Criminal sentencing can be categorized into six areas with distinctive goals: general and specific deterrence, incapacitation, retributive, rehabilitative, and equity/restitution. The sentencing goals are not exclusive and at times overlap in achieving its purpose. Furthermore, one goal is not better than another, but rather one would be more applicable in certain situations than another.…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tertiary prevention focuses on the offender after crime has happen, with the main focus being on deterrence and rehabilitation to prevent from re-offending. Tertiary prevention reduces the recidivism rate and insures that appropriate steps are taken so that the victim is not re-victimized. In the United States the primary form of tertiary prevention is incapacitation. Tertiary prevention does not stop criminals from committing crimes after their release but protects the population from victimization of criminals. Specific deterrence is achieved by instilling fear into individuals that are being punished with the prevention of the individual from future violations of the law.…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays