Sentences determine the length of the defendant’s punishment in prison. This stage of trial follows after the criminal conviction and court’s decision. The Corrections department handles sentencing. In sentencing phase, the public has three important concerns: purposes of punishment, determinate and indeterminate sentencing, and mandatory minimum sentences. The foundation of sentencing changes its purpose over time. There are five purposes of criminal punishments such as retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation, and restoration. Retribution is offenders receive punishments “that they deserved based on the seriousness of their criminal acts.” (Lippman, 2014) In other words, it is a philosophy of “eye for an eye” as a form of
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All of the five purposes have their own flaws and potentials. Rehabilition may not work the same for everyone. There are possible reasons why people become criminals. For example, some people become criminal because they lost of self-respect. Reports explain criminals often say “one day I found I couldn’t trust myself" during an interview (Shea) A person who can no longer trust himself, eventually becomes a threat to society. Other criminals comes from disruptive family background and environment, which may lead to criminal career. Treatment programs help offenders to realize their mistakes and learns to live as a better citizens. Determinate and indeterminate sentences are two of the four approaches to sentencing. Determinate sentence is the court sets a definte length of sentence to the offender. This is the maximum time period the offender could spend in prison. The release date depends on the length of the sentence and when the offence was committed (sentencing council). The judge has little discrention in sentencing. For example, the judge must justify a shorter or longer sentence for an offender. Indeterminate sentences gives judge discretion to set maximum or minimum …show more content…
Each of the sentences has its own flaws. Determinate sentence can eliminate the judge’s bias by giving equal sentence to all criminals. The judge has little discretion on the sentencing. This sentence mainly focus on giving punishiment based on the seriouness of the crime. However, determinate sentence failed to considers that not every criminal is the same person (Hayes, 2006). For example, first time offenders are mixed with offenders who are likely to reoffend. Hence, it is difficult to find the perfect balance. Indeterminate sentence attempt to rehabilitates offenders back to society. The system runs on the individual’s good behaviorial in order to obtain early release. In contrast to determinate sentence, indeterminate sentence reviews the conditions of the crime including criminal history and possible of reoffending (Indeterminate Sentencing Pros and Cons, 2015). However, indeterminate sentence gives too much power to the parole board. This may lead to discrimination. Offender can manipulated the system by faking to display good behaviors. As a result, the offender will attempt to get early release to commits another crime. Some other concerns of indeterminate sentences are unfulfill promises, dehumanization, treatment effectiveness, and weakening correctional offical’s role. For example, unfulfill promises means the state can still change the length of the sentence (Tonry, 1999). It is
All of the five purposes have their own flaws and potentials. Rehabilition may not work the same for everyone. There are possible reasons why people become criminals. For example, some people become criminal because they lost of self-respect. Reports explain criminals often say “one day I found I couldn’t trust myself" during an interview (Shea) A person who can no longer trust himself, eventually becomes a threat to society. Other criminals comes from disruptive family background and environment, which may lead to criminal career. Treatment programs help offenders to realize their mistakes and learns to live as a better citizens. Determinate and indeterminate sentences are two of the four approaches to sentencing. Determinate sentence is the court sets a definte length of sentence to the offender. This is the maximum time period the offender could spend in prison. The release date depends on the length of the sentence and when the offence was committed (sentencing council). The judge has little discrention in sentencing. For example, the judge must justify a shorter or longer sentence for an offender. Indeterminate sentences gives judge discretion to set maximum or minimum …show more content…
Each of the sentences has its own flaws. Determinate sentence can eliminate the judge’s bias by giving equal sentence to all criminals. The judge has little discretion on the sentencing. This sentence mainly focus on giving punishiment based on the seriouness of the crime. However, determinate sentence failed to considers that not every criminal is the same person (Hayes, 2006). For example, first time offenders are mixed with offenders who are likely to reoffend. Hence, it is difficult to find the perfect balance. Indeterminate sentence attempt to rehabilitates offenders back to society. The system runs on the individual’s good behaviorial in order to obtain early release. In contrast to determinate sentence, indeterminate sentence reviews the conditions of the crime including criminal history and possible of reoffending (Indeterminate Sentencing Pros and Cons, 2015). However, indeterminate sentence gives too much power to the parole board. This may lead to discrimination. Offender can manipulated the system by faking to display good behaviors. As a result, the offender will attempt to get early release to commits another crime. Some other concerns of indeterminate sentences are unfulfill promises, dehumanization, treatment effectiveness, and weakening correctional offical’s role. For example, unfulfill promises means the state can still change the length of the sentence (Tonry, 1999). It is