This publication contains oral evidence given in relation to the Committee's inquiry into sentencing policy by Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. It also includes written evidence submitted by a range of organisations including the Home Office, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, the Crown Prosecution Service, Criminal Bar Association, the Howard League for Penal Reform, JUSTICE, the Parole Board, the Police Federation, the Prison Governors' Association, the Prison Reform Trust, and the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.
This report evaluates the extent to which the provision s of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to provide overall structure and clarity to sentencing, by reserving prison for the most dangerous offenders and by making effective provision to deal with other offenders through community sentence, have been implemented, and its impact on sentencing. The Committee is concerned that the Government failed to engage in any adequate resource and capacity planning for the coming into effect of the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). This new sentence was not accompanied by the level of custodial resources required to make it work. Meanwhile, the desired shift to community penalties where public safety is not at issue has not occurred to the extent that was hoped. Resources are a fundamental issue in delivering an effective sentencing strategy. So too is public confidence in the criminal justice system. The Government has failed to provide the information and leadership required to facilitate an informed public debate, while the media climate for such debate often depends on isolated discussion of particular cases which inhibits calm consideration. While the Government accepted the recommendations of Lord Carter's review of prisons, the Committee found his report deeply unimpressive, as it was not evidence based and was a missed opportunity. It should have considered how to develop new ideas to address the problems with sentencing and provision of custodial and non-custodial facilities in England and Wales. The Government has not learnt vital lessons from past experience. It needs to adopt a strategic approach to sentencing. The Committee make a series of detailed recommendations around these issues in order to make further progress towards effective sentencing.
Exploring the way in which criminal punishment is interpreted and narrated by offenders, this book examines the meaning offenders ascribe to their sentence and the consequences of this for future desistance.
The dramatic increase in U.S. prison populations since the 1970s is often blamed on mandatory sentencing laws, but this case study of a state with judicial discretion in sentencing reveals that other significant factors influence high incarceration rates.
After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States has increased fivefold during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons. The U.S. rate of incarceration, with nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, is 5 to 10 times higher than the rates in Western Europe and other democracies. The U.S. prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the nation's population: mostly men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated. Prisoners often carry additional deficits of drug and alcohol addictions, mental and physical illnesses, and lack of work preparation or experience. The growth of incarceration in the United States during four decades has prompted numerous critiques and a growing body of scientific knowledge about what prompted the rise and what its consequences have been for the people imprisoned, their families and communities, and for U.S. society. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines research and analysis of the dramatic rise of incarceration rates and its affects. This study makes the case that the United States has gone far past the point where the numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits and has reached a level where these high rates of incarceration themselves constitute a source of injustice and social harm. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines policy changes that created an increasingly punitive political climate and offers specific policy advice in sentencing policy, prison policy, and social policy. The report also identifies important research questions that must be answered to provide a firmer basis for policy. This report is a call for change in the way society views criminals, punishment, and prison. This landmark study assesses the evidence and its implications for public policy to inform an extensive and thoughtful public debate about and reconsideration of policies.
This new, third edition of Principled Sentencing offers students of law, legal philosophy, criminology and criminal justice a wide-ranging selection of the leading scholarship on contemporary sentencing. The volume offers readers critical readings relating to the key moral, philosophical and policy issues in sentencing today. It contains many new readings on subjects that have recently emerged and which have consequences for sentencing in many jurisdictions. The contents of each chapter consists of a selection of readings, some very recent, some more timeless - but each in its own way important to the field. As before, each chapter begins with an introduction by one of the editors accompanied by a selection of further readings. All the chapters have been substantially revised, as have the editorial introductions.
The voices of those experiencing life in the long term are often not heard. This collection of essays and personal stories from the people most impacted by long-term incarceration in Statesville Prison bring light to the crisis of mass incarceration and the human cost of excessive sentencing. Compelling, moving narratives from those most affected by the prison industrial complex make a compelling case that death by incarceration is cruel and unusual punishment. Implemented in the 1990’s and 2000’s harsh sentencing policies, commonly labeled “tough on crime,” became a bipartisan political agenda. These policies had real impacts on families and communities, particularly as they caused the removal of many non-white and poor individuals from cities like Chicago. The Long Term brings into the light what has previously been hidden, a counter-narrative to the tough on crime agenda and an urgent plea for a more humane criminal justice system. The book is a critical contribution to the current debate around challenging the mass incarceration and ending mandatory sentencing, especially for non-violent offenders.
