Supervised Release: Looking for a Place in a Determinate Sentencing System

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 187-189
Author(s):  
Barbara Meierhoefer Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Determinate Sentencing ◽  
Supervised Release

Second Looks at Sentences under the First Step Act

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-85
Author(s):  
Sarah French Russell
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Length ◽  
Sentencing Decisions ◽  
Second Look ◽  
The People ◽  
The Law ◽  
Supervised Release ◽  
Federal Prisoners ◽  
Federal Judges ◽  
The Impact

Under the First Step Act of 2018, federal prisoners may now petition courts directly for reduction of their sentences, and judges may grant such requests if “extraordinary and compelling reasons” support reduction. Judges are also in the process of imposing reduced sentences in thousands of cases where the First Step Act has retroactively reduced statutory penalties. Not only does the First Step Act offer prisoners new opportunities for sentence reduction, but the law also may change how federal judges understand the impact of their sentencing decisions. Before now, in federal cases, judges rarely had the chance to take a second look at the prison sentences they (or their colleagues) imposed. Encounters between judges and the people they sentenced typically occurred only if a person violated the terms of supervised release after leaving prison. Now, judges can reassess sentence length while someone is still in prison and evaluate whether a reduction in the sentence is warranted. This newfound power allows judges to see their sentencing decisions in a new light and may influence how they conceive of the prison time they impose in future cases.

A Dual Experiment in Intensive Community Supervision: Minnesota's Prison Diversion and Enhanced Supervised Release Programs

1995 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH PIPER DESCHENES ◽  
SUSAN TURNER ◽  
JOAN PETERSILIA
Keyword(s):  
Public Safety ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Community Supervision ◽  
Diversion Program ◽  
Intensive Supervision ◽  
National Institute Of Justice ◽  
Supervised Release

In 1990, Minnesota enacted legislation to implement an intensive community supervision program as an alternative both to prison and to routine parole. The National Institute of Justice funded RAND to evaluate the program. This article reports on two randomized field experiments designed to measure the implementation and impact of the programs. Detailed information on offender background, services received, and 1-year outcomes was collected for 300 participants. Results showed that the programs were fairly well implemented. Two-year follow-up results indicated that prison-diversion offenders under intensive community supervision posed no greater risk to public safety than those initially sentenced to prison. The prison-diversion program resulted in savings of about $5,000 per offender per year, but these savings were offset by the greater cost of intensive supervision for parolees.

Retributive Whisper: Communicative Elements in Parole

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (03) ◽  
pp. 611-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Netanel Dagan ◽  
Dana Segev
Keyword(s):  
Determinate Sentencing ◽  
Core Elements

The aims of retributive or nonutilitarian sentencing are said to conflict with parole as part of a determinate sentencing framework. In this article, we claim that a nonutilitarian approach to punishment does not necessarily conflict with parole. In particular, by adopting core elements of Duff's framework of communicative sentencing, we argue that parole inherently holds a communicative meaning in the form of retributive whisper and can thus be reconciled with a nonutilitarian approach to punishment. In addition, we explore a way to enhance the communicative potential in the parole process and suggest that by recognizing and further incorporating the inherent communicative message in parole we can increase or maximize the board's communicative potential. Finally, we discuss some benefits that can emerge from adapting a communicative sentencing framework to the parole process.

An Assessment of the Development and Outcomes of Determinate Sentencing in Florida

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
William D. Bales ◽  
Gerry G. Gaes ◽  
Thomas G. Blomberg ◽  
Kerensa N. Pate
Keyword(s):  
Determinate Sentencing

The Second Coming of Dignity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Simon
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Determinate Sentencing ◽  
Legal Commitments

In this chapter, Jonathan Simon argues that the modern criminal system should adopt the value of dignity as its governing ideal. The chapter argues that the legality principle—once a primary engine for strengthening the criminal system’s democratic legitimacy—has exhausted its sociological and jurisprudential power. Surveying 150 years of criminal legal commitments, this chapter shows how the legality principle rose to prominence as a vehicle for reform and accountability, and then fell under pressure from mass incarceration and institutional racism. Accordingly, the legality principle should be supplemented with a dignity principle, “an increasingly prominent value in legal systems internationally since the middle of the 20th century.” Simon traces the development of various forms of dignity in Supreme Court jurisprudence, from police procedure to prison conditions, determinate sentencing, and mental health. The chapter concludes that “the great banner reading ‘nulla poena sine lege’ must now be, not lowered, but joined by another banner of ‘no crime and no punishment without respect for human dignity.’”

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