NCJ Number
86187
Journal
Criminal Justice Ethics Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter/Spring 1982) Pages: 20-26
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Judges must take the lead in molding a corrections system that incorporates basic beliefs in punishment, deterrence, protection of society, and rehabilitation. Alternatives such as work-release and community service can incorporate these four principles of sentencing better than traditional sentences.
Abstract
State prisons have become so overcrowded that sentenced offenders are held in county jails due to Federal court orders prohibiting an infusion of new prisoners to State institutions. In addition, prisoners are being released prematurely from State facilities as a way of relieving overcrowding. Thus, overcrowding of prison institutions has caused difficulty for sentencing judges. Probation services, usually reserved for nonviolent first offenders, have been stretched beyond their resources with the addition of more serious offenders previously sentenced to correctional institutions. Judges must seek alternatives to incarceration and probation. These alternatives should incorporate several factors to make them acceptable to the public, including punishment for offenders, requiring that offenders work and pay for their upkeep within a work-release facility, and restitution. A total of 11 footnotes are included.