Impact of Federal Sentencing Guidelines on Community Corrections and Privatization (From U.S. Sentencing Guidelines: Implications for Criminal Justice, P 165-180, 1989, Dean J. Champion, ed. -- See NCJ-121135)

• NCJ Number: 121144
• Author(s): D G Wilson
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Praeger Publishers
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The impact of the Federal sentencing guidelines on community corrections and privatization will depend on how judicial discretion is used under the guidelines.

Abstract

If the judiciary uses its discretion to be more lenient toward offenders, the impact on probation will be less extreme. If judicial departures from the guidelines are toward greater sentencing severity, the greater will be the impact of the guidelines' abolition of parole, the greater the decline in the use of probation, and the greater will be the impetus for privatization in corrections. Harsher sentencing practices would increase the existing Federal prison population as well as the use of presentence investigation reports by the private sector through defense counsel requests. The increasing costs of corrections occasioned by the greater use of incarceration are likely to increase efforts to lower corrections costs through privatization. Whatever the trends in community corrections and privatization under the guidelines, the Sentencing Commission has the authority to monitor and adjust the guidelines according to their impacts and changing ideological and administrative concepts.