NCJ Number
154042
Date Published
1994
Length
213 pages
Annotation
This book argues that mandatory sentencing laws, guideline sentencing laws, and capital punishment have created a crisis situation in American courts and prisons.
Abstract
This book attacks the belief that imprisonment is the best way to deal with all law violators, and instead proposes an alternative system of sentencing which would have as its goal public safety rather than punishment and would permit courts to consider the individual rather than the name of the crime. Mandatory sentencing has not decreased crime, increased respect for the law, or succeeded in rehabilitating prisoners, as this combination of anecdote, history, and the author's own experience on the Pennsylvania bench demonstrates. The alternative approach proposed here would include incarceration only for the most dangerous offenders, while others would undergo a program of well-supervised probation and payment of restitution or reparations.