NCJ Number
100341
Date Published
1983
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This report examines determinate sentencing statutes in Minnesota, California, and Indiana, as well as mandatory sentencing laws in Florida, Massachusetts, and New York to assess their impact on sentencing disparities, crime rates, and prison overcrowding.
Abstract
It determines that Minnesota's determinate sentencing law did not create serious prison overcrowding, possibly due to policies adopted by the Sentencing Commission designed to avert this problem. In contrast, Indiana's new law did result in serious overcrowding. The report predicts that while California's laws increasing prison terms for rape and burglary may not cause overcrowding, they may bring about inequitable sentencing. Mandatory sentencing laws in Florida and New York had little deterrent effect, and New York's law resulted in massive backlogs in the court system. In Massachusetts, a decline in gun assaults indicated that the mandatory sentencing law may have had a deterrent effect. Directions for future research are suggested. Footnotes and 25 references.