NCJ Number
144735
Date Published
1992
Length
85 pages
Annotation
This study summarizes available information on the use of incarceration in the United States and presents two sets of recommendations: one designed to improve the functioning of the sentencing and corrections systems and another to apprise State and local bar associations about what they can do to ensure that needed reforms are implemented.
Abstract
The study provides information on the number of people incarcerated in prisons and jails; on the characteristics of those incarcerated; the length of incarceration; the conditions of incarceration; reasons why so may people are incarcerated; and the costs, benefits, and efficacy of current incarceration policies. General recommendations are that each State adopt a comprehensive community corrections act that would help relieve prison and jail overcrowding, that each jurisdiction adopt sentencing guidelines that encompass community-based sanctions, that sentencing guidelines be so drafted that prison and jail space is generally reserved for violent offenders, that jurisdictions expand the use of means-based fines, and that mandatory minimum sentences be repealed. Other general recommendations pertain to correctional programming and research.