NCJ Number
221973
Date Published
2006
Length
278 pages
Annotation
This study assessed "punishment" as a feature of criminal justice policies in the United States as a whole and in individual States, as measured by the overall levels of imprisonment, the propensity to imprison those convicted of crimes, and the intensity in the duration of imprisonment.
Abstract
The author concludes that the overall levels of imprisonment in the United States, the growing propensity of most States to imprison a broad range of convicted offenders, and the duration of imprisonment across States has, in most instances, exceeded what is reasonable in a democratic society allegedly attached to and quick to espouse the principles of "liberty and justice for all." She notes, however, that there is some evidence that States are beginning to roll back some of the more punitive sentencing initiatives that have increased the types of offenses for which incarceration is virtually mandatory, as well as the average length of those sentences. Michigan, for example, has repealed most of its mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses, and 18 other States have repealed some of their mandatory minimum provisions. California, Arizona, and Hawaii have passed legislation that mandates treatment rather than prison for first-time offenders charged with drug possession or use. In still more States, prison construction has been curbed or completely halted. If the measures of punitiveness used in this study continue to show declines in the States, theorists and researchers will have the task of attempting to explain punitive rollback. The data reported and analyses conducted in this study pertain to measures of punitiveness, trends in imprisonment, variations in imprisonment among States, punitiveness across offense types, and punitiveness over time (1990-2000). Chapter tables, appended supplemental tables, and 220 references