Between Prison and Probation: Intermediate Punishments in a Rational Sentencing SystemAcross the country prisons are jammed to capacity and, in extreme cases, barges and mobile homes are used to stem the overflow. Probation officers in some cities have caseloads of 200 and more--hardly a manageable number of offenders to track and supervise. And with about one million people in prison and jail, and two and a half million on probation, it is clear we are experiencing a crisis in our penal system. In Between Prison and Probation, Norval Morris and Michael Tonry, two of the nation's leading criminologists, offer an important and timely strategy for alleviating these problems. They argue that our overwhelmed corrections system cannot cope with the flow of convicted offenders because the two extremes of punishment--imprisonment and probation--are both used excessively, with a near-vacuum of useful punishments in between. Morris and Tonry propose instead a comprehensive program that relies on a range of punishment including fines and other financial sanctions, community service, house arrest, intensive probation, closely supervised treatment programs for drugs, alcohol and mental illness, and electronic monitoring of movement. Used in rational combinations, these "intermediate" punishments would better serve the community than our present polarized choice. Serious consideration of these punishments has been hindered by the widespread perception that they are therapeutic rather than punitive. The reality, however, Morris and Tonry argue, "is that the American criminal justice system is both too severe and too lenient--almost randomly." Systematically implemented and rigorously enforced, intermediate punishments can "better and more economically serve the community, the victim, and the criminal than the prison terms and probation orders they supplant." Between Prison and Probation goes beyond mere advocacy of an increasing use of intermediate punishments; the book also addresses the difficult task of fitting these punishments into a comprehensive, fair and community-protective sentencing system. |
Contents
3 | |
2 Toward a Comprehensive Punishment System | 9 |
PART I | 35 |
PART II | 109 |
Bibliographic Note | 243 |
253 | |
273 | |
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Common terms and phrases
achieved addiction administrator alcohol alternative appropriate autonomy behavior collection combination community service order community-based punishments comprehensive punishment comprehensive sentencing system convicted offender costs court criminal justice system criminal record day fine day-fine days instit days prob decisions deserved punishment deterrent drug treatment programs effective electronic monitoring enforcement equality evaluations exchange rates federal felony fines H. L. A. Hart house arrest imposed imposition imprisonment incarceration incarcerative indeterminate sentencing intensive probation interchangeable punishments intermediate punishments ishment jurisdictions less mandatory sentencing ment mental illness Minnesota Model Penal Code months munity service offender's penal percent plea bargaining practice principle prison and jail prison or jail prison sentences prison term probation officer proposed punishment system punitive purposes at sentencing reasons release restitution rough equivalence sanctions sentencing laws sentencing reform severity sexual offenders social substantial tencing tion tive Tonry U.S. attorneys U.S. Sentencing Commission West Germany