Unjust Sentencing and the California Three Strikes Law

Unjust Sentencing and the California Three Strikes Law
Author: Douglas W. Kieso
Publisher: LFB Scholarly Publishing
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2005
Genre: Law
ISBN:

The California Three Strikes law was passed in 1994 as a wave of "strike" laws swept the United States. California's law was unique, however, because people convicted of possession of a small amount of narcotics or who committed petty crimes like shoplifting were receiving life sentences. Kieso studies prosecutorial discretion, judicial discretion, jury discretion with a focus on the inconsistencies in California's usage of its Three Strikes law. Contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision, Ewing v. California, which upheld the law and to public perception, Kieso demonstrates that many unjust cases result from flaws in California's political system.

Punishment and Democracy

Punishment and Democracy
Author: Franklin E. Zimring
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2001
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780195136869

"[A] major study of this unique legislation.... [It] is, quite simply, required reading for anyone interested in crime policy in California, the United States in general, or any modern democratic nation....In an area drenched with emotionalism, the authors have produced a study that is analytically incisive in setting up its categories, conscientious in collecting its data, and judicious in reaching its conclusions. It is also highly readable."--Law andPolitics Book Review "This book is an exemplar of criminology, the science of law-making, law-breaking, and law-enforcing. [The book] will stand for years as both a substantive and methodologicallandmark."--Lawrence W. Sherman, Director, Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania "This would be a better society, with more just and humane policies, if people in authority read and paid attention to this brilliant, closely-reasoned and intensely significant book."--Lawrence Friedman, Stanford Law School

A Primer

A Primer
Author: Brian Brown
Publisher:
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2005
Genre: Criminal justice, Administration of
ISBN:

Locked In

Locked In
Author: John Pfaff
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2017-02-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0465096921

A groundbreaking reassessment of the American prison system, challenging the widely accepted explanations for our exploding incarceration rates In Locked In, John Pfaff argues that the factors most commonly cited to explain mass incarceration -- the failed War on Drugs, draconian sentencing laws, an increasing reliance on private prisons -- tell us much less than we think. Instead, Pfaff urges us to look at other factors, especially a major shift in prosecutor behavior that occurred in the mid-1990s, when prosecutors began bringing felony charges against arrestees about twice as often as they had before. An authoritative, clear-eyed account of a national catastrophe, Locked In is "a must-read for anyone who dreams of an America that is not the world's most imprisoned nation" (Chris Hayes, author of A Colony in a Nation). It transforms our understanding of what ails the American system of punishment and ultimately forces us to reconsider how we can build a more equitable and humane society.

The Growth of Incarceration in the United States

The Growth of Incarceration in the United States
Author: Committee on Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 800
Release: 2014-12-31
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780309298018

After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States has increased fivefold during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons. The U.S. rate of incarceration, with nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, is 5 to 10 times higher than the rates in Western Europe and other democracies. The U.S. prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the nation's population: mostly men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated. Prisoners often carry additional deficits of drug and alcohol addictions, mental and physical illnesses, and lack of work preparation or experience. The growth of incarceration in the United States during four decades has prompted numerous critiques and a growing body of scientific knowledge about what prompted the rise and what its consequences have been for the people imprisoned, their families and communities, and for U.S. society. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines research and analysis of the dramatic rise of incarceration rates and its affects. This study makes the case that the United States has gone far past the point where the numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits and has reached a level where these high rates of incarceration themselves constitute a source of injustice and social harm. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines policy changes that created an increasingly punitive political climate and offers specific policy advice in sentencing policy, prison policy, and social policy. The report also identifies important research questions that must be answered to provide a firmer basis for policy. This report is a call for change in the way society views criminals, punishment, and prison. This landmark study assesses the evidence and its implications for public policy to inform an extensive and thoughtful public debate about and reconsideration of policies.

Crime and Justice, Volume 48

Crime and Justice, Volume 48
Author: Michael Tonry
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Journals
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-06-14
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780226644912

American Sentencing provides an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of efforts in the state and the federal systems to make sentencing fairer, reduce overuse of imprisonment, and help offenders live law-abiding lives. It addresses a variety of topics and themes related to sentencing and reform, including racial disparities, violence prediction, plea negotiation, case processing, federal and state guidelines, California’s historic “realignment,” and more. This volume covers what students, scholars, practitioners, and policy makers need to know about how sentencing really works, what a half century’s “reforms” have and have not accomplished, how sentencing processes can be made fairer, and how sentencing outcomes can be made more just. Its writers are among America’s leading scholarly specialists—often the leading specialist—in their fields. Clearly and accessibly written, American Sentencing is ideal for teaching use in seminars and courses on sentencing, courts, and criminal justice. Its authors’ diverse perspectives shed light on these issues, making it likely the single, most authoritative source of information on the state of sentencing in America today.

Three Strikes Laws

Three Strikes Laws
Author: Jennifer E. Walsh
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2007-01-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0313068216

In the mid-1990s, policymakers in more than half the states and the federal government responded to escalating crime rates and a series of sensationalized crimes by passing laws that imposed lifetime sentences on repeat offenders. Since then, the Three Strikes and You're Out movement, which embodies the overall get tough with crime approach to criminal sentencing, has generated much controversy. Critics argue that Three Strike laws are disproportionate, costly, and inefficient. Supporters, however, argue that the laws are effective, necessary, and just. Despite the controversy, Three Strike laws are still popular more than a decade after their implementation. Attempts to reduce the scope and/or severity of Three Strike policies have failed and the laws continue to affect thousands of offenders each year. Setting the record straight, Walsh provides a clear, comprehensive overview of the movement and its consequences. Do Three Strikes laws really prevent crime? Do they cost less than releasing repeat offenders time and time again? Are they evenly and fairly applied? These questions and more are answered in these pages through a careful analysis of the costs, benefits, and results of Three Strikes legislation. Walsh analyzes the historical development of the Three Strikes movement in the context of get tough sentencing reforms and provides detail about the various Three Strikes statutes adopted across the nation, while offering an in-depth exmamination of the controversies they have produced. Amid efforts to repeal or revise such statutes, the laws still stand, and this book sheds light on the history of, rationale for, and results of one of the most controversial criminal justice movements of our time.

The Punishment Imperative

The Punishment Imperative
Author: Todd R. Clear
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2014
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0814717195

"Over the last 35 years, the United States penal system has grown at a rate unprecedented in U.S. history, five times larger than in the past and grossly out of scale with the rest of the world. This growth was part of a sustained and intentional effort to "get tough" on crime, and characterizes a time when no policy options were acceptable save for those that increased penalties. In this book, the authors, both eminent criminologists argue that America's move to mass incarceration from the 1960s to the early 2000s was more than just a response to crime or a collection of policies adopted in isolation; it was a grand social experiment. Tracing a wide array of trends related to the criminal justice system, the book charts the rise of penal severity in America and speculates that a variety of forces, fiscal, political, and evidentiary, have finally come together to bring this great social experiment to an end. The book cautions that the legacy of the grand experiment of the past forty years wiil be difficult to escape. However the authors suggest that the U.S. now stands at the threshold of a new era in the criminal justice system, and they offer several practical and pragmatic policy solutions to changing the approach to punishment." -- Publisher's website.