Policies

Indeterminate Sentencing

Indeterminate sentences are sentences where a judge indicates a minimum and maximum time for an offender to be imprisoned. The prisoner may be released anytime between the established minimum and maximum time. Indeterminate sentencing expanded discretion into the prison system so that prisoner rehabilitation could be analysed on the individual level. Indeterminate sentencing is personalized opposed to determinate sentencing which is standardized

 

Parole

Parole is the conditional release of a prisoner who has served a part of their sentence back into the community under supervision and conditions that if violated will result in rearrest. There are 784,408 parolees in the United States Although parole began as an effort to reintegrate offenders into the community, "...parole supervision has shifted ever more toward surveillance, drug testing, monitoring curfew and collecting restitution."That is, the context of parole has shifted from reintegration with society into control of the individual on parole. Rather than parole being for rehabilitation, it has become in practice a less restrictive form of imprisonment. It is also argued that parole is a deterred prison entry program due to the high percentage of parolees that end up in prison due to violating terms of their parole. 

 

Probation

Probation is a period of time where an offender lives under supervision and under a set of restrictions. Violations of these restrictions could result in arrest. Probation is typically an option for first time offenders with high rehabilitative capacity. At its core, it is "a substitute for prison," with the goal being to "'spare the worthy first offender from the demoralizing influences of imprisonment and save him from recidivism

 

Expungement

Expungement is when an offense is removed from an offender's criminal record. Minor offenses where rehabilitative success is met are deemed in some cases to be expungable in order for the offender to move past their mistake and live a completely normal life unrestricted by a past mistake.

Separate Juvenile Justice System

Separate courts, detention facilities, and programs for juvenile offenders acknowledges that children, often not fully developed enough to know right from wrong, are deserving of separate rehabilitation efforts and processes. Prior to the late 1800s, child offenders were processed, trialled, and punished the same way as an adult would be. However, "By the mid-1920s, reforms separating children and adults who violated criminal laws into two separate court systems swept across the country." Although there was a time that "...judges primarily concerned themselves with the best interests of the delinquent child, victims' rights statutes now require juvenile courts to balance the rehabilitative needs of the child with other competing interests such as accountability to the victim and restoration of communities impacted by crime."