Corrections Current Trends

When it comes to prison sentencing there are a lot of trends to go from, probably the main outline you could say is the sentencing models these models are a basic outline of what’s going to happen to an offender while being sentenced.

These are the six options which include: capital punishment- for like murder offenders which includes the death penalty only in some states though, imprisonment -for those who commit violent crime and so forth usually sent to state or federal prison longer that one year, short term confinement -for minor offenders those petty crimes such as petty theft and so on normally less than a year served in county, intermediate sanctions- falls between probation and imprisonment which I would say is on the fence could go either way prison or probation which includes house arrest and electronic monitoring, then theirs probation which is a alternative of prison in which the offender is monitored within the community, and then theirs economic sanctions- which I would say an offender like this would be due to vandalism or something in that nature, in economic sanctions the offender is ordered to pay restitution or a fine for their crime.

Pretrial diversion is a good system for offenders who are not constant offenders, for instance here in Odessa TX they have what I would call a pretrial diversion program which is called teen court and in teen court offenders for let’s say theft well instead of it going down in the records they chose to do some community service and avoid trial and a criminal record but this type of program is only offered to teens. For those who have the option of pretrial diversion it is a pretty good system which allows first time offenders in most cases to stay out of the system. Plea bargaining is a really good trend in sentencing, because plea bargaining is an agreement in which the defendant decides to plea guilty to the offense in return the defendant gets a lesser sentencing.

Plea bargaining is a good system why because if the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offense not only does it save time without having to go to court and the expenses they would have to put out their but most times if the defendant know that he or she did it and them pleading guilty to a lesser offense to cut back time in prison or probation most times they will take the bargain. Another great trend in sentencing is the three strikes laws which basically states that felons who commit three felonies are incarcerated for a very long time sometimes even life in prison this trend is good because most times it will keep repeat offenders from committing crimes I guess the thought of getting that third strike and going to prison for possibly life would be a really strong motivation to stay out of trouble and keep doing good.

Then again this three strikes law could not be a good thing for instance in the text it talks about jerry Williams who had a record of two prior felony convictions involving violence when he stole piece of pizza without a weapon from four children, then the judge under mandatory California law, had to sentence Williams to twenty five years in prison. I understand this man had a record and was on the verge of the third strike but I don’t think that sentencing Mr. Williams to twenty five years in prison for a pizza was really necessary that five dollar pizza now has cost the state an estimated 500,000 for the time that Williams is going to be incarcerated a simply being locked up for even a year in county would I think be more suitable and cost friendly in which saves the state a lot of money.

Drug courts is also another great trend in sentencing because in drug court offenders who have had or have a problem with run in with the law due to drugs can choose to get help and drug court main goal you could say is to get the offender help and back into the community clean and on their way unlike traditional courts, drug court is not so much to punish the offender but to change the offender according to the text drug courts have proved very promising, and I would say a very good solution on handling a different kind of offender so that they wouldn’t have to go into a regular court and maybe receive six months or maybe even a worse sentence but trying to rehabilitate the offenders who need help and get them back into the community and on the right track. These trends that I listed are only a few that help the sentencing progress move along there are a lot more trends but these are only a few with a slight overview of how they operate and what goes on in the few trends that were listed.