Decades of “tough on crime” policies have had a dubious impact on the incidence of criminal activity, but the cost of such policies portend societal harms to people and governmental services. The escalating expense of housing an ever-burgeoning prison population means that essential governmental expenditures (such as health care and public education) must be sharply curtailed or governmental revenue (taxes) must increase dramatically.
A new report, Ryan S. King, “The State of Sentencing in 2007: Developments in Policy and Practice” (2008), highlights a number of important criminal justice policy developments that occurred at the state level during 2007. These include:
- The creation of oversight committees or task forces to address sentencing
laws, prison overcrowding, indigent defense, and /or the provision of reentry services; - Limitations upon mandatory sentencing enhancement provisions, including substantial reform proposals to mandatory sentencing provisions for drug ;
- Repeal of the death penalty (replaced it with life in prison without the possibility of parole;
- Amended parole policies and enhanced reentry preparation;
- Reformed criminal justice policies pertaining to juveniles; these include changing the age of majority for the purposes of criminal sentencing and addressing clemency practices for persons sentenced as an adult for a crime committed as a juvenile;
- Modification of “Romeo and Juliet” provisions of sexual offense laws.
The report was authored by Ryan S. King, a Policy Analyst of The Sentencing Project, with research assistance from Abbey Marshak. The Sentencing Project is a national non-profit organization engaged in research and advocacy on criminal justice policy issues. The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice and alternatives to incarceration. To these ends, it seeks to recast the public debate on crime and punishment. To view a PDF version of the report, click here.
