Sentencing Reform: Indeterminate Sentencing Analysis

According to Marvell and Moody (1996), this trend emerged in response to the sense that imprisonment does not effectively rehabilitate inmates and that parole decisions are often arbitrary and not based on the supposed rehabilitation of the individual prisoner. Supporters of determinate sentencing argue that imprisonment serves multiple goals, among which deterrence, incapacitation, and retributive justice are prominent (Marvell & Moody, 1996). However, there are concerns that determinate sentencing and the abolition of parole (or at least a significant reduction in its availability) are inherently unjust, unequal, and discriminatory, as well as a major contribution to so-called "prison gridlock" and overcrowding (Stansky, 1996). Additionally, longer (i.e. doubled maximum) sentences would have the effect of expanding the prison population and dramatically increasing the cost of incarceration.

One must understand the context in which such sentencing policies are positioned. There are two gener

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t facilitate productive social existence. Punishment, in terms of incarceration, has therefore been conceptualized as either retributive or rehabilitative in focus. Recently, as noted by Bain (2007), in the form of "get tough" legislation on crime and "three strikes" sentencing mandates, there is a notable swing away from the idea of the prison as a primarily rehabilitative institution. These periodic shifts, according to Friedman (2007), are representative not only of crime patterns, but of changes in social and cultural attitudes and mores. Such shifts can occur over time as a response to external environmental factors as well as ideological changes in a country's political system and polity. In terms of increasing the length of sentences for a specific crime such as armed robbery, there are likely to be certain very real objections in light of the fact that such reform would single out one crime from a host of crimes (many of which are also likely to involve violence of some form). An alternative is an evidence-based system of sentencing guidelines that focus on rehabilitation and treatment for certain offenders, and indeterminate sentences allowing for parole and/or placement in community treatment/ residential set
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