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- Title
DISINFECTING THE CRIMINAL LEGAL SYSTEM OF PUNITIVE DETERRENCE.
- Authors
DOLE II, JOSEPH R.
- Abstract
In order to truly deal with mass incarceration, it is necessary to deconstruct some of the myths it is built upon. One of the main ones being that excruciatingly long prison sentences are necessary to, or even effective in, deterring crime. It is increasingly being recognized that the main driver of mass incarceration is not the imprisonment of people for "nonviolent" and drug crimes, but rather the over-sentencing of people for serious and violent crimes.2 More people are coming around to the fact that we cannot address mass incarceration without addressing long-term sentences. For instance, Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph. D. and his colleagues note that the "growing 'lifer' population both illustrates and contributes to the persistence of mass incarceration,"3 and that "the United States cannot end mass incarceration as long as an exclusively punitive approach dominates for individuals convicted of serious and violent offenses."4 Moreover, as Marie Gottschalk points out, “people convicted of violent crimes accounted for almost two-thirds of the overall growth in state prisons from 1994 to 2006."5 Considering that over the past dozen years there were fewer incarcerations for drug offenses and other non-violent crimes, it follows that the percentage of people serving time for serious and violent crimes also continues to grow. Mass incarceration is a mistake. Acknowledging that the main driver of mass incarceration is long sentences for violent and serious crimes and that the theory of deterrence greatly contributes to the criminal justice system’s ability to hand down these long sentences, then the need for corrective action becomes obvious. A fact that never gets mentioned, but makes the need for corrective action even more dire, is the fact that it is a myth that increasing prison sentences deter crime. Thus, on a daily basis people are being over-incarcerated based on a myth. Society recognizes four justifications for imprisoning people: rehabilitation, retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence.6 Of these four, the three with the greatest impact upon our current system of mass incarceration are retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence. This paper mainly concerns the latter justification - deterrence.
- Subjects
UNITED States; JUSTICE administration; MASS incarceration; CRIME; CRIMINAL justice system; VIOLENT crimes; PRISON sentences; CRIMINALS
- Publication
DePaul Journal for Social Justice, 2023, Vol 17, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2151-3090
- Publication type
Article