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...response interpersonal conflict, behooves us to both transform the political climate in which policies are developed and to identify the particular policy changes necessary to move toward decarceration. This essay attempts to address the latter point, and to address an area of sentencing policy--time served in prison--that has received far too little attention.
At its essence, the size of a prison system is a function of how many people are admitted to prison and how long they remain there. Policymakers and reformers who have been concerned about rising prison populations have been far more focused on the admissions side of the equation. Areas of concern in this regard have included such factors as: the availability of alternatives to incarceration; sentencing policies that restrict judicial discretion; the rise in incarceration of drug offenders; and in recent years, probation and parole revocations as a growing source of admissions.
These are clearly all important areas of attention and indeed, there is evidence of some impact on diverting offenders from prison. Such examples include drug courts and other treatment-oriented diversion structures, sentencing guideline mechanisms that encourage community-based sanctions for nonviolent offenses, and the development of graduated sanctions for parole violations that avoid lengthy new prison terms. One can...
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