CJ 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 63: House Arrest, Shoplifting, American Civil Liberties Union
Types of Sentences
Sentences are punishments for convicted defendants. Prescribed punishments for crimes can be
found in state and federal statutes. The Eighth Amendment places limits on the severity of
punishments.
The death penalty
Thirty eight states and the federal government impose capital punishment. It is usually ‐
reserved for those who commit first degree murder under aggravating circumstances. ‐
Defendants convicted of capital offenses have a right to bring mitigating circumstances
to the attention of the sentencing authority in order to ensure that only those individuals
who deserve to die for their crimes receive the death penalty. Similarly, defendants also
have a right to be free from the arbitrary and capricious imposition of death as a penalty.
To prevent the arbitrary application of the death penalty, death penalty statutes contain ‐
many safeguards. Particularly significant are requirements that limit the discretion of the
sentencing jury or judge, that require the presence of aggravating circumstances, that
allow the introduction of evidence showing mitigating circumstances, that mandate a
two part proceeding (one for the determination of innocence or guilt and the other for ‐
deciding the sentence), and that provide for the automatic review by an appellate court
of all death sentences.
Incarceration
Jails are short term lock up centers normally run by counties and operated by county ‐ ‐
sheriffs. Inmates housed in jails include unconvicted defendants awaiting trial who are
unable to make bail, convicted misdemeanants, and felons serving jail time as a result
of probation violations. Prisonsare long term penal facilities operated by state and ‐
federal governments. Most prison inmates are convicted felons serving sentences of
more than one year.
Probation
Probation, the most frequently used criminal sanction, is a sentence that an offender
serves in the community in lieu of incarceration. Probationers are required to adhere to
conditions of probation, such as obeying all laws, paying fines or restitution, reporting to
a probation officer, abstaining from drug usage, refraining from travel out of the area
where the offender lives, and avoiding certain people (for example, other criminals or
victims) and places. If a probationer violates any condition of probation or commits a
new crime, the judge can revoke (take away) probation and incarcerate the offender.
Probation officers monitor offenders and hook them up with various services in the
community. Probation officers handle such large caseloads (on average, 118 per officer
in 1994) that they are left with limited time to track or supervise offenders.
Probation is the preferred sentence when the crime is nonviolent, the offender isn't
dangerous, the convicted criminal isn't a repeat offender, and/or the criminal is willing to
make restitution. Due to prison overcrowding, judges have been forced to place more
felons on probation. A Rand Corporation study found that 60 percent of the felons on
probation were rearrested for a new crime.
Intensive supervision probation (ISP)
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