PSY 373 Chapter Notes - Chapter 16: Three-Strikes Law, Small Cell, Controllability
Document Summary
Sentencing decisions: conviction sentencing punishment, decisions on punishment depends on the crime & attributes of the criminal. Internal causes: personality or free choice: external causes: situational forces, controllability: whether or not a person could have controlled their behavior or not, stability: whether the cause appears to be temporary or permanent. Prisoner rights and the role of courts: until mid 1900s courts had no control over prisons, judges lacked expertise, 1974 mail rights, health care, overcrowding limits, for mentally ill inmates prisons are obliged to provide treatment. Prisons/prisoners basic statistics: 2008-2009 prison population peak, us highest rates of incarceration persist despite a drop in crime. Inmates are banished from the outside world, lose contact, limited visits and mail: lack of privacy, deadening routine, boredom, monotony, no freedom, no identity, dehumanization, homosexual rape, assaults. Does prison work: prison is the most expensive, for nonviolent offenders its difficult to justify imprisonment from financial view.
