Indeterminate Sentencing Essay

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The purpose of the criminal justice system is to deliver justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty, while protecting the innocent. Therefore, sentencing became an individualized tool to maintain the standards of the criminal justice system by distributing fair punishments. Sentencing has evolved through the years, for "the Federal Government, all States, and the District of Columbia had indeterminate sentencing systems" penalizing offenders to a specified term or to a range of years (Mackenzie 6). However, the increase in crime, the evidence that offenders were not being rehabilitated, and the concern that indeterminate sentencing produced unjust disparities led to the Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) of 1984 (Bowman 1322). Reconstructing the method of sentencing was meant to "prevent new crimes; to promote the correction and rehabilitation of the offenders; and to safeguard offenders against excessive, …show more content…

Thus, supporting evidence from the claims of a criminal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney should be the only factors affecting the judicial officer's judgment. However, the imbalance of sentencing, especially between Caucasians and minorities, has implicated that race is a part of the deliberation process. David B. Mustard (2001) notes that "Hispanics receive a sentence of 54.1 months and blacks receive 64.1 months, which are 68.5% and 99.6% larger than the average sentence for whites (296). Based on observation and statistical information, it is important to highlight inequalities in the criminal justice system especially when it's designed to produce outcomes that are just and fair. It takes those in the position of power to recognize these inequalities to make the necessary policy changes to correct racial disparities or restore an imbalance in racial justice (Hurtwitz and Peffley

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