Suchergebnisse

In recent years, various determinate sentencing models have been proposed to promote equity in sentencing and prisoner release certainty. This article examines the implementation of Minnesota's determinate sentencing law as it relates to prisoners and the state correctional system, It reviews the extent of the reform's success in achieving predictability in prisoner release dates and equity in sentencing. Organizational, political, and transitional problems in the implementation of the determinacy concept are discussed. In particular, resistance to change among parole board and correctional treatment staff members and a prisoner movement for retroactivity are highlighted. Conditions that could lead to replications of Minnesota's experience in other states are reviewed.

Abstract Although the determinate sentence is generally discussed as a unified concept, it appears to be comprised of two independent factors which can be considered separately‐equity in sentencing and predictability of release. This paper features one component of the determinate sentence, predictability of release, in an attempt to demonstrate the advantages of providing inmates with advance information concerning their release dates. Evidence from psychological research on stress and intrinsic motivation is presented to substantiate claims by critics of the indeterminate sentence that it results in heightened inmate‐anxiety and poor program‐performance. Ensuring predictability of release is an important objective which is likely to result in benefits for both inmates and the correctional system as a whole.

AbstractAlthough this concept has rarely been investigated systematically, the prison is an environment that severely limits inmates'personal control. This article applies theoretical and empirical advances in the area of personal control to the issue of inmate adjustment to prison. Personal control has three components: outcome control, choice, and predictability of future events. Research findings suggesting adverse impacts of limited control are discussed in light of their implications for prisoner adjustment. Several models of personal control, including the environmental/learned helplessness, individual difference/self‐efficacy, and incongruency/reactance models, are applied to the process of prisoner adjustment. Using these models, a conceptual framework for integrating past research in the sociology and social psychology of corrections is proposed, and directions for future research are discussed.