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Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- How to Use This Book -- 1 American Sentencing-Law and Practice -- Q1. Have judges lost their sentencing discretion? -- Q2. Do modern-day prosecutors dictate sentences for criminal convictions? -- Q3. Are defendants punished for exercising their constitutional right to a trial? -- Q4. Do drug offenders get tougher sentences than violent offenders? -- Q5. Do white-collar criminals ever get serious prison terms? -- Q6. Is capital punishment "dead" in the United States? -- Q7. Are the needs and wishes of crime victims disregarded in the sentencing process? -- 2 Alternatives to Incarceration -- Q8. Is probation just a "slap on the wrist"? -- Q9. Are so-called intermediate sanctions more effective in reducing recidivism than traditional probation? -- Q10. Do drug treatment courts and other problem-solving courts really work? -- Q11. Does restorative justice really work? -- Q12. Are colonial-style "shaming" sentences an appropriate alternative to incarceration? -- Q13. Have fines and other financial penalties in criminal cases dramatically increased since the late 1990s? -- 3 The Experience and Consequences of Incarceration -- Q14 Has imprisonment in the United States gotten too soft? -- Q15. Do judges play a significant role in the administration of prisons? -- Q16. Does time in prison leave inmates more likely to reoffend? -- Q17. Do prisoners have opportunities to work, learn, or otherwise spend their time productively during incarceration? -- Q18. Are incidents of violence against inmates and coerced sex common occurrences in prisons? -- Q19. Do prisons use solitary confinement too much? -- Q20. Do private prisons deliver better results at lower cost than public prisons? -- Q21. Are children harmed by the incarceration of a parent? -- 4 Release and Life after Prison

Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Setting the Stage, Meeting the Players -- 2. The Seventies Synthesis -- 3. The Equivocal Assault on Discretion, 1980-1995 -- 4. The Quest for Improved Community Corrections, 1980-1997 -- 5. The Demise of Parole, 1994-2002 -- 6. Managerialism's Modest Comeback, the Early 2000s -- 7. Wisconsin's War on Drugs -- 8. Lessons -- Notes -- Index.

For many years, American legislatures have been steadily attaching a wide range of legal consequences to convictions—and sometimes even just charges—for crimes that are classified as "violent." These consequences affect many key aspects of the criminal process, including pretrial detention, eligibility for pretrial diversion, sentencing, eligibility for parole and other opportunities for release from incarceration, and the length and intensity of supervision in the community. The consequences can also affect a person's legal status and rights long after the sentence for the underlying offense has been served. A conviction for a violent crime can result in registration requirements, lifetime disqualification from employment in certain fields, and a loss of parental rights, among many other "collateral consequences." While a criminal conviction of any sort relegates a person to a kind of second-class citizenship in the United States, a conviction for a violent crime increasingly seems even more momentous—pushing the person into a veritable third-class citizenship. This Article provides the first systematic treatment of the legal consequences that result from a violence charge or conviction. The Article surveys the statutory law of all fifty states, including the diverse and sometimes surprisingly broad definitions of what counts as a violent crime. While the Article's aims are primarily empirical, concerns are raised along the way regarding the fairness and utility of the growing length and severity of sentences imposed on "violent" offenders and of the increasingly daunting barriers to their reintegration into society.