Nancy J. King, a distinguished professor of law at Vanderbilt Law School, published the “Procedure At Sentencing” chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections. The chapter would interest anyone seeking a full understanding of how America’s criminal justice system operates. Professor King explained why the sentencing hearing differed in fundamental ways from the [...]
The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections is proving itself an outstanding resource, one that offers numerous chapters that help me better understand our criminal justice system. Professor Robert Weisberg, the Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law and Faculty Co-director at the Stanford Criminal Justice Center of Stanford Law School, wrote chapter 12 in [...]
Sentencing systems in the United States are not easy to understand. Many states make use of indeterminate sentencing systems, while other states and the federal government make use of a determinate sentencing system. Those who want to learn details of the differences between the two types of sentencing systems will find a chapter by Professor [...]
This morning, after my exercise, I took an opportunity to access the prison email system here at the Atwater Federal Prison Camp. Since I do not have access to the Internet, my wife, Carole, monitors my online presence. Sometimes she passes along messages from readers and she asks that I respond. Today I received a [...]
Ronald F. Wright, Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law, contributed a wonderful chapter to The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections. His chapter, titled “Charging and Plea Bargaining as Forms of Sentencing Discretion,” helps readers understand the dynamics of sentencing in a criminal court. The process is much more complex than [...]
Soon after I began serving my prison term, in 1987, I embarked upon a plan to earn academic credentials. I enrolled in an undergraduate program that included a class on an introductory to psychology. Despite the decades that have passed, I remember a clever analogy from that course: when the only tool one has is [...]
Professor Christopher Slobogin has impressive credentials. He is the Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Criminal Justice program at Vanderbilt University. Professor Slobogin’s distinguished background and his expertise in both law and psychiatry make him well qualified to write [...]
Those who influence public policy have relied upon deterrence through severity to justify an enormous expansion of America’s criminal justice system over the past several decades. Yet, the authors of chapter seven in The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections point out that “Despite enormous research efforts, no credible and consistent body of evidence has [...]
Sometimes it’s difficult to understand the purpose behind the sentences judges inflict on people convicted of breaking criminal laws. In my own case, I never understood why my judge decided on a 45-year sentence. He imposed that term in the mid 1980s because of convictions related to my wrongful participation in a scheme to distribute [...]
Julian V. Roberts, Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford, authored the fourth chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections . The title, “Crime Victims, Sentencing, and Release from Prison” indicated to me that the chapter would be of interest to legislators and policy makers. Judges and parole authorities may find the [...]
