NCJ Number
93930
Date Published
1984
Length
15 pages
Annotation
To deal with its prison overcrowding crisis, Delaware needs to bring consistency and accountability to the system of sentencing through developing legislation which defines the goal of sentencing as certainty of punishment linked to resource efficiency.
Abstract
Subgoals should be incapacitation, restoration of the victim, and rehabilitation. The State also needs to develop objective criteria to assign offenders to given accountability levels, using critical information about the current offenses and important background information. The State should also expand the correctional options available, especially in the middle range of the accountability scale, through both the public and private sectors. It also needs to design monitoring standards and quality control to ensure the accountability of the system as well as the offender. Further needs are training and education of those who operate the system and of the public at large and the provision for appellate review of sentences by either party. The legislature should create an accountability sentencing commission to replace the current Sentencing Reform Commission to carry out these tasks. This bipartisan commission would have seven to nine members and would represent all three branches of government. Figures are included. For the full report, see NCJ 93931.