NCJ Number
95330
Date Published
1984
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A corrections system based on accountability would enable Delaware to increase options for more individualized sentences, add certainty of punishment, increase the use of the private sector to supervise offenders, and enable decisionmakers to control the size of the prison population.
Abstract
Even with the removal of juvenile corrections to a separate department, corrections spending will increase approximately twice the rate of inflation. In 7 years, the corrections budget has grown over 300 percent, perhaps because Delaware has put more people in jail per capita and for longer terms than all but two other States. States must view punishment in terms of certainty rather than severity, provide sentencing options between the extremes of probation and prison, and find ways for criminal justice agencies to control their own resources. The Delaware Sentencing Reform Commission has developed an alternative that emphasizes accountability for use in creating an ordered yet flexible system of sentencing and corrections based on the belief that an offender should be sentenced to the least restrictive and least costly sanction available, consistent with public safety. Proposed sequential sentencing guidelines cover level 1, unsupervised probation, through level 10, maximum-security imprisonment. Tabular data are provided.