Sentencing Matters

by Michael Tonry

Overview

Michael Tonry, an internationally recognized authority on criminology, offers in these pages a comprehensive overview of current research, policy developments, and practical experiences concerning sentencing and sanctions. He examines the effects of increased penalties and considers whether they have made America a safer place. Tonry contends that in order for sentencing to be fair and effective, comprehensive and defensible policies must be in place and mechanisms must exist to implement those policies. He also looks at mandatory penalties, community sanctions, and sentencing changes in other countries, and proposes sentencing policies for the twenty-first century. Sentencing has been going through reform for over twenty-five years, yet political debate on the subject has changed remarkably little. By offering a complete survey of new developments in both research and policy, Sentencing Matters is certain to spark fresh dialogue on this divisive issue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198025535
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/18/1996
Series:	Studies in Crime and Public Policy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	1510L (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Michael Tonry is Sonosky Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota, and editor of the journals Crime and Justice: A Review of Research and Overcrowded Times. He is the author or editor of several well-regarded books on crime and punishment.

Table of Contents

Contents1.. Sentencing Matters2.. Reforming Sentencing3.. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines4.. Intermediate Sanctions5.. Mandatory Penalties6.. Judges and Sentencing Policy7.. Sentencing Reform in Comparative Perspective8.. "What Is to Be Done?"ReferencesIndex

Editorial Reviews

Among the wide variety of debaters on criminal sentencing, this book is a successful attempt to mesh the facts and the reforms into a beautifully rational polemic. Since the 1970s, criminal punishment in America has increased dramatically and has spawned a major growth industry of interested corrections officials, administrators, politicians, and scholars. Many competing reformers of criminal sentencing seem to stretch the facts to far to fit their particular policy direction. In SENTENCING MATTERS, the reader develops a sense that Michael Tonry is ever-prudent in reporting facts or figures in his assessment of decades of state and federal experimentation with sentencing institutions and systems. Tonry is equally prudent and clear in laying out his proposed sentencing reforms. SENTENCING MATTERS is a brief eight-chapter book, with Tonry's suggested eight-part "just sentencing system" reforms recited at the beginning and ending. Chapters two through seven provide his ever-careful survey of the decades of state and federal experimentation with sentencing institutions and systems. Tonry does not survey sentencing behavior of states (about half) still under traditional "indeterminate" sentencing. Nor does he repeat his recent analysis of racial issues in sentencing (i.e., Tonry, MALIGN NEGLECT: RACE, CRIME, AND PUNISHMENT, 1995). Tonry begins by announcing his suggested eight-part "just sentencing system": (1) repeal all mandatory minimum sentences; (2) invest into intermediate sanctions approaches; and (3) create a "sentencing commission"; that will (4) develop and monitor sentencing guidelines; and (5) ensure that all sentences can be funded by existing resources; and (6) set maximum sentences for all cases and minimum terms for only the most serious crimes; and (7) devise some flexibility in the guidelines for penalties other than jail or prison; and (8) explicitly presume that judges will "...impose the least punitive and intrusive appropriate sentence" (page 5). He completes chapter 1 with an overview of the past twenty-five years of state and federal experimentation with sentencing institutions and systems. Tonry comes to focus on the trend toward indeterminate sentencing and argues that while this "just deserts" approach treats like cases alike, it fails to treat different cases differently. The remainder of the book consists of Tonry's assessment of the research that supports his eight-part "just sentencing system" reforms. In Chapter 2 Tonry overviews successes and failures in the development of state sentencing commissions. He implies that the success of state sentencing commissions support his recommendations. In Chapter 3, by contrast, Tonry includes few (if any) positive words on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, yet offers constructive criticism and a 7-point reform to salvage the existing system. He recites these failures to bolster his suggested reforms to repeal minimum penalties, set maximum sentences for all crimes, and devise flexibility in alternatives to jail or prison. Chapter 4 builds on Tonry's previous writings on intermediate sanctions (e.g., Tonry & Morris, BETWEEN PRISON AND PROBATION: INTERMEDIATE PUNISHMENTS IN A RATIONAL PUNISHMENT SYSTEM, 1990) and allows him to bolster recommendations for greater uses of intermediate sanctions. In Chapter 5 he recites failures in the push for tougher mandatory penalties (e.g., the "three strikes and you're out" laws) and pushes for greater flexibility in sentencing guidelines. Tonry devotes a slight chapter (6) to bemoan the limited judicial involvement in sentencing reforms and advocate greater efforts to involve judges in every step of sentencing reform. Tonry also compares U.S.A. sentencing reforms with that of other Western-style democracies in chapter 7. Finally, in chapter 8, Tonry returns to his suggested eight-part "just sentencing system" reforms recited at the book's beginning and gives a capsule summary arguments for each. SENTENCING MATTERS is written primarily for an audience of administrators and policy-makers - not to the more theoretical audience of scholars. Tonry's book presents no systematic theory or philosophy, but concretely assesses the impact of decades of state and federal experimentation with sentencing institutions and systems. In the tradition of policy advocacy, I found his book to be a great example and model for others. I particularly enjoyed his crisp, logically concise, yet active writing style and organization. With such an extensive overview of the field of sentencing, it should find classroom adoption as a secondary or recommended book in upper-division undergraduate or law school classes on criminal sentencing. And since Tonry is widely known for his decades of study, consulting, publication, and close contacts in the sentencing field, all interested administrators and policymakers should read his book closely.

Bradley Stewart Chilton

"Tonry does a masterful job of evaluating this diverse body of research. This book provided me with an invaluable summary of the burgeoning literature on sentencing, much of which is not available through standard academic outlets."—Justice Quarterly

"Among the wide variety of debaters on criminal sentencing, this book is a successful attempt to mesh the facts and the reforms into a beautifully rational polemic."—The Law and Politics Book Review

"Tonry's Sentencing Matters...is an encyclopedic compendium of sentencing theory and reform in the United States, beautifully written and organized around a set of eight prescriptions for change that Tonry says are the logical outcomes of studying the reforms....Tonry marshals his evidence and marches toward politically charged conclusions. He has emerged as the James Q. Wilson of the left."—Law & Society Review

"Tonry has written the most inclusive and up-to-date study of American sentencing practices now available. To my knowledge, no other work approaches Sentencing Matters' field of vision, particularly in its sustained attention to developments in the states. No other scholar has taken on the painstaking and unglamorous work of learning what so many jurisdictions are doing—and then keeping up with their progress over time. The tedious nature of this effort should not be undersold....Without Michael Tonry, virtually no literature on state sentencing would exist....[This book] is a compendium of the best work of the leading scholar on American sentencing innovations."—Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

"A marvelously concise and well-reasoned book on one of criminal justice's most intractable problems—how to sentence offenders effectively without doing violence to the humanity of the wrongdoer."—Choice

"With more than 1,500,000 of our fellow citizens in prison and jail, Michael Tonry's Sentencing Matters matters very much. [Tonry] is formidably well-informed, writes concisely and crisply, and probes the core of our uneasy efforts at the rational punishment of crime."—Norval Morris, University of Chicago

"Michael Tonry is the most knowledgeable person on sentencing in the United States. His overall recommendation on sentencing reform is an essential 'read' for judges, lawyers, and legislators throughout the country. His comprehension of the federal sentencing guidelines is a remarkable contribution and should be helpful to those who are sincerely concerned about the gross inadequacies existing in sentencing guidelines."—Donald P. Lay, Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit

"Tonry's broad knowledge and understanding of sentencing issues in the United States and elsewhere make this a 'must read' book for scholars, policy makers, and anyone interested in a serious, but very readable, book on sentencing."—Anthony N. Doob, University of Toronto

From the Publisher