The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections (Oxford Handbooks in Criminology and Criminal Justice) [Hardcover]

Joan Petersilia (Editor), Kevin R. Reitz (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0199730148 | ISBN-13: 978-0199730148

It is no secret that America's sentencing and corrections systems are in crisis, and neither system can be understood or repaired fully without careful consideration of the other. This handbook examines the intertwined and multi-layered fields of American sentencing and corrections from global and historical viewpoints, from theoretical and policy perspectives, and with close attention to many problem-specific arenas. Editors Joan Petersilia and Kevin R. Reitz, both leaders in their respective fields, bring together a group of preeminent scholars to present state-of-the art research, investigate current practices, and explore the implications of new and varied approaches wherever possible. The handbook's contributors bridge the gap between research and policy across a range of topics including an overview of mass incarceration and its collateral effects, explorations of sentencing theories and their applications, analyses of the full spectrum of correctional options, and first-hand accounts of life inside of and outside of prison. Individual chapters reflect expertise and source materials from multiple fields including criminology, law, sociology, psychology, public policy, economics, political science, and history.

Proving that the problems of sentencing and corrections, writ large, cannot be addressed effectively or comprehensively within the confines of any one discipline, The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections is a vital reference volume on these two related and central components of America's ongoing experiment in mass incarceration.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joan Petersilia is the Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. She is the author of When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry and coeditor, with James Q. Wilson, of Crime and Public Policy.

Kevin R. Reitz is the James Annenberg Le Vea Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota. He currently serves as Reporter for the American Law Institute's project to revise the sentencing and corrections articles of the Model Penal Code. He is coauthor, with Henry Ruth, of The Challenge of Crime: Rethinking Our Response.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 776 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 6, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199730148
• ISBN-13: 978-0199730148
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 2.3 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,363,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars America's Prisons, America's Apartheid May 2, 2012

By Michael Santos

Format:Hardcover

Early this morning I read chapter two from The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections. The chapter, titled "Race, Ethnicity, and Punishment," by Michael Tonry, alarmed me. It provided extensive factual data that showed how black males were bludgeoned harder than anyone else by our nation's wretched criminal justice system. Despite Lincoln's efforts to free the slaves more than 100 years ago, many current American leaders used laws and policies to keep black males in chains.

I've been a prisoner since 1987, virtually my entire adult life. During that quarter century, I've written to share what I've learned and experienced about living in prison. As a prisoner, I always understood that many would discount my views as being biased. After all, I've written to condemn the injustices of imprisonment while traversing through more than 9,000 days of it. Critics could not so easily dismiss Michael Tonry, the scholar who wrote "Race, Ethnicity, and Punishment." His impeccable credentials included honors from The University of Minnesota Law School, where he holds the Russell M. and Elizabeth M. Bennett Chair in Excellence; he is Director of the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. As such, Professor Tonry's work was beyond reproach. Nevertheless, even he acknowledged that few seemed to care about what our criminal justice system said about our nation's racial policies.

Leaders within our society liked to point and wag hypocritical fingers at other countries for their violations of human rights. They condemned the racist society of South Africa under Apartheid. Yet those same leaders dismissed disturbing facts Professor Tonry presented that show how drug and crime control policies disproportionately affected black people in America.... Over the course of my imprisonment, I've known many men who, effectively, received sentencing enhancements and thus served longer sentences because of their race.

Professor Tonry wrote that in 2008, nearly one in every 33 black male Americans was in prison. That appalling number underrepresented the racial disparities of our judicial system, however, because the total number of black male Americans in the equation included children and the elderly. If it were to exclude children and the elderly, the ratio of black males in prison to black males in society would be significantly higher.

Professor Tonry's fact-intensive article cited other figures showing that in 2005, blacks constituted 12.8 percent of the general population but nearly half of the entire prison population and 42 percent of all prisoners on death row. On an average day in 2005, about one third of all black men between the ages of 20 and 29 were trapped in the criminal justice system, either locked up or reporting to a probation officer.

In a systematic way, America has steadily increased its prison population since the early 1970s. In 1970, for every 100,000 people in America, 161 were locked in prison. By the year 2010, however, the lock-'em-up mentality led to changes that boosted our country's ratio of confined citizens. By then, 780 of every 100,000 people in America were imprisoned. Indisputable figures showed that we incarcerated more people in America than any other country on earth. And as a group, black males suffered more than anyone else. Under our own apartheid, the black imprisonment rate increased from 593 per 100,000 in 1970 to 2,661 per 100,000 in 2006. Black men in America remain five to seven times more likely than white men to be in prison.

Professor Tonry's informative article included all types of statistics confirming the racial disparities and injustices of our nation's criminal justice system. He cited the "War on Drugs" and racial profiling by police that unfairly targeted black people as a significant reason for the disproportionate presence of blacks in America's prisons and jails. Another factor was the enormous increase in prison sentence lengths imposed by courts from across our country.

Uninformed citizens sometimes argued that blacks were overrepresented in our nation's criminal justice system because blacks committed more crimes. Professor Tonry used facts to eviscerate such fallacious claims. His research showed that people belonging to other racial groups used and sold more drugs than blacks, but law enforcement authorities focused their resources and concentrated their energies on arresting blacks. Such unfair practices led to more convictions of black people despite their not committing more crimes. Then, to compound the racial injustice, unfair sentencing laws led to longer sentences for blacks.

Racial disparities within our nation's prison system followed the systematic ways that law enforcement chose to fight the drug war. They targeted black males, and once they caught them, they treated black males more severely as compared to all other groups.

In every prison where I've been held, I've been around and befriended many black men who served sentences that were unfairly inflicted upon them. One prisoner, Kenny, was confined with me in the federal prison in Taft, California. As a young black men, he was swept up by police who raided a teen party. Marijuana in Kenny's possession led to his being convicted of a drug crime and receiving a sentence of probation. Several years later, authorities convicted him for a second drug crime that called for a sentence of 10 years, which seemed absurdly long for a nonviolent, victimless crime. On account of Kenny's prior conviction, however, the law mandated an enhanced sentence and the judge slammed Kenny with 20 years.

Since laws permitted authorities to base decisions on whether to stop people solely because of their racial profile, blacks were more likely to be stopped. Consequently, blacks were disproportionately arrested and convicted. Young black men like my friend Kenny, then, were more likely to have criminal records for minor crimes. Wicked laws then required courts to impose harsher sentences because of the prior record. Kenny told me that if he hadn't been black, authorities wouldn't have singled him out for arrest on his first case. It was their way of getting him out of town, he theorized. That prior criminal conviction later haunted him. He served an additional 10 years in prison not because of his crime's severity, but because of his prior conviction. And it was a conviction that he insisted wouldn't have existed if he were not black.

Kenny was only one of numerous black men who served unfair sentences alongside me in prison. Last October I transferred from the federal prison in Taft to a different federal prison in Atwater, California, where I met Marvin, well known as "Big Fly." By coincidence, Marvin and Kenny grew up in the same housing project in Watts, with few opportunities for upward mobility. As a young man, Marvin received felony convictions on two separate occasions on petty charges for possession with intent to distribute less than $50 worth of cocaine. Then, in 1998, he was arrested on charges of having 9 ounces of crack cocaine. Had Marvin been white and caught with 9 ounces of powder cocaine, laws would've resulted in a sentence of less than four years. But he was black and caught with crack cocaine, and as such, Marvin faced much more severe penalties. His judge shackled him with a sentence of 262 months. When legislative changes reduced the penalties for crack cocaine, Marvin could've been eligible for immediate release. But his two prior convictions resulted in his being a "career offender," and thus rendered him ineligible for the relief he otherwise would've received. He remained locked in prison, ready to serve his term in its entirety. Another black male off the streets with an unjust sentence in America's apartheid. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Michael Santos's Great Contribution June 15, 2012

By Robert Weisberg

Format:Hardcover

Readers interested in the Oxford Handbook will notice the comment posted above by Mr. Michael Santos. That comment is an especially cogent review of the Handbook's chapter on the role of racial disparities in American prisons. What Mr. Santos is too modest to reveal is that he himself is the author of a chapter in the Handbook. That chapter, "Living Life Behind Bars in America," is one of the most valuable contributions in the book. All the other contributors are full-time professional academics or government officials. Mr. Santos is currently a prisoner, and has been one for almost all of his adult life--he is just now nearing the end of 25 years of incarceration under a federal sentence for running a drug scheme. "Living Life Behind Bars in America" is itself an amazing commentary on our system of incarceration, written at the same level of rigor and sophistication of the other chapters, but built around a compelling personal narrative. It recounts Mr. Santos' journey from dreadful--and fully acknowledged--mistakes early in his life, through entry into the miseries, humiliations, and dangers of the prison system, to the promising future he is on the cusp of undertaking. There's no self pity or self-rationalization here. Mr. Santos took extraordinary advantage of educational opportunities to earn a Bachelor's and Master's degree and is now launched toward a post-prison career in writing and research about the criminal justice system. But he recognizes that he is one of the (relatively) lucky ones, because he had family help and encouragement (and, of course, rare intellectual gifts). His major lesson is that the prison system foolishly denies the great bulk of less fortunate prisoners the chance to rehabilitate themselves through education.... Indeed one of the villains is the faceless set of prison bureaucratic rules that block access to education even if there is absolutely no cost involved for the prison or the government. Mr. Santos' focus on education is just part of his larger, and thoroughly objective critique of our sentencing and correctional systems. So this chapter is a perfect complement to the others in this volume.

Robert Weisberg

Professor of Law, Stanford University Read more ›

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read! June 10, 2013

By Tironda

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was purchased as a gift for a friend of mine, who has his Masters in Criminal Justice, and He is continuing to RAVE! about how GREAT this book is, and he loves the Author Joan Petersilia!