From doing the crime to doing time: How just is our criminal justice system?
After your friends’ conviction for shoplifting, the judge handed them a relatively tough sentence as a form of deterrence. She sentenced them to 90 days of incarceration, or jail time, in a county correctional facility, followed by six months of probation. During their probation, they will be required to report regularly to a probation officer and to remain within the county. The judge also sentenced them to restitution, requiring them to return the stolen goods and make an oral and written apology to the store manager.
Apprehensive about serving time in jail, your friends asked their attorney whether they should appeal their sentence. The lawyer said they had no grounds for appeal, because the judge followed proper legal procedures during the trial. Instead, their attorney urged them to accept the terms of punishment.
Serving time in the corrections system is a tough punishment for anyone. Inmates lose many of the rights and privileges they enjoyed in society, most notably the freedom to live their lives as they see fit.
Not all prisons are alike. White-collar or petty criminals normally end up in minimum-security prisons, where conditions are relatively lenient. Violent criminals, on the other hand, are sent to maximum-security prisons, where conditions are quite harsh.
No matter what their crime, however, all prisoners are guaranteed certain fundamental rights under the Constitution and state and federal law.
The Eighth Amendment’s protection against “cruel and unusual punishment ”ensures that prisoners are provided a basic standard of living. Due process rights require that they be granted access to the parole process. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause protects them from discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or religion.
In addition, the Supreme Court has determined that all prisoners have certain specific rights, including the right to receive mail, to get adequate medical care, and to practice their religion. In Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005), the Court said that prisoners cannot be denied the exercise of their religious beliefs, even if those beliefs are outside the mainstream of established religions. In most states, however, prisoners are still denied the right to vote.
After a certain amount of time, most inmates are eligible for release. Some are released because they have served their full sentence. Others leave prison because they have been granted parole.
The parole process varies from state to state. In some states, prisoners must apply for parole by submitting a request to the parole board. In others, the parole board automatically considers parole when prisoners have served a certain amount of their sentence. The prisoner may then be asked to appear at a parole hearing. At this hearing, the parole board hears testimony and examines evidence to determine whether parole should be granted.
Many released prisoners find that their return to society is not smooth. For one thing, the released prisoner now has a criminal record, which can make it difficult to find a job or a place to live. In some cases, former prisoners may decide to apply for a pardon. A pardon is a formal document stating that the person has paid his or her debt to society and has become a productive member of the community.
Pardons can be granted only by the president, in the case of a federal crime, or by governors, in the case of state crimes. Pardons are rarely granted, however. When they are, they restore all of the rights that were lost by offenders when they were convicted.