Reference no: EM132330242

Assignment: For this forum, students will review early release for federal non-violent prisoners convicted of drug and property offenses, a growing trend in corrections. Through this, you will attain a better understanding of the purposes of sentencing, contemporary sentencing guidelines, and major problems facing contemporary corrections.

Read in your textbook (at the beginning of Chapter 11) the story about Timothy Tyler and Scott Walker.

Craft an initial post of at least 200 words that thoroughly addresses the following elements:

1. In Chapter 11 you learned about the four basic philosophical reasons for sentencing criminals.

• Briefly discuss these four reasons in your own words.

• Which of these sentencing reasons is demonstrated in the stories of Timothy Tyler and Scott Walker? Discuss.

• Are there any circumstances under which you think a nonviolent criminal deserves to spend his/her life in prison? What sentencing philosophies are behind your reasoning? Discuss.

2. Consider the structure of sentencing that you learned about in Chapter 11.

• What are federal sentencing guidelines and why were they created?

• What effect have federal sentencing guidelines had on incarceration rates in the United States?

• Consider the information in Chapter 11 of your text on judicial departures from sentencing guidelines. Do you think a judge should be able to overrule a sentencing law -- created by elected politicians -- that he/she feels is too harsh or too lenient? Why or why not?

3. Consider the information on Inmate Population Trends in Chapter 13 of your text.

• Which of the Inmate Population Trends discussed on pages 434-436 in Chapter 13 of your text are relevant to the story about Tyler and Walker?

• Do you agree with decarceration trends? Why or why not?

Remember to reference the Module 6 materials (textbook and online content) to provide evidence for your arguments.