Circumventing the Sentencing Grid: Encouraging Downward Departures in Presumptive Prison Cases

Q1 Social Sciences

Criminal Justice Policy Review Pub Date : 2023-01-24 DOI:10.1177/08874034221146885

Brian Renauer, Christopher M. Campbell, Mark Harmon Leymon, A. Leymon

{"title":"Circumventing the Sentencing Grid: Encouraging Downward Departures in Presumptive Prison Cases","authors":"Brian Renauer, Christopher M. Campbell, Mark Harmon Leymon, A. Leymon","doi":"10.1177/08874034221146885","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study examines sentencing outcomes of Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) focused on reducing incarceration by encouraging downward departures to community-based sanctions in presumptive prison cases. The sample includes 3,930 defendants enrolled in the JRI program. Pre-adjudication assessment reports and a judicial settlement conference were used to help the court decide if a case warranted a departure offer. A quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching balanced JRI program defendants to 1,153 historic defendants that would have been eligible in the previous year. Logistic regressions assessed the impact of both program participation and race/ethnicity, controlling for other factors on prison versus probation sentence outcomes and sentence length in prison outcomes. On average, across all racial groups, program participants are 52% less likely to go to prison. The impact of participation on sentencing outcomes was also equitable across the race/ethnicity of defendants. However, the program did not affect sentence length of prison outcomes.","PeriodicalId":10757,"journal":{"name":"Criminal Justice Policy Review","volume":"34 1","pages":"261 - 290"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Criminal Justice Policy Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034221146885","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study examines sentencing outcomes of Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) focused on reducing incarceration by encouraging downward departures to community-based sanctions in presumptive prison cases. The sample includes 3,930 defendants enrolled in the JRI program. Pre-adjudication assessment reports and a judicial settlement conference were used to help the court decide if a case warranted a departure offer. A quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching balanced JRI program defendants to 1,153 historic defendants that would have been eligible in the previous year. Logistic regressions assessed the impact of both program participation and race/ethnicity, controlling for other factors on prison versus probation sentence outcomes and sentence length in prison outcomes. On average, across all racial groups, program participants are 52% less likely to go to prison. The impact of participation on sentencing outcomes was also equitable across the race/ethnicity of defendants. However, the program did not affect sentence length of prison outcomes.

查看原文本刊更多论文

规避量刑网格：监狱推定案件中鼓励向下分流

本研究考察了司法再投资倡议(JRI)的量刑结果，该倡议的重点是通过鼓励在推定的监狱案件中向下转向社区制裁来减少监禁。样本包括3930名参加JRI项目的被告。审判前评估报告和司法和解会议被用来帮助法院决定案件是否有理由提出离开建议。一个准实验设计的倾向得分匹配平衡JRI计划被告和1153名历史上的被告在前一年将有资格。Logistic回归评估了项目参与和种族/民族的影响，控制了其他因素对监禁与缓刑判决结果和刑期长短的影响。平均而言，在所有种族群体中，项目参与者入狱的可能性要低52%。参与对判决结果的影响在被告的种族/民族中也是平等的。然而，该项目并没有影响刑期的长短。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Criminal Justice Policy Review Social Sciences-Law

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Criminal Justice Policy Review (CJPR) is a multidisciplinary journal publishing articles written by scholars and professionals committed to the study of criminal justice policy through experimental and nonexperimental approaches. CJPR is published quarterly and accepts appropriate articles, essays, research notes, interviews, and book reviews. It also provides a forum for special features, which may include invited commentaries, transcripts of significant panels or meetings, position papers, and legislation. To maintain a leadership role in criminal justice policy literature, CJPR will publish articles employing diverse methodologies.