Why Incarcerate?
Why do we as a society put people in prison?
Basically there are two reasons:
1)Debt to Society;
2)Risk of Recidivism.
These reasons generally align with important timeline considerations:
1)Something we know about and can evaluate at the time of sentencing;
2)Something we don’t know up-front, but can evaluate prior to release.
If everything fell into category one, Determinate Sentencing would work just fine. But it doesn’t.
If everything fell into category two, Indeterminate Sentencing would be just fine. But it isn’t.
The fact of the matter is that in order to use either Determinate Sentencing or Indeterminate Sentencing we have to throw all of our reasons into one big pile. That leads to confusion.
Currently, criminal justice professionals keep applying Debt to Society reasons to the release decision.We keep re-asking the question, “Has the convict been punished enough?” But this is a question for which we should have the answer at initial sentencing. It should not need to be revisited. Assuming that the Debt to Society has been paid, the entire release decision should be made on Risk of Recidivism.
Risk of Recidivism can change with time. We want it to; that is the purpose of "Corrections."
Focusing on Risk of Recidivism at the time of release is the best way to make correct decisions that impact recidivism and the safety of society.
The rest of Dual Mode Sentencing is just implementation. See more about Dual Mode Sentencing at http://DualModeSentencing.org.