Lengthy Prison Terms Research Articles

The Public Safety Impact of Shortening Lengthy Prison Terms

The Public Safety Impact of Shortening Lengthy Prison Terms

A SHORT CRITIQUE OF MINIMUM SENTENCES

The state has a constitutional duty to respect, promote and protect the rights of citizens. To this end, every citizen has the right to dignity, the right to equality, and the right to freedom and security of the person. Allied thereto is that they will not be subjected to punishment that is cruel, inhuman, and degrading, among others. With the advent of democracy, South Africa inherited a host of challenges and one of these challenges was the explosion of violent crime. Mandatory minimum sentences were introduced by the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997 to serve as a temporary, emergency crime-control measure based on the commonly-held belief that harsh punishment would reduce crime. Since minimum sentencing legislation has been in full operation for more than two decades, one would expect crime in South Africa to be relatively under control. However, violent crimes like murder and rape in our society have not abated. It is argued that minimum sentences do not serve as a deterrent to violent crime, instead, they exacerbate prison overcrowding. Lengthy prison terms and high imprisonment rates fuel the conditions for higher crime rates as it impedes the objectives of rehabilitation and promotes recidivism. The state’s continued support for these increased sentences infringes on the constitutional rights of citizens. In this article, the author concludes that if we feel outraged by the high rate of violent crime, we need to find a sentencing regime that leads to the reduction rather than the exacerbation of crime in line with constitutional provisions.

Spy, Artist, Prisoner: My Life in Romania under Fascist and Communist Rule by George Tomaziu

Reviewed by: Spy, Artist, Prisoner: My Life in Romania under Fascist and Communist Rule by George Tomaziu Dennis Deletant Tomaziu, George. Spy, Artist, Prisoner: My Life in Romania under Fascist and Communist Rule. Edited and translated by Jane Reid. Envelope Books, London, 2022. 220 pp. Notes. Appendices. £12.99 (paperback). Jane Reid deserves praise on a number of counts for her enterprise in restoring to history George Tomaziu. First, she persuaded him to write an account of his life. Second, in doing so she highlights the courage of a small group of Romanian, French and British figures who served the Allied cause in Romania during the country's alliance with Nazi Germany in the years 1940 to 1944 by providing intelligence to MI6. Third, she draws attention to the fact that most of the Romanians who did so were arrested by the Romanian Communist authorities under the direction of Moscow in 1950, tried on a charge of 'high treason', and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Tomaziu was born in the northern Moldavian town of Dorohoi on 4 April 1915. Here he spent his childhood and youth, his artist's eye remaining permanently focused on the gentle rolling Moldavian landscape as his memoir recounts. His mother, Lucreţia, was a first cousin of the composer George Enescu, who frequently spent days on end in the family home. Tomaziu was also Enescu's godson and his long discussions with his godfather instilled in [End Page 783] him a passion for music. He even began to study the violin, but his vocation as a painter took priority — he painted his first self-portrait at the age of four. He was in fact, as he admits, a soul-mate of Enescu's illegitimate daughter, Didica, who later became wardrobe mistress at the Bucharest Opera and whom Enescu often came surreptitiously to see. Throughout Tomaziu's youth, his bond with his godfather grew ever closer. The artist was ever-present at the musical evenings at Enescu's imposing house on Bucharest's elegant Calea Victoriei, evenings whose charm is evoked in one of Tomaziu's paintings purchased by the Enescu museum. When Enescu's foreign tours separated them they wrote to each other. Between 1934 and 1936, Tomaziu made study trips to Vienna, Munich and Dresden where, behind dealers' counters he discovered 'decadent art', the work of the major German Expressionist painters. He attended regularly the Salzburg festival, writing music reviews. In 1935, he had his first exhibition in the Sala Mozart in Bucharest, and after taking his diploma in Fine Arts two years later, he was taken to Paris by Enescu. The latter introduced him to the French sculptor and painter, André Lhote (1885–1962), with whom he worked from 1938 to 1939. A fierce critic of German National Socialism, which he regarded as pure evil and whose face he had seen during his visits to Germany between 1934 and 1936, Tomaziu was one of the few Romanians who translated his convictions into deeds. He spent the period from autumn 1938 until April 1939 in Germany when he returned to Romania and lodged with his friend, the artist Dinu Albulescu. In autumn 1940 he met Mihnea Gheorghiu, a fervent opponent of the Iron Guard, whom Tomaziu sheltered during the Iron Guard rebellion in January 1941. At this same time, a former fellow student at the Academy of Fine Arts, Irina Olszewski, told him that she was in touch with a supporter of General de Gaulle, and that the latter believed that Tomaziu could be useful in the fight against the Germans. Tomaziu agreed to meet this person who turned out to be Alexander Eck. Eck asked Tomaziu to deliver a letter to Marcel Fontaine, director of the French Institute in Craiova, and to bring back the reply, and gave him money for the rail fare. Tomaziu carried out the task and Eck then told him that he was interested in information of any kind about the German positions in Romania and their troop movements. The preferred method for obtaining these details was personal observation. Tomaziu was instructed on how to identify German units by the colour of officers' epaulettes or collar-tabs...

Can Conservative Criminal Justice Reform Survive a Rise in Crime?

Over the past 20 years, conservatives have often been at the forefront of criminal justice reform efforts, including to reduce mandatory minimum sentencing, lengthy prison terms, and excessive criminal fines and fees and to improve conditions in prisons and jails. Rejecting the Nixonian “law and order” impulse, criminal justice reform has increasingly become incorporated into the conservative political self-identity. But this has been an elite-driven phenomenon, and it is open to question whether the roots of that political identity are deep enough to withstand the rising salience of crime as a political issue. This review traces how criminal justice reform came to be incorporated into the conservative political identity, raises questions concerning its staying power in the face of rising crime and increasingly strident progressive demands, and proposes some principles that might ground a more lasting conservative commitment to a just, proportionate system of criminal justice.

The Hypocrisy of Dutch Actions in Indonesia

At the end of World War 2 the Netherlands, through its own military tribunals, tried and convicted several members of the Japanese and German militaries for their participation in the war crime of extra judicial executions in Indonesia and the Netherlands. Several of the convicted men were executed by the Netherlands while others sentenced to lengthy prison terms. From 1946-1949 the Netherlands, primarily through commando Raymond Westerling, engaged in the same actions they accused the Japanese of having committed. While no specific order was ever revealed showing that Westerling’s actions were ordered by the military, the Netherlands tacitly approved his actions by failing to control him and his men and by their unwillingness to take responsibility for his actions before or after the Netherlands withdrew its forces from Indonesia in 1949. This research paper explores the extrajudicial executions conducted by Westerling, his men, other Dutch military and the Dutch government in order to provide a better and more thorough understanding of these events and the lack of national or international action against war crimes committed after World War 2. It concludes that the Netherlands has failed to try or even accuse Westerling and others of war crimes or take actions to discipline them, and in fact has covered up his actions and failed to make public those war crimes. Further that the reason for this continued hypocritical refusal is a concern for the reputation of the Netherlands in the world and a belief that high levels of government would be found complicit.

Lengthy Prison Term as a Psychological Issue in the Penal System of the Russian Federation

Introduction: the paper analyzes scientific data related to the definition of the phenomenon “lengthy prison term” and demonstrates a relative and conditional nature of this phenomenon. Available scientific research findings in this area suggest that the duration of serving a sentence is an exclusively subjective measure for various criminals. Goal: to identify the impact of the length of prison sentences on convicts in the context of their reformation. Methods: we use general scientific research methods (analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization). The work is based on the results derived from the analysis of relevant foreign and domestic studies. Results: by analyzing the influence of specific features inherent in correctional institutions, we reveal the following inconsistency: custodial sentences and lengthy prison terms contribute to the adaptation of convicts to prison conditions, development of negative changes in their personality, destructive conduct, etc. In addition, prolonged stay in a correctional institution reduces the impact of major means of reformation such as prison regime, educational work, and socially useful work. Conclusions: when determining the length of prison term, it is necessary to proceed not so much from the nature and degree of public danger of the act, but from individual features of the criminal’s personality, their social environment, and the motive for the crime committed. It is necessary to abandon the quantitative approach to determining the mea sure of punishment expressed in the length of the prison term. Key words: lengthy prison term; serving a sentence; correctional institutions; crime; convicts; reformation; punishment; penal system of the Russian Federation; isolation conditions.

The President's Commission and Sentencing, Then and Now

AbstractThe proposals made in 1967 by the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice on sentencing were sensible, humane, well informed, and ambitious. They were premised on an assumption that indeterminate sentencing, then ubiquitous, would long continue, and sought to remedy its weaknesses and build on its strengths. That assumption proved wrong. Within a decade, indeterminate sentencing and its rehabilitative aspirations lost credibility and legitimacy. Within two decades, American policies incorporated features such as determinate sentences, lengthy prison terms, and mandatory minimum sentence laws that the Commission explicitly repudiated. The Commission's influence is evident in successful sentencing reform initiatives of the 1970s and early 1980s, some of which survive in a few places in compromised forms. Many of the Commission's proposals to make sentencing fairer, more consistent, and less vulnerable to influence by political considerations and public emotion are as germane today as they were in 1967.

Usage exploratoire d’outils d’évaluation structurée du risque de récidive en France

This communication shows the demographic and legal characteristics and statistics levels of risk of recidivism of a sample of 55 criminal offenders sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Assessments of risk levels were conducted on an exploratory basis, using the Hare Psychopathy Check-List-Revised (PCL-R), the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG), the Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG) and STATIC 99-R. We report the average result, the distribution of scores into risk categories, inter-correlation of tools and several statistical analyzes.

Making American Sentencing Just, Humane, and Effective

American sentencing laws are rigid, harsh, and often unjust. Mass incarceration is a tragedy and a national embarrassment. Laws enacted in the 1980s and 1990s that mandated lengthy prison terms are the primary causes. The challenges are to undo mass incarceration, repeal or fundamentally overhaul the laws that caused it, and rebuild American sentencing systems. American legislators have not yet seriously addressed the subject. Hundreds of minor changes have recently been enacted, but they nibble at the edges—creating narrow exceptions to harsh laws for first offenders, narrowing criteria for probation and parole revocation, and establishing new treatment and “reentry” programs. These changes are important to individuals they affect but will not reverse mass incarceration or prevent individual injustices. Meaningful change will occur only when the mandatory minimum, three-strikes, life without parole, truth in sentencing, and comparable laws that required prison terms of historically unprecedented severity are repealed and new laws authorizing the release of large numbers of current prisoners are enacted and implemented. Whether these things happen will determine whether mass incarceration and wholesale injustices are much different in 2025 than they were in 2017.

Report: Turkey: union rights at a critical stage

English: Justice and Development Party). In 2002 the AKP was the dominant party, and it has since performed well in national, local and presidential elections. In June 2015 the party saw its share of the vote fall as pro-Kurdish left parties and right wing secular parties increased their share of the vote. The AKP gambled on re-running snap elections and regained its dominance. Over the past ten years Erdoğan has cracked down on various ‘conspiracies’, notably between 2007-2010, when hundreds of secularists on both the right and left were subject to raids, investigations , prosecution, and in some cases lengthy prison terms. Among those targeted were senior military figures, journalists, members of the judiciary , all allegedly members of a vast deep-State secular conspiracy that supposedly aimed to overthrow the AKP. Members of left and proKurdish groups, including trade unionists, were also harassed, investigated, and prosecuted in this period. But somewhat unexpectedly, following these crackdowns, in 2012, Erdoğan established a peace process with the Marxist-inspired Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PKK, English: Kurdistan Workers’ Party). This process ended just as abruptly in July 2015 when Turkey attacked PKK positions just weeks after the AKP was spooked by its temporary setbacks in the June 2015 elections. The AK Party’s record on union rights Under military rule most unions were banned. In 1980 a leader of the left-wing DISK union was assassinated. In 1999 an official from a DISK-affiliated union was killed in police detention. These incidents predate the AKP’s time in power. Precariousness, repression of unions and dismissals of organisers have also long been regular occurrences prior to the AKP taking power, as have strike bans and ‘double threshold’ laws requiring unions to organise whole tracts of entire industrial sectors before they could enjoy bargaining rights at even a single local company. The AKP, however, has failed significantly to improve the situation for trade union rights, and its own record has, over its years in power, appeared to decline rather than improve. Privatisation became a major policy objective in 1991 and this remains the case. The private sector exhibits employment insecurity, and there is not sufficient protection against dismissal or transfer of job for anti-union reasons. Mass dismissal , anti-union dismissals, and generally weakened employment security post-privatisation are significant problems. Turkey has frequently experienced violent repression of strikes and workers’ protests. The legislation also establishes a framework that perFollowing an attempted coup d’etat, Turkey is under a state of emergency in which huge social changes are being pushed through, including the mass dismissal of members of the judiciary, teachers, and civil servants, amounting to literally tens of thousands of people INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 22 Volume 23 Issue 2 2016 DANIEL BLACKBURN is the Director of ICTUR in London O n 15 July the world watched as an attempted military coup d’état unfolded in Turkey. The country has experienced previous interference from an interventionist military that has sought to push out the far-left, far-right and Islamist parties, but had enjoyed nearly 20 years of stability. The President called on citizens to take to the streets to protest the coup, and they did, in large numbers; confronting military units, in most cases through peaceful opposition, though gunfire was reported in several places. A number of media buildings were occupied and broadcasts interrupted , and the Turkish Parliament was bombed. Clashes were reported between factions of the military , police, and civilians. But by the following morning the coup was effectively over and President Erdoğan was emphatically back in control of the country. More than 200 were reported dead, more than 1500 were wounded, and thousands had been arrested. Erdoğan rapidly set about a vigorous process of eradicating opponents said to have been involved with the coup plotters, as part of which Turkey has formally informed the Council of Europe that certain of its obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights are regarded as suspended, during a three-month state of emergency. The rise of the AK Party Civil conflict in the 1970s culminated in a military coup in Sept. 1980. The formation of political parties was re...

“The Empire Is the Enemy of the East”: Student Activism in 1940s Colonial Korea

In May 1943, colonial police in Korea began an intensive four-month investigation into an underground Korean student activist network that had increasingly resisted the mobilization for total war. More than three hundred students throughout the Korean peninsula, Manchuria, and beyond were arrested, four of whom died from torture while in police custody. The majority of the ten students ultimately convicted to lengthy prison terms were still incarcerated when Japanese colonization ended in 1945. In this article, I use this case as a means of examining the impact of World War II on Korean student activism. By analyzing confiscated protest manifestoes, police interrogation logs, and court records in conjunction with larger wartime shifts in colonial policy, I demonstrate that student activists were able to appropriate and subvert the very claims that colonial officials publicly asserted in this period—for example, the assertion that Korean students were vital to the Japanese Empire and represented an insufficiently tapped source of martial strength—in order to advocate for Korean independence from Japanese colonial rule.

Overview of “Imprisonment and crime: Can both be reduced?”

Research Summary This study argues that it is a realistic possibility that crime, prison costs, and imprisonment numbers can be reduced simultaneously if policy makers shift from a primary reliance on severity-based policies, mandating lengthy prison terms, to a more effective use of police to make the risks of crime clearer and the consequences of criminal activity faster and more certain. We make the following basic claims:

The Philippine Scout Mutiny of 1924

Raised during the Philippine War (1899–1902) to serve as infantry auxiliaries, by the early 1920s Filipino-manned regiments of the US Army had come to mirror American units in organization and training. These ‘Philippine Scouts’ were the bul-wark of American rule in the Philippines but did not receive the same benefits as American soldiers. Disaffected soldiers who staged a mutiny in July 1924 found themselves sentenced to lengthy prison terms, but despite the worrisome challenge to its authority, the army made no changes in the Scouts' pay, recruitment or leadership. The Scout Mutiny was a telling expression of both the marginality of America's ‘colonial army’ and of the officer corps' distaste for imperial responsibility.

Crime Reduction and the Length of Prison Sentences

The issue discussed is whether policies of imposing increasingly lengthy prison sentences on serious criminal offenders reduce crime. The empirical evidence for the deterrence and incapacitation effects of incarceration is first examined and found to be of limited help in answering the question whether lengthy prison sentences reduce crime. Conceptual and normative analysis of deterrence and incapacitation suggest that we have little reason to believe that the general use of lengthy prison terms produces more good than harm for society, especially if the burdens of and alternatives to such prison terms are taken into account.

The Motivation of the Persistent Robber

There is a group of offenders who are unusually persistent in robbery, even after serving lengthy prison terms. Three lines of inquiry clarify their motivations. First, the practical situational demands of robbery militate against an election of the offense as the outcome of a rational process of cost-benefit calculations. Appreciation of interactions between the conduct of robbery offenders and victims clarifies the inherent openness of the offender's situational desires. Second, the persistent offender's commitment to robbery is an aspect of the open-ended, interlocking character of the deviant social environment in which he operates. Third, persistent robbers have a distinguishing attraction to the use of violence; their attraction to robbery reflects a fascination with imposing transcendent control on a range of chaotic circumstances. Once research interests shift from generic "robbery" to the characterization of the persistent offender, ethnographic materials and ethnomethodological inquiries become essential.