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1 Allen J. Beck & Lawrence A. Greenfeld, Violent Offenders in State Prison: Sentences and Time Served 1 (1992-1994)

handle is hein.death/vostp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: July 1995, NCJ-154632 Violent Offenders in State Prison: Sentences and Time Served By Allen J. Beck, Ph.D. Lawrence A. Greenfeld BJS Statisticians In partnership with State departments of corrections, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) collected information on sentences and time served by vio- lent offenders in State prison. For 1992, 1993, and 1994, 49 States and the District of Columbia provided infor- mation on violent offenders who were admitted to or released from prison. In April 1995, BJS published Prison Sentences and Time Served for Violence, which discussed truth in sen- tencing and the hypothetical impact of increasing the percentage of sentence served. Data sources in this report dif- fer from those in the previous report: * State-by-State tabulations appear for the first time in this report * BJS received totals and averages, not individual records, from States * State definitions of violent offenders, rather than standard BJS definitions, were used in this report. Correctional authorities provided the number of violent offenders admitted or released, the average total maxi- mum sentence, the average minimum time to be served by incoming prison- ers, and the average time served in prison and jail by released prisoners. (See the questionnaire on page 9.) This information allows the calculation of percent of sentence served or to be served - measures of the corres- pondence between sentence length and time served. (See Methodology.) From a previous BJS report - Prison Sentences and Time Served for Violence Since the mid-1 970's, legislatures around the Nation have sought to reduce discretion in both the sentencing proc- ess and the determination of when the conditions of a sentence have been satisfied. Determinate sentencing, use of mandatory minimums, and guidelines-based sen- tencing are illustrations of approaches that limit discretion and increase the predictability of penalties. A majority of State prisoners today serve presumptive sentences - 90% of State inmates can estimate their probable release date, and their discharge from prison is less likely than in the past to be determined by a parole board decision. In 1977, 72% of those released from State prisons had served an indeterminate sentence, and a parole board decided their release. In 1992, by con- trast, less than 40% of prison releases were determined by a parole board. Interest in truth-in-sentencing reflects continued attention to discretion and to the relation between sentences and time served. Truth-in-sentencing is generally meant to describe a close correspondence between the sen- tence imposed upon those sent to prison and the time actually served prior to prison release. The report was based on BJS definitions of violent offend- ers and individual-level records or interviews. Data drawn from the annual National Corrections Reporting Program revealed that released violent offenders had served about half their sentence in confinement and admitted violent offenders were expected to serve about 60% of their sen- tence before release. Data from a national survey of State inmates indicated that violent prisoners believed that they would serve nearly 50% of their sentence. U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings State Inmates, 1992-94 (a

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