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SENTENCE PLANNING: GENERAL POLICY (FROM PRISON SERVICE PSYCHOLOGY CONFERENCE: CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, P 156-160, 1991, SIMON BODDIS, ED.)

NCJ Number
143089
Author(s)
S Pryor
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This paper describes the groundwork that has been done in sentence planning (correctional implementation of sentences) in Great Britain, the current status of sentence planning, and the future agenda.
Abstract
The main elements of sentence planning were prepared and circulated in 1990, together with a questionnaire that asked if correctional institutions were currently able to plan sentences and what they believed to be the direction needed for the future. The "elements" were accepted without dissent. Responses indicated that about two-thirds of the institutions were able to conduct sentence planning in one form or another for some or all inmates, and another 17 institutions intended to introduce sentence planning within the next few months. The current agenda for sentence planning is to empty police cells and develop consistent systems for sentence planning. The main systems of primary concern are those responsible for the more dangerous or vulnerable inmates. Other categories of offenders of particular concern for sentence planning are sex offenders, lifers, and young offenders. Some issues identified for the future of sentence planning are disclosure of previous records that may or may not have been written with disclosure in mind, access to confidential records that may be vital in parole decisions, consistency and fairness in sentence planning, allowance for inmates who do not meet sentence planning goals, and system design.