Alternatives to Incarceration and Capital Punishment

Flashcards reviewing key vocabulary and concepts related to alternatives to prison, community corrections, and the death penalty, based on lecture notes.

Community Corrections

Alternatives to incarceration that keep offenders within the community under supervision and guidance, aiming to reduce collateral effects and save costs.

Community Service

A court-ordered sentence requiring offenders to perform a predetermined number of hours of volunteer work or other community restitution activities.

Home Confinement (House Arrest)

A sentence that restricts an offender to their home and property, often monitored electronically, with exceptions for specific activities such as work or therapy.

Diversion Programs

Root cause-based methods (drugs, mental illness) to address issues, helping with addictions and reducing collateral consequences.

Drug Courts

Special courts that deal with offenders who commit crimes to fuel their addiction, providing treatment and monitoring for 12-18 months.

Mental Health Courts

Special courts that process mentally ill offenders, sentencing them to treatment and observing their behavior over time.

Probation

A sentence where an offender is monitored and agrees to check-ins from a probation officer, subject to conditions like house visits and drug tests.

Parole

Early, conditional release from prison providing an incentive for good behavior. Re-offense after parole means return to prison.

Supervised Release

An additional term of supervision after prison. Federal prisoners cannot get parole, but can get supervised release

Civil Commitment

Placing an individual in custody and denying freedom without a criminal conviction, often used for mentally ill individuals considered a danger to self or others.

Restorative Justice

Seeks to heal the victim rather than punish the offender by bringing them together. Views Criminal Justice System as a secondary actor.

Victim-Offender Mediation

A face-to-face meeting between an offender and victim in a supervised environment, aiming to find closure for the victim and encourage offenders to redeem themselves.

Capital Punishment

The ultimate power of the government to end the life of a citizen by choice, also known as the death penalty.

Furman v. Georgia (1972)

Supreme Court rules that the rules that governed who was executed violated 8th amendment. but not the death penalty itself.

Gregg v. Georgia (1976)

Court held that if the death penalty is to be carried out, it must include bifurcated trials, penalty phase get new jury and automatic appeals to protect against arbitrariness.

Atkins v. Virginia (2002)

States can't execute a person with an intellectual disability because it does not deter crime and does not serve interests of retribution.

Roper v. Simmons (2005)

Execution of minors and juveniles is illegal because juveniles are not fully aware of actions or consequences