CRIMINAL JUSTICE 120 MODULE 2

Criminal Justice 120 Module 2

Criminal Justice 120 Module 2

Sentencing

Statutory good time means a credit to a sentence as authorized by 18 U.S.C. 4161. The total amount of statutory good time that an inmate is entitled to have deducted on any given sentence, or aggregate sentences, is calculated and credited in advance, when the sentence is computed. (b) Extra good time means a credit to a sentence as authorized by 18 U.S.C. 4162 for performing exceptionally meritorious service or for performing duties of outstanding importance in an institution or for employment in a Federal Prison Industry or Camp. ''Extra Good Time'' therefore includes Meritorious Good Time, Work/Study Release Good Time, Community Corrections Center Good Time, Industrial Good Time, Camp or Farm Good Time, and Lump Sum Awards. Extra good time and seniority are inseparable with the exception of chunk addition awards for which no seniority is earned. (c) Seniority refers to the time accrued in an extra good time earning status. (Yin, 2007)



Plea Bargaining

Plea bargaining is an essential element of both jail development as well as the racially disparate state of American prisons. Although no one understands the exact number, what is renowned is that for the vast majority of defendants, the criminal justice system does not involve a committee trial, the presentation of evidence, or any sort of dramatic courtroom scene. Instead, it involves bargaining for justice. Plea bargaining represents an enormous resource savings, and allows for large expenditures on the occasional case for which a defendant will not bargain. Indeed, this increase in resources strengthens the prosecutor's hand and increases her bargaining place in other cases by giving a defendant an unrealistically high impression of the length of sentences in the cases that do proceed to trial. That is, a defendant can only observe the ...