Federal Sentencing Reporter 

About: Federal Sentencing Reporter is an academic journal published by University of California Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Sentencing guidelines & Criminal justice. It has an ISSN identifier of 1053-9867. Over the lifetime, 1076 publications have been published receiving 5960 citations. The journal is also known as: FSR.

Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994

Abstract: Of the 108,580 persons released from prisons in 11 States in 1983, representing more than half of all released State prisoners that year, an estimated 62.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.8% were reconvicted, and 41.4% returned to prison or jail. Before their release from prison, the prisoners had been arrested and charged with an average of more than 12 offenses each; nearly two-thirds had been arrested at least once in the past for a violent offense; and two-thirds had previously been in jail or prison. By yearend 1986 those prisoners who were rearrested averaged an additional 4.8 new charges. An estimated 22.7% of all prisoners were rearrested for a violent offense within 3 years of their release.

The First Month Out: Post-Incarceration Experiences in New York City

Abstract: This article is excerpted from Marta Nelson, Perry Deess, and Charlotte Allen9s longer article of the same name published by the Vera Institute of Justice in 1999. The report is an account, issue by issue, of what the authors learned from participants about life in the first thirty days after getting out of prison or jail. Those first days and weeks appear to be critical, with arrest rates for released prisoners highest soon after release and declining over time. The study showed that the first month is not only a period of difficulties but also a period of opportunities to get people started on the path to employment, abstinence from drugs, good family relations, and crime-free living.

The Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers

Abstract: Persistent fiscal challenges in the United States have spurred greater scrutiny of government spending. States' corrections expenditures, which have nearly quadrupled over the past two decades, are receiving considerable attention. These circumstances make it crucial for policy makers and the public to understand the full cost of prisons to taxpayers—something that is easier said than done. Although corrections departments pay the vast majority of costs for state prisons, other departments pay related expenses—some of which are substantial. Depending on the state, these can include employee benefits, capital costs, in-prison education services, or hospital care for inmates. Additionally, the cost of underfunded contributions for corrections employees' pension and retiree health care plans must be included in a comprehensive accounting of prison costs. In partnership with the Pew Center on the States, staff from the Vera Institute of Justice's Center on Sentencing and Corrections and Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit developed a methodology for calculating the full cost of prisons to taxpayers. The application of this methodology, which was developed in collaboration with a panel of advisers in the fields of corrections and public finance and field-tested in five states, is the subject of this report. Vera researchers found that the total taxpayer cost of prisons in the 40 states that participated in this study was 13.9 percent higher than the cost reflected in those states' combined corrections budgets. The total price to taxpayers was $39 billion, $5.4 billion more than the $33.5 billion reflected in corrections budgets alone. The greatest cost drivers outside corrections departments were as follows: > underfunded contributions to retiree health care for corrections employees ($1.9 billion); > states' contributions to retiree health care on behalf of their corrections departments ($837 million); > employee benefits, such as health insurance ($613 million); > states' contributions to pensions on behalf of their corrections departments ($598 million); > capital costs ($485 million); > hospital and other health care for the prison population ($335 million); and > underfunded pension contributions for corrections employees ($304 million). Among the participating states, costs outside the corrections department ranged from less than 1 percent of the total cost of prisons, in Arizona, to as much as 34 percent in Connecticut. The extra costs accounted for less than 5 percent of total prison costs in 16 states, 5 to 9.9 percent of total prison costs in nine states, and 10 to 19.9 percent of total prison costs in nine …