Sentencing of teen girl fuels debate of youths in prison

In this article the author Ashley Broughton discussed how during the 1990's there was a nation wide increase of gang activity with the youth of America. Many states passed laws to get more tough with the youth by sending them to adult court. Utah passed its serious youth offender act in 1995. From 1985 to 1998 the juveniles in adult prison had doubled because of this act. Broughton then goes onto discuss how two 15 year old girl Melinda Chasteen and Jessica Grundie were accused of trying to kill a female gourd at the juvenile detention facility in Utah. The girls are also charged for planning on killing several other guards and stealing items to escape and help other juveniles escape. Chasteen was sentenced to prison while at the time the article was written, 2003, Grundie had not been sentenced yet. This started a huge debate about whether these girls should still be in a juvenile detention facility or prison. Many believe that it is wrong to sentence minors like adults but there are also those whom believe that sentencing juveniles like adults or serious crimes are justified.

Article: Sentencing of Teen Girl Debate of Youths in Prison
Author: Ashley Broughton
Source: Salt Lake Tribune Oct 14, 2003

An Examination of the Interactions of Race and Gender on Sentencing Decisions Using a Trichotomous Dependent Variable

In this article the author Tina Freiburger discusses how many different men and women don't "have the experiences in the court room"(Freisburger63). What does she mean by this? As her article goes on she reveals the answer and this is in many court rooms there are race and gender biases.Based on already done research  Freisburger came to find the young minorities (Black and Hispanic men) are more likely to be incarcerated into the prison system while young white men are more likely to get probation. She then found that women in general get lesser sentencing than men men so they would get probation over jail time but the minority effect still applied to women so minority women still got more serious sentences. Freisburger then did a study of her own where she looked at over 2000 cases from a county in Michigan. Hispanics were taken out of the study because there wasn't a large enough sample. She still found similar results that had to do with race and gender. She found that African American men were way more likely to get jail time while white men were more likely to receive probation. She also found that women were still more likely to receive probation as well. Toward the end of the article Freiburger looked at how incarceration terms to prison and jail sentences impacted prisin sentences more. She concluded that jail and prison sentences need to be decided separately.

Title: An Examination of the Interactions of Race and Gender on Sentencing Decisions Using a Trichotomous Dependent Variable. 
Author: Tina Freiburger
Source:  Crime & Delinquency. Feb2013, Vol. 59 Issue 1, p59-86. 28p.

Equal justice initiative

The equal justice initiative is a company dedicated to making sure people are sentenced fairly. They deal with many controversial topics like child sentencing, the death sentence, and sentencing reform. I thought this would be a good source to help show that there are people out there dedicated to these issues and it really shows the main problems with prison sentencings.

Source: eji.org

Questions to consider on gender sentencing

In the article I read by Fernando Rodriguez it discussed how females received lesser sentences than men. This study was conducted in Texas and my question is how many other states are the same as Texas. Is this trend in many other states? And what specific reasons give girls more of an advantage at getting lesser prison sentences than men?

Gender differences in criminal sentencing

In the article I read by Fernando Rodriguez, he discusses that females have an advantage with gender when it comes to sentencing. He talked about a study where they found that females will either get less or no prison time for smaller crimes compared to males who most likely do receive prison time. For larger crimes like murder females still receiciebed less prison time than men.

Author: Fernando Rodriguez
Source: social science quarterly vol 2 issue 6 pg 318-391

Questions to consider for youth sentencing

I just had a few questions about youth sentencing that i have and I might be able to find answered to. The first is in what cases have the courts actually sentenced youth to life in prison. The second is for those who aren't sentenced life what are the alternative sentencing. And my final question is for the states that all the death penalty is it possible for a minor to be sentenced to death?

Sentencing and prison overcrowding

In this article it discussed how in many European countries there was overcrowding in many prisons. The problem is that the criminal population is increasing and the solution as put by author Sonja Snacken is simple. The prisons need to increase capacity. Snacken gives four factors of why the prison population is increasing. First is demographic and economic evolution. The. Second is criminality is influenced by both societal changes and criminal policy changes. Attitudes, decisions, and policies at the different levels of decision making within the criminal justice system. And finally the political context of the period considered and the way in which politicians interpret and react to contradictory tendencies in public opinion.

Title: Sentencing and Prison over crowding
Author. Sonja Snacken
Source: European journal in criminal policy and research vol 2 issue 1 of 84-99