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“Graduated Sanctions: Stepping Into Accountable Systems and Offenders”

Taxman, Faye S.
June 4, 2015

Source: (1999) The Prison Journal. 79(2):182-204.

Graduated sanctions are being promoted in many new crime control initiatives, such
as Breaking the Cycle and Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT). Like many
attractive concepts, graduated sanctions are poorly understood in theory and poorly
conceived in practice. This article presents a procedural justice theory for graduated
sanctions and the critical components for this model. The legal issues of due process,
double jeopardy, and separation of powers are reviewed to illustrate how graduated
sanctions serve to protect the constitutional rights of the offender and to deter noncompliance.
Finally, the implications for increasing compliance with release conditions
are discussed in terms of the differential methods for implementing graduated
sanctions.

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