Truth‐in‐Sentencing Laws

Abstract

Over the last several decades, the US criminal justice system has moved away from indeterminate sentences, under which offenders are condemned to an indefinite period of incarceration, offered “good time,” and subsequently paroled, often long before the conclusion of their maximum sentence. Beginning in the 1980s, federal and state legislatures began to adopt determinate sentences, whereby offenders are sentenced to a longer, more definite period of imprisonment. A relic of the “get tough” era of criminal justice policymaking, truth‐in‐sentencing laws specifically mandate that offenders serve a substantial portion of their sentence. This transition, along with the application of other types of determinate sentencing practice, marked a considerable change in punishment philosophy, sentence length, and prisoner release mechanisms.