Should nonviolent offenders who earn a college degree in prison have their sentences reduced?
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Abstract
Prison overcrowding and fair sentencing concerns are continuously prompting criminal justice advocates to find ways to deal with offenders. Sawyer and Wagner point out that “the U.S. doesn’t have one ‘criminal justice system’; instead, we have thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems. Together, these systems hold almost two million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,323 juvenile correctional facilities, 181 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.”
How many offenders in these facilities are nonviolent? There is no uniform definition of the term “nonviolent” and thus, the term lends itself to different interpretations in various contexts. Notwithstanding such variations, a powerful argument can be made that the expansion of educational opportunities in carceral settings confers benefits upon both nonviolent offenders and the society at large. (from Introduction)