Skip to main content

Abstract

This study examined two criminal justice data resources to investigate various characteristics about the prison population, to ascertain if any of those factors are related to sentencing trends. Data from the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice Sentencing, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics were reviewed to establish if the sentencing practices were associated with extra-legal factors. Additionally, the prison population in Mississippi was examined to reveal that the vast majority of inmates had both prior arrests (90%) and prior convictions (80%). Furthermore, most had been convicted of violent offenses or parole violations. The results of this study suggest that there may be extra-legal considerations in the sentencing of the inmates which comprise the population of our prison system.

Files

This is a metadata-only record.

Metrics

Metadata

  • Subject
    • Criminal Justice

  • Department
    • Department of Criminal Justice, College of Arts and Letters

  • Institution
    • Dahlonega

  • Event date
    • 15 November 2019

  • Date submitted

    19 July 2022

  • Keywords
  • Additional information
    • Author Biography:

      Dr. Batchelder is a Professor of Criminal Justice at University of North Georgia since 1997. He has made over 45 professional conference presentations on a variety of Criminal Justice and Public Policy topics. He currently serves as the Director of Student Research for the Department of Criminal Justice, and coordinates all undergraduate research conference presentations. He also serves as the Assistant Communications Director for the Criminal Justice Association of Georgia. He has authored 25 articles in peer-reviewed and profession-oriented journals. His military service includes eight years with the United States Air Force Band, and he continues to perform on guitar with many notable jazz artists in a variety of musical settings.