3.2: Incarceration

Incarceration or imprisonment is at the same time one of the most hidden yet the most visible criminal sanctions in the United States. Incarceration is the removal of a person's liberty through confinement by authority of the government. According to the world prison brief, the United States has the six highest incarceration rate in the world, at 531 people per hundred thousand in the population. Drug offenses account for the incarceration of about 1 in 5 people in U.S. prisons. Violent offenses account for over 3 in 5 people (62%) in state prisons. Property offenses account for the incarceration of about 1 in 7 people (14%) in state prisons. Since reaching its peak level of imprisonment in 2009, the United States has averaged a rate decline in incarceration of 2.3% per year.

Drug offenses account for the incarceration of about 1 in 5 people in U.S. prisons. Violent offenses account for over 3 in 5 people (62%) in state prisons. Property offenses account for the incarceration of about 1 in 7 people (14%) in state prisons. Finally, 619,000 people are incarcerated in local jails. Jail incarceration accounts for a third of all incarceration. Over 80% of people incarcerated in local jails have not yet been convicted.¹³

Intermediate Sanctions

Intermediate sanctions is the step in between probation and incarceration. These alternative sentence punishments fill the gap in between standard probation monitoring and incarceration. Generally, people sentenced to intermediate sanctions are monitored by probation officers however in some cases, the monitoring may be accomplished by county or state parole departments or by private entities under the direction and oversight of the sentencing court. Some examples include shock incarceration (incarceration in local jails usually not exceeding 90 days, often times including comprehensive and rigorous in custody drug/alcohol and/or mental health treatment), in-home detention also known as house arrest, intensive probation monitoring, electronic monitoring and compulsory inpatient or outpatient drug and alcohol treatment programs within the community. (M. Ybarra 2025)

Probation

Probation is a court-ordered period of correctional supervision in the community, generally as an alternative to incarceration. In some cases, probation can be a combined sentence of incarceration followed by a period of community supervision.¹⁴

Probation is arguably the oldest, and certainly the most common, of the intermediate sanctions. Its roots stem from concepts of common law from England, like many of our other correctional practices in the U.S. In early American courts, a person was able to be released on their own recognizance, if they promised to be responsible citizens and pay back what they owed (financially or morally). In the early 1840s, John Augustus, a Boston bootmaker, was regularly attending court and began to supervise such individuals as a “Surety”. A Surety was a person who guaranteed or paid individuals’ bond, or the money necessary to secure their release awaiting trial. In turn, Augustus would take in many of these individuals, providing them with work and housing, to help ensure that they would remain crime-free and pay back society. He continued this practice for nearly two decades, effectively becoming the first probation officer. Today, probation is a form of a suspended sentence, meaning that, instead of serving a certain period in jail or prison, an offender is allowed to serve that same period of supervision in the community. However, the sentence is only suspended subject to certain conditions that the offender must continue to meet; if they deviate from those conditions, they may be ordered to finish their sentence in jail or prison. Conditions of probation often include: reporting to a probation officer, submitting to random drug screens, not “consorting” with known felons, paying court costs and restitution, attending AA or NA courses, among other conditions. Probation lengths vary greatly, as do the conditions of probation placed on an individual. Conditions are based on a nexus to the circumstances of the conviction and/or criminal history. Almost all people on probation will have at least one condition of probation. Some have many conditions, depending on the seriousness and nature of their conviction.¹⁵

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for serious and violent crimes such as but not limited to premeditated murder and treason. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term capital (lit. 'of the head', derived via the Latin capitalis from caput, "head") refers to execution by beheading, but executions are carried out by many methods in the United States, including hanging, shooting, lethal injection, electrocution, and gassing.¹⁶

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¹³Wikipedia, 2019

¹⁴Wikipedia, 2020

¹⁵Unizin, 2019

¹⁶Wikipedia, 2018