Like many people involved in the criminal justice system, former Philadelphia judge Forer ( Criminals and Victims ) believes the recent rush to mandatory sentencing eliminates judicial discretion and claims it disserves society. In 1988, she left the bench when ordered to resentence a young black, who had served a six-month term and repaid a $50 robbery, to a mandatory five years. Mixing anecdote and analysis, she surveys the history of criminal punishment and criticizes recent political leaders for the "counter reformation" in response to Warren Court liberalism. We unnecessarily conflate sin and punishment, Forer argues, and points to her own experience to show that rehabilitation has never been fully pursued. Prisons, she argues, should be used not to punish criminals but to protect the public from dangerous people; alternative sentences like reparations and restitution must be pursued for others. Forer also reprises arguments that the death penalty should be abolished. Her advice for judges on sentencing is useful, but she hardly addresses the cultural forces that have kept our policies from changing. Forer's generally sensible message is a welcome addition to the often demagogic debates about crime and punishment. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This slim volume describes the two Americas of the 1990s. One America, which cuts across class lines, has a rage to punish. The other America bears the brunt of this rage. Using carefully selected stories from her 16 years as a trial judge, Forer recounts how the poor, women, children, and the nonwhite population, who are often not the criminals themselves, pay a particularly heavy price for the mandatory sentencing imposed by the courts. There is massive prison overcrowding, expenditures of millions of tax dollars, broken families, and disrupted lives. What is the answer?

Forer contends that mandatory sentencing does not curb crime but in fact brutalizes the society that imposes it. She argues for alternative sentencing and a clearer look at the social and economic causes of crime. Written in a journalistic style, Forer's arguments are highly readable. Recommended for public, academic, and correctional facility libraries.

Sentences  (Criminal  Procedure)  --  United  States,  Prison  Sentences  --  United  States,  Criminal  Justice,  Administration  Of  --  United,  States