Intermediate Sanctions and Community Corrections

Intermediate Sanctions and Community Corrections
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Intermediate Sanctions Of Fines and Restitutions
Question 1
The use of fines in criminal courts has seen the monetary penalties getting used as punishment for the common violations. The courts, however, courts have been indiscriminately imposing sanctions as the judges turn to be debt collectors and the jails into prisons for the debtors and the imprisonments of the poor. Sanctions don’t have the same meaning to people especially for the poor. The wealthy offenders make payments to dismiss cases against their poor counterparts (Nimni, 2017). I suggest that the criminal justice system problem needs to get addressed by reducing the inequality. That means an overhaul of the state sentencing system, having diversions well as prevention programs, reforming the prisons, better policing, and molding former prisoners into having better live stability
Question 2
It is not fair to impose monetary penalties that are likely to affect the quality of life of the family members. They punish the family inadvertently, and from the perspective of justice, it is not the right thing. It is necessary that the penalties get suspended when one gets imprisoned. The court administrators usually collect the fines while many of the defendant families are already impoverished (Shapiro, 2015)
Question 3
A restitution order requires the offender to make payments for monetary damage caused by the offenses. Restitution gets ordered for costs up to the period the offender gets sentenced.

It is a section of the sentence to the offender and can be used solely or as a conditional sentence. Judge orders restitution to cover monetary damages that relate to damaged property or property lost in crime, psychological harm or bodily injury, establishing the victim’s identity such as in credit history, and others. Restitution gets not charged on the damages that can get assessed only in the civil courts such as the pain and suffering (Department of Justice, 2018). Using restitution not fair since the majority of the offenders are not in employed or are underemployed. That implies that they are not in a position to make ends meet and making money necessary to make payments to their victims is not possible. The judge sets restitution fee, and the probation agents manage the payments. That means when the offender cannot meet the payments the judges cannot jail him because he cannot afford to pay (Louisiana, 2014)
Question 4
I do not make sense to make criminal justice financial obligations to the offenders, or in preventing future crimes especially on those lower social, economic class. The financial commitments become counterproductive when it is disproportionate in penalizing citizens for being weak as a disadvantage. The inability to meet the financial obligations can mean that fines get increased, imprisonment for failure to pay, suspending offender license, wage garnishment, premature termination from the supervisions, among others with the ability to put the poverty-stricken into more debt. As an example, the technical violations within the society supervision can get incurred for missing payments, making the person’s criminal record in a manner that they can get used against them in having sentence determinations on them in the future. That means that the unpaid financial obligations will be in a position to put these individuals at a higher risk for greater financial penalties and incarceration for the crimes that would in any way have them getting imprisoned. The imposition of the monetary sanctions weighs more on the poor and the minorities in the society. That establishes a cumulative disadvantage that only entrenches the vulnerable within the poverty cycle and imprisonment (Gleicher & Delong, 2018).
References
Department of Justice. (2018, September 13). Restitution Orders. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/victims-victimes/factsheets-fiches/restitution-dedommage.html
Gleicher, L., & Delong, C. (2018, August 1). The Cost of Justice: The Impact of Criminal Justice Financial Obligations on Individuals and Families. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from http://www.icjia.state.il.us/articles/the-cost-of-justice-the-impact-of-criminal-justice-financial-obligations-on-individuals-and-families
Louisiana, V. W. (2014, October 12). Criminals often don’t pay restitution to their victims. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/crime/2014/10/11/criminals-often-pay-restitution-victims/17139491/
Nimni, O. (2017, May 9). Fines and Fees Are Inherently Unjust. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/05/fines-and-fees-are-inherently-unjust
Shapiro, J. (2015, January 29). Study Finds Court Fees Also Punish The Families Of Those Who Owe. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/01/29/382380183/study-finds-court-fees-also-punish-the-families-of-those-who-owe