Victims and Prison Release: A Modest Proposal

Abstract

The political right pushes for the strengthening of our criminal justice system by expanding victims' rights at the expense of defendant protections. The political left advocates the gradual replacement of the criminal justice system with restorative justice techniques. At the heart of both sets of proposals is a crime victim alienated by a system that has slowly eliminated her role in criminal prosecution and punishment. This Essay proposes to serve the claimed needs of the crime victim by giving her control over the execution of 10 percent of the convict's prison sentence. Although fraught with potential complications that would need to be addressed, if carefully managed, these victim control rights could serve the interests of victims, convicts, and society by enhancing psychological healing while reducing recidivism rates. At a minimum, however, victims could be made better off without jeopardizing the legitimate interests of either criminal defendants or society. The proposal seems worth at least a carefully constructed experiment