Sentencing, Bureaucracy, and the Paradigm of Disillusion

Plea bargaining and sentencing are frequently performed in a mechanical and ritualistic way. Judge John Kane writes that tables, charts, codes, and equations produce no insight into the problems each case presents. A significant number of prisoners have mental health problems, but forensic psychiatry and psychology are employed neither as well nor as often as they should be. Judge Kane analyzes four cases involving defendants with mental health problems to illustrate the struggle judges face.