Concern for equality and human dignity is largely absent from American sentencing. Prison sentences are imposed much more often than in any other Western country. Prison terms are incomparably longer. The greater frequency of imprisonment is a product of punitive attitudes and politicization of crime control policies. The longer terms result partly from abolition of parole release in every jurisdiction for all or some inmates, but mostly from the proliferation since the mid-1980s of mandatory minimum, three-strikes, life without parole, and truth-in-sentencing laws. The ideas that offenders should be treated as equals and with concern and respect for their interests largely disappeared, though they had been animating values of earlier indeterminate and determinate sentencing systems. Their disregard is evident in the nature of contemporary laws but also in low-visibility policies and practices including the near absence of meaningful systems of appellate sentence review, low standards of proof at sentencing, and the absence of standards for sentencing of people convicted of multiple offenses at one time or over time.

中文翻译：

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平等与人的尊严：美国量刑中缺失的成分

美国的判决在很大程度上缺乏对平等和人的尊严的关注。监禁的刑罚比其他任何西方国家都高。监狱刑期无与伦比。监禁次数的增加是惩罚态度和犯罪控制政策政治化的产物。更长的期限部分是由于每个司法管辖区取消了全部或部分囚犯的假释，但主要是由于自1980年代中期以来的强制性最低，三击，无假释生活和判刑真相法的扩散。尽管罪犯一直在为更早的不确定和确定的量刑体系赋予价值，但这种认为罪犯应被平等对待并受到关注和尊重的利益的想法在很大程度上消失了。