Structured Sentencing in North Carolina Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Structured Sentencing in North Carolina - Essay Example Less severe crimes that do not involve victim body injury or threat to body injury is assigned lowest classes while crimes involving victim injury is assigned highest classes. Misdemeanor crimes are classified in to four categories (Class AI, Class I, Class 2 and Class 3). Class AI is the most serious while Class 3 is the least serious misdemeanor crime (Tonry 86). Structured sentencing is based on several core principles. One of the principles is rationality of the sentence. The sentencing should consider the severity of the offense as indicated by the harm suffered by the victim and also the criminal record of the offender. Another principle is truthfulness. Early parole releases should be avoided since the jail term should be closed related to the sentence imposed by the courts. Another principle of structured sentencing is consistency. The sentence received by offenders with similar prior criminal record and convicted for the same offense should be the same. The last principle is resource prioritization (North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission 3). The sentencing should be accompanied by adequate prison and community-based resources. Prisons and jail terms should take priority for violent crimes or repeat offenders while community-based rehabilitation programs should first be utilized for the non-violent crimes, and for offenders with no prior criminal record (Tonry 86). Felon offenses are classified in to six prior record levels starting from Level I for offenders with no prior criminal conviction to Level VI for severe felonies involving violence and numerous prior criminal records, and convictions (Tonry 89). Structured sentencing in North Carolina has three sentencing levels. The levels include the active sentencing that involve jail terms, intermediate sentencing that involve supervised probation and community sentencing that may involve community service, restitution and fines. Active sentencing is done for high offense classes and fel onies with numerous prior records. Judges may impose active, community punishment or intermediate punishment for convictions of Class AI misdemeanors regardless of the past criminal record. Class 1, 2 and 3 misdemeanors, the Judge may impose a community punishment regardless of the prior criminal history (North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission 8). Offenders serving a jail term of more than 90 days are incarcerated at the State prison system while those serving less than 90 days of jail term, are incarcerated in County jail system (Tonry 73). Intermediate punishment requires the offenders to undergo supervised probation. The first type of intermediate punishment is the split sentence, whereby the convict will serve a jail term followed and later undergo supervised probation (Tonry 85). Another type is the Electronic house arrest whereby the convicted offender will be confined in one area and monitored through the use of computer technology. The third type is intensi ve supervision where the convicted offender is closely supervised and monitored. The fourth type is the residential center, which is a highly structured program requiring overnight residence of the convicted offender. Another type of intermediate punishment is the Day reporting center, this involve a highly structured and close supervision program during the day and in

Zen masters Essay Example for Free

Zen masters Essay Same as Buddhism, Zen became accommodated for those, who practice it. So, it obtained new characteristics in the West. This process of accommodation was repeated in each country where Zen appeared. Nowadays masters, who learn Zen in Vietnam, China, Korea or Japan, established their own schools in the Western countries. All these established schools have unchangeable elements, but at the same time they contain a lot of elements, which differ for each country. It is hard to image all challenges non-theistic, oriental teaching can meet while assimilating in the West. Zen becomes transformed by Western society but the society itself also gets transformed by Zen. There are several basic challenges Zen practitioners meet in the West. North Americans and Europeans have implemented new traditions to Zen Buddhism. Annual meeting of representatives of different Zen Buddhism schools if one of such innovations. Such practice is not accepted in Asian counties, where Zen masters did not communicate much with each other. In the annual meetings, organized in the west practitioners and masters from different Zen schools, come together to share their experience and discuss important issues. â€Å" As Bodhin Kholhede, an abbot of Rochester Zen Center, states, â€Å"Within individual Sanghas, too, we have seen a general horizontalization of authority since the first generation of (mostly Asian) Zen teachers founded their centers† (Kholhede, 340). There are major changes inside the monasteries and Zen centers, as well. They also get influenced by secular tendency and the balance between spiritual and secular is often moved to the side of secular. Zen originates from China, the country where Confucian traditions have influenced all social, religious and political processes. Propriety, filial piety and obedience to authority are the main principles of Confucianism, which had great influence on all religious movements and Zen is not an exception. Special relations between masters and disciples became one of the distinctive features of Zen Buddhism. Master had almost unlimited power on his students and there were even cases when masters killed their disciples. It is evident that these principles could not have been accepting by the Western society and North American one. Confucian principles could not be used for Western tradition of Zen. First Western Zen centers based on these principles could not attract many followers and had to adapt to Western ideology. Zen had to undergo serious transformation in the question concerning an attitude to women. In Asian countries women were not usually allowed to participate in Zen practices, especially they were not allowed to become masters. As Bodhin Kholhede notices, â€Å"The largely invisible role of women in Asian Buddhism is no secret. Official teacher lineages, or â€Å"patriarchal lines,† are by definition composed exclusively of men† (Kholhede). It is not that women were not seeking for awakening and did not want to commit their life to spiritual quest. Such a role of women in Zen and Buddhism was conditioned by the role of women in Asian society. Women were not considered to have same spiritual and religious abilities as men did. It is evident that such ideas could not have been accepted by Western Zen practitioners. Western women took active part in Zen practice and this finally caused the change in behavior, and attitude towards women. Introduction of women to Zen practice had another important meaning. Nowadays Western Zen centers try to replace hard and exhausting practices with more moderate ones in order to make them suitable for both, male and female practitioners. The change of female role also influences Zen vocabulary. Some phrases which could have been addressrd to male practitioners only now become gender neutral. For example, the very term â€Å"patriarchal line†, which means the line of masters who succeed each other, is some monasteries is now replace to â€Å"ancestral line† in order to underline that women also can be Zen masters. Western Individualism has become a serious obstacle for Zen in the West. All Western culture is distinguished by striving to individualism and self-autonomy. While these notions are not widely developed in Asian countries, they have become central in the West. Individualism is peculiar to all Western countries, â€Å"but it is qualitatively different from the traditional Asian conception of self, in which a person is defined within a nexus of social relations, and dependent on a contextual web consisting of other persons as well as place, time, and history. This definition resonates strongly with Buddhist doctrine, in which the self is so thoroughly interdependent that it has no essential reality† (Kholhede, 342).

Phenomenology of the Spirit Essay example -- Philosophy Philosophical

Phenomenology of the Spirit ABSTRACT: The idea of spirit in its highest form takes a gathering character, where all is attracted by what Hegel called the world idea, an absolute spirit, and by what modern science understands as human psychological and social (consciousness) recognition. Included in this are unusual abilities like extrasensory perception, clairvoyance, telepathy, etc. The sensibility of the pointed problems can be more fruitfully realized within a new phenomenology of the spirit. This is distinguished from Hegel by the fact that spirit is considered as non-destroyed attribute or matter’s property (quality). If Hegel considered the absolute idea as the outcoming principle or substantial base of being, then a new phenomenology of spirit must be abstracted from the question stated of the primary and secondary character of the material and ideal in a global plan. But this conception of the materialistic philosophy should be over comprehended, where spiritual is considered as the secondary phe nomenon, so as the secondary in comparison with the material side of being. This new phenomenology of the spirit is based on the Hegelian and Marxist traditions’ overcomprehension in a quality of the main idea which takes up the subjective content and spiritual material base — its material-ideal nature. Both a society and an individual possess such qualities and properties that cannot be understood only through the conventional ideology of objective, material being. There exist spiritual phenomena as well, understood here as everything linked to consciousness, psychology, feelings, perception etc. These are mostly connected with human beings and human society. At the same time the science actively discuss subjects not connec... ...been understood as secondary phenomenon, Thus having lesser importance in comparison with the material aspect of existence. The new phenomenology of spirit, based upon reconsideration of Hegel / Marx tradition, can have as its main idea the subjective contents and material basis of spiritual, in other words — its material-ideal nature. It seems that in the nearest future such interpretation of the nature of spiritual will become more definite. Nowadays the new data is collected, new ideas are put forward, sometimes lying rather far from a single equivocal appraisal. The intellectual situation of the border of two centuries and two millennia is sometimes thought of as critical, even deadlock. However, the tendency of developing knowledge is such that the current processes will serve the basis for new paradigms of cognition, for the ultimate qualitative breakthrough.

Cosi HSC practice essay Essay

Discuss how Nowra’s perspective on personal relationships is conveyed in Cosi. The play Cosi by Louis Nowra is an emotional portrayal of personal relationships in a Melbourne mental institution ostracised by society. Throughout the play Nowra’s perspective on personal relationships develops and changes through character relationships and development, especially the development of the main protagonist Lewis. Nowra conveys his perspective on personal relationships through themes such as the importance of love and fidelity, the empowerment of women and learning and self-development. Techniques such as symbolism, intertextuality and contrast are also used to further highlight Nowra’s perspective. Nowra’s perspective on personal relationships is primarily shown through the character Lewis and his personal relationships with other characters in the play, especially in his relationship with his girlfriend Lucy. Act Two, Scene Two which features a confrontation between Lewis and Lucy on their relationship is significant in showing this. In this scene, Lucy comes to pick Lewis up to take him to the moratorium meeting and Lewis must decide between staying for the play and going with Lucy. Nowra’s belief on the importance of the existence of love and fidelity in a relationship is shown when Lewis says to Lucy â€Å"It’s about important things like love and fidelity†. Intertextuality is used here through Lewis’ character development and change of values that is evident in this line. This change occurred through his participation in the production of Cosi Fan Tutte with the patients and his exposure to the themes in the play. The women in both Cosi Fan Tutte and Cosi are often compared with the Arabian Phoenix which acts a symbol for a woman’s constancy or fidelity. â€Å"A woman’s constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix. Everyone swears it exists, but no one has seen it.† This is quoted by Lewis to Lucy to further convey Nowra’s belief in the importance of love and fidelity in a relationship. As Cosi was written in a time where a huge social change was occurring and women were beginning to have more sexual freedom with the invention he birth control pill, a lot of aspects of the play focus on the empowerment of women and the double standards that exist between and women in society especially when it comes to fidelity. This is shown in Nowra’s contrast of Act Two, Scene One and Act Two, Scene, Two. In Scene One, Lewis is unfaithful as he kisses Julie but in Act Two he reprimands Lucy for sleeping with Nick  failing to mention his own infidelities. Intertextuality is used in this scene when Lewis claims that a woman’s constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix, revealing his hypocrisy. Through Lewis’ condemnation, Nowra demonstrates that, although modern society has become more sexually lenient, there are still double standards that occur which condone men’s fidelity but condemn women’s fidelity. It is revealed that Nowra believes that men and women should be equal not only in relationships but in society too. Julie articulates the message at the beginning of the play when she says that men â€Å"want women to deceive them because it will prove their worst thoughts about women† which in contrast is confirmed by Lewis’ attitude towards Lucy’s infidelities.

Airline Bankruptcy Filings May Be Soon

Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines are expected to file for bankruptcy protection in September to get ahead of the new bankruptcy law. The new legislature includes a provision that restricts payouts to executives in the time of bankruptcy protection and calls for quicker reorganization. Both Northwest and Delta failed to cope with rising fuel costs and continue to lose money. In fact, Northwest’s losses got even worse, with second-quarter loss going from $182 million in 2004 to $225 million in 2005. Delta’s loss in the second quarter was still higher: the airline lost $382 million. The new, more restrictive law was probably inspired by delays in the reorganization of some companies. For instance, United has been under bankruptcy protection for two and a half years. During this period the management failed to prepare a reorganization plan and has asked for several extensions of the exclusivity period. I believe this shows two things. First, it is painful to realize that the once booming airline industry has not yet recovered after September 11th attacks. True, an important factor is fuel cost, and this has been rising for a while due to increasing oil costs. But I think if the industry had not survived the nasty crisis of the attacks, it would be better prepared to meet the rise in fuel cost. Second, it shows the difficult choices the rulers of the nation have to make. Take, for instance, bankruptcy – they certainly do not want to leave the airline companies out there in the cold coping with problems on their own. On the contrary, they do not want to encourage management to reserve huge bonuses for themselves at the time of the crisis. And yet companies in trouble need all the managerial talent they can get and so need to keep their managers. It sometimes scares me to think how careful a government leader needs to be to balance all these issues in order to stimulate management but also to keep their appetites in check. No Driver’s License? No Parking Space The article by Daniel Li focuses on the problems of illegal immigrants residing in one of the apartment complexes in Anaheim, Ca., caused by the decision of the management company to deny parking right to everybody who is unable to produce a driver’s license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance. The opponents of the decision say that it is discriminating against illegal immigrants who are residing in Hermosa Village. The management definitely knows that many of the tenants are undocumented and thus have trouble getting a driver’s license. These people cannot park in the streets of the low-income neighborhood after its streets became public. Now they cannot park in front of their houses as well. The management company representatives say that they did not mean to discriminate against illegal immigrants. They merely wanted to protect the safety of their tenants and remove those who had licenses revoked after they got in trouble on the road. The issue revives the debate the rights of illegal immigrants. Many believe they should be given drivers’ licenses. On the contrary, others say giving them the right would encourage more illegal immigration. In my view, the management company has to decide for themselves how they position their housing. If they present themselves as cheap property for all kinds of low-income families and singles including illegal immigrants, it is probably absurd to ask people to present the documents they cannot have. Otherwise, they have to declare a war on illegal immigration and start looking for more ‘decent’ tenants. True, this can be very much like cutting the branch on which one is sitting. As a management company, they have to show more consideration for the people they cater to and to be more committed to their customers who may not always be the most wealthy, well-bred or even law-abiding people in the world. Taking a stand on illegal immigration is a personal choice, but one has to be caring with one’s clients. Â