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Discrimination In The Jail System

1151 Words5 Pages

Everyone knows the jail system is flawed in many ways. Two men can get charged with the same crime and same situation but are sentenced to different lengths in jail. Discrimination is common today in the jail system. Countless innocent people are impacted by unfair jail sentencing; fortunately, the government is attempting to make a difference by lowering minimum and maximum jail sentencing. Frequently in history there has been discrimination in the jail system. The discrimination in the jail system has come in many ways including race, gender, and religion discrimination. This has been shown by the fact that “history teaches that sometimes individuals are treated differently because of the racial, ethnic, or gender group to which they belong.” …show more content…

The shorter mandatory minimums have only been effective on drug offenders and no other offenses. After the sentencing commision was created the “Senators Dick Durbin (D–IL) and Mike Lee (R–UT) have introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act.” (Larkin and Bernick) This explains in detail that the sentences for drug offenders will be shortened. Likewise, The smarter sentencing act has lessened sentences on drug offences. Furthermore, This act has helped shrink the very large prison population by getting drug offenders out of the prison system faster. With this “Congress also decided to eliminate the courts’ discretion to exercise leniency in some instances by requiring courts to impose a mandatory minimum sentence for certain types of crimes.” (Larkin and Bernick) Uniquely, congress has tried to stop the discrimination in the jail system. This explains the start of the justice systems transformation. Additionally congress has taken many approaches to solving the problem of discrimination in the justice system. “the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 has two exceptions to the mandatory minimum sentencing requirement.” (Larkin and Bernick) This explains how exceptions are used to make the prison system less discriminatory. Notably, these exceptions shows reform in the prison system. Additionally, this act is approaching the idea of a fair justice …show more content…

The reforms made in congress have lowered the average length of jail sentences for drug offenders. Congress should continue to make reforms to the mandatory minimum sentencing and put more exceptions to them. For example congress should rethink the mandatory minimum sentences for all types of all offences. It is important to have mandatory maximum sentences for each offence because it would allow for less extreme punishments for lesser offences. The prison population could be shrunk with the addition of maximum sentences, This would limit the length of time one person is in prison with more time in rehabilitation. Also, There should be more emphasis on rehabilitation than punishment because it would make people go to prison less often. With more open options for prison length decision, judges could have a more open mind towards how to determine the length of a

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