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Essay On Mandatory Minimum Law

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Recommended: Discussion on mandatory minimum sentencing laws

There are several laws that impacted drug violators in California. Law enforcement continue to strive to reduce the number of drug users. Over the past decades, we were able to analyze the impact of the mandatory minimum in the 1980s and 1990s, effect of mandatory release law passed in the last five years, and find a possible solution for the future.

The mandatory minimum have widely affect drug violators in the 1980s and 1990s. A mandatory minimum sentence is the minimum number of years in prison that must be served when a person is convicted a particular crime. Drug crimes sentences vary based on the amount of the drug involved. The purpose of mandatory minimum sentence is to prosecute high drug offender (Sterling). An example of a mandatory …show more content…

During the 1990s, there are tough crimes that increase the prison's population and length of prison sentencing. For example, former attorney General Dan Lungren explained that violent crimes in California 26.9 percent and 30.8 percent in six major crime categories after passing the Three Strike law (Vitiello, 2002). Three Strike law has an incapacitation effect. The number of third striker and second striker decline every year from 1996 through 2003 (Goodno, 2007). However, mandatory minimum associated with drug crimes are different from other …show more content…

The rising population in prisons became a major concern. In 2010, a prison reform expert explained that putting drug addicts to incarceration cost too much estimating eighty billion of dollars a year (Childress, 2014). Thus, congress's proposal is to shorten the sentencing of nonviolent offender. Some report explained that "there are many people serving time for violent offenses who haven’t actually committed violent acts and might be good candidates for reduced sentences." (Neyfakh, 2015). In short, the person may not be a violent. President Obama stated that "these men and women were not hardened criminals, but the overwhelming majority had been sentenced to at least 20 years." (Horwitz & Eilperin, 2015). Moreover, President Obama believed the nonviolent offender deserved a second chance. On the contrary, the offenders who is labeled as "nonviolent" actually committed violent crime, but able to plea bargain for lesser charge. It is difficult to separate nonviolent and dangerous

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The author has included two research questions: whether or not the original intent of the Three Strikes law is understood and whether the law has effectively reduced crime and recidivism rates. The method used in the article is case study whereby the author focuses on the California version of the Three Strikes law. In addition, the article employs a multidisciplinary approach in analyzing the case study including history, political science and sociology. The author found out that the California Three Strikes Law has failed to meet its initial goal of reducing the number of repeat offenders in the prison system.

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The “Three Strikes Law” has been highly controversial since it was introduced by our government in the early and into the mid 1990’s. Specifically the “Three Strikes Law” looks to target persistent and prior offenders to impose harsher sentences. Since such a small percentage of the population commits such a large percent of crime, the “Three Strikes Law” was designed to incapacitate the repeat offenders. The mandated and elongated prison sentences given out by the judges for repeat offenders have been criticized and enclose both benefits and detriments. Throughout this paper I will look to delve deeper into the “Three Strikes Law” to determine the constitutionality of the statute while looking at specific case examples to support my theory

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In 1989, the state of California arrested 590,285 individuals for felonies, and violent offenses were at 118,601. In 1994, the year the law was enacted, felonies were at 581,264, and violent offenses were at 154,138. In 2005, felonies were at 538,166, and violent offenses were at 125,725. (Department of Justice. (n.d.)).

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“Mandatory minimum sentencing, a policy that requires a judge to impose a fixed minimal term in prison for individuals convicted of certain crimes, regardless of the individual’s role in the crime or other mitigating circumstances” (Levinthal, 20112, pg. 130). A minimum sentenced required by law are typically 5 or 10 years in prison that must be served when a person is convicted of certain federal and state crimes. The mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes are based on the type of drugs, the weight of drugs or quantities and the number of prior convictions of the offender. Different drugs have different set quantities that lead to mandatory sentencing. The criticism against this type of sentencing is because it takes away from the punishment

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Introduction Crime, its punishment, and the legislation that decides the way in which they interact has long been a public policy concern that reaches everyone within a given society. It is the function of the judicial system to distribute punishment equitably and following the law. The four traditional goals of punishment, as defined by Connecticut General Assembly (2001), are: “deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation.” However, how legislature achieves and balances these goals has changed due to the implementation of responses to changing societal influences. Mandatory minimum sentences exemplify this shift.

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The current system that incarcerates people over and over is unsustainable and does not lower the crime rate nor encourage prisoner reformation. When non-violent, first time offenders are incarcerated alongside violent repeat offenders, their chance of recidivating can be drastically altered by their experience in prison. Alternative sentencing for non-violent drug offenders could alleviate this problem, but many current laws hinder many possible solutions. Recently lawmakers have made attempts to lower the recidivism rates in America, for example the Second Chance Act helps aid prisoners returning into society after incarceration. The act allows states to appropriate money to communities to help provide services such as education, drug treatment programs, mental health programs, job corps services, and others to aid in offenders returning to society after incarceration (Conyers, 2013).

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The existence of mandatory minimums are a major issue in the United States today. Since the implementation of Mandatory minimums, the prison population has increased 800%. This massive rise in prisoner population has come with devastating economic and human costs. The death of Len Bias, the moral panic that ensued, and corporate looking to make a profit off of it, have all culminated in the implementation of mandatory minimums. Len Bias was an American college basketball player who had just been recruited to play in the NBA, he died in 1986 due to a heart attack believed to have been caused by cocaine use.

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Incarcerating a high percentage rate of individuals for drinking and drug convictions is counterproductive to the overcrowding judicial system. In other words, the system is failing, creating an overpopulation problem in the prisons. Immediately, sending someone to jail or prison for an alcohol or drug problem is not providing the necessary help. Instead, the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines are creating a repeat offender who will continue to clog up the system. Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

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In addition to greatly affecting the otherwise unlikely citizens of America, Tough on Crime policies have greatly affected minority groups in America; perhaps more so than of any other group of citizens. To begin, from the 1980 on through the year 1995, the incarceration rates among drug offenders increased by more than 1000 percent. Notably, by the year 1995 one out of every four inmates in any given correctional facility was a drug offender. In addition of that 1000 percent increase, drug offenders accounted for more than 80 percent of the total growth in the federal inmate population and 50 percent of the growth of the state prison population from 1985 to 1995 (Stith, web). In addition, once in the system, the probability of receiving harsher

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It began in the 1980s, when high crime led counsels to send people to prison for longer sentences. The country’s war on drugs lead strict sentencing procedures, which reduced the preference of judges. In a 2013 study "Why are so many Americans in prison?", Steven Raphael and Michael Stoll, professors of public policy at Berkeley and UCLA, found that changes in sentences for drug offences were important, accounting for about twenty percent of the increase in the incarceration rate. Yet, stricter sentences for violent offenders accounted for nearly half. Many convicts serving long sentences were never dangerous, or have matured with age and no longer posed a danger to the community.

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The theory is that if someone has already been convicted of multiple violent felonies, they are unlikely to change their behavior and may continue to be a danger to society if released from prison. By imposing longer sentences on these individuals, the hope is that they will be kept off the streets and unable to commit further crimes. However, some argue that persistent violent felony offender status is too harsh and does not take into account individual circumstances. For example, someone may have committed multiple violent felonies early in life and then turned their life around, but under this law, they could still face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years to life for any future violent felony convictions. Additionally, critics argue that this enhancement disproportionately affects people of color, who are more likely to be convicted of violent crimes and receive longer sentences than white individuals.

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