More handpicked essays just for you.
Overcrowding and the effects it has on prisons
Prison overcrowding in the criminal justice system
Prison overcrowding in the criminal justice system
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Over the past 40 years U.S. incarceration has grown at an extraordinary rate, with the United States’ prison population increasing from 320,000 inmates in 1980 to nearly 2.3 million inmates in 2013. The growth in prison population is in part due to society’s shift toward tough on crime policies including determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing laws, and mandatory minimums. These tough on crime policies resulted in more individuals committing less serious crimes being sentenced to serve time and longer prison sentences. The 1970s-1980s: The War on Drugs and Changes in Sentencing Policy Incarceration rates did rise above 140 persons imprisoned per 100,000 of the population until the mid 1970s.
Drug courts were first implemented in the late 1980’s, this innovative program spawned many other specialized courts like domestic violence courts, juvenile and family drug courts, and even “deadbeat dad” courts. Drug court specializes in the sobriety of the individuals that participate in this program “between one-fourth and one-half of all adult males arrested, and roughly one-half of all females arrested, were at risk for drug dependence; few had been treated for drug or alcohol use in the prior year” (Wilson, 2006). Not all drug courts operate the same way, many times the judge may impose different sanctions depending on the characteristics of the offender; leverage, population severity, program intensity, predictability, rehabilitative are just a few of the characteristics that a judge may use when rendering his/her
Although the courts have sometimes recognized a value in consistency,they have nevertheless made it clear that consistency is not a paramount constitutional value in structure of the criminal justice system. The law tolerates inconsistent verdicts.22 The Supreme Court has held that if a single fact finder, whether jury or judge, returns a verdict that is internally inconsistent, the conviction may stand.23 For example, the jury may acquit a defendant of a narcotics offense, but it may convict the defendant of using the telephone to commit that offense. The conviction is inconsistent with the acquittal but will stand despite that inconsistency. Similarly, if either a single fact finder or separate fact finders acquit one defendant of a crime
The purpose of this literature review is to prove that drug court programs are an effective alternative to incarceration for people struggling with substance abuse issues. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics seventeen percent of prisoners at the state level were incarcerated due to drug related crimes. Eighteen percent of federal cases were related to drugs (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004). According to Lutze and Van Wormer the drug court model was formulated in response to the revolving cycle involved with substance addiction and crime.
Supervised probation face many challenges as the world of crime and caliber of criminals change constantly. Nevertheless, the variety and the volume of offenders makes it even more difficult to implement supervised probation (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014). In conjunction with the volume and variety of offenders, there is another contributing factor that creates a challenge called substance abuse. It is estimated that over half of all jails and a third of all prisons are due to offenders that have violated supervised probation and parole (Virlee, 2015). Common sense allows if you place someone on supervised probation for substance abuse, the chances are almost certain the individual will undergo some type of withdrawal as the detox plays its course.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.
This creates problems because it adds to the eminence amount of tax dollars spent every year. In the article “The high price of incarceration in America” by Aimee shows that the average American taxpayer spends about $260 a year that is almost 80 billion dollars a year for incarceration (1). There have been many voters who have been trying to reduce the amount of mass incarcerations that have been going on since the 1980’s. The majority of prisoners who were released between 2014-2015 returned to crime but the rate that they were committing the crime and returning was dropped at an astonishing degree. In the article “Prosecutors Fight to Plan to Lower Drug Sentencing “ by Sari, Horwitz (1) shows how government officials are trying to cut back on the amount of long term sentencing for first time offenders.
I know most inmates get jobs within the jail that pay very little like 20 cents an hour so imagine an inmate barely having enough to purchase some soap or food, then they have to face the challenge of having to pay for their stay? On the other side I also understand the Civil rights side which is the side I 'm going with, although their argument is very weak. It doesn 't necessarily create a barrier to rehabilitation, if anything it just puts a huge strain financially and it could possibly make people never want go back to jail. Lastly whether or not they paid taxes in the past, shouldn 't matter, what matters is if they pay taxes after their incarceration maybe that way the government can get some money back from an inmates ' previous
This model focuses on the individual needs of the offender and in doing so increases their chance of living sober once they reenter society. For example, indeterminate sentencing allows offenders who exhibit good behavior and participate in prison substance abuse programs to be paroled closer to the minimum sentencing term. This means the offender can be released from prison based on conditions set forth by the court. If the offender violates parole by committing another crime or failing to continue substance abuse treatment, they can be returned to prison. Furthermore, offering indeterminate sentencing for offenders who meet the criteria creates prison space thus helping with the ongoing problem of prison overcrowding (Seiter,
In contrast, stricter policy reforms were implemented into the courts due to the reflective increase in use of illegal substance among offenders. Moreover, the increase in violence and drugs among offenders enhanced stricter policy reforms, for more than 78.7% percent of offenders have used illegal drugs, which is three-fourth’s of the incarcerated population. Also, 62.2% percent of convicted drug offenders meet the diagnostic criteria of drug abuse or dependence that accumulates to be two-thirds of the populations, while 64.3% percent of offenders used an illegal substance regularly. In addition, convicted offenders have a high rate of 56.7% percent in committing recidivism, for Mark Harmon author of "Fixed ' Sentencing: The Effect On Imprisonment
The war on drugs is increasing the population rate in our prison system, leaving the states to increase government spending and to decrease spending in other areas such as the educational system. But this mass incarceration cannot and will not change if we do not change the inequality of race. Punitive laws and mandatory minimums can no longer be a law of the future, we can no longer afford to keep offenders in prisons for long periods of times for non-violent charges. Better yet we need to take the money we are spending on these offenders and put it to better use such rehabilitation programs, school systems by keeping these children off the streets and by giving these minority communities more opportunity by offering more employment. These
When an individual is accused of a crime, there are numerous steps the federal criminal justice system must take in order to serve righteousness. The steps through the federal criminal process are: investigation, charging, arraignment, discovery, plea bargaining, preliminary hearing, pre-trial motions, trial, post-trial motions, sentencing and appeal. The investigation of a crime can begin in various ways such as an officer observing a possible drunk driver speed on the highway, a 9-1-1 call stating there have been shots fired in a neighborhood or even a person stating they’ve been subject fraud. Once the investigation has begun, there are many agencies that staff criminal investigators to accumulate and provide information to attorneys in the respective district of the crime.
Our criminal justice system is a very important system that helps America run. There are three important core components to our criminal justice system, police, correction agencies, and criminal courts. These three categories make our well-known justice system run. All three categories main priorities are protecting rights, keeping the public safe, and serving justice to everyone.
The criminal justice system is comprised of a myriad of steps for the purpose of bringing those responsible for committing crimes to justice. There are three primary categories which make up the criminal justice system. The first category is the “Police”, who are responsible for determining the type and magnitude of the potential crime and if it did indeed occur. They will begin by investigating to determine who is involved in the crime. Once the investigation reveals the identity of the perpetrator(s) then they will seek out those responsible for the purpose of arresting them for the crimes they are accused of committing.
This leads to the question of whether the justice system is doing an adequate job of dealing with drug addiction. Instead of incarcerating people for drug abuse, an alternative is treating victims by rehab and treatment. This paper will exam why treatment is the superior option for
