Today I called the Illinois Representative Michael J. Madigan office and received his answering machine. I left him a message asking him to please consider passing bills for sentencing reform legislation, such as the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (SRCA), S.2123. I told him that I am a registered voter and it has come to my attention that the federal prison population has skyrocketed dramatically over the past 35 years and most of the people in the prisons are in for minimum drug sentences. I told him that while people are in prison they are losing income, job skills, and are typically unable to attend rehabilitation programs. All of these aspects make it extremely difficult for the people to obtain jobs or get on the right path once
INTRODUCTION The United States incarcerates a greater percentage of the population than any country in the world (CBS, 2012). According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 2.3 million adults were incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013. There are an additional 820,000 people on parole and 3.8 million people on probation (Wagner & Rabuy, 2016) Jail and prison differ primarily in regards to the length of stay for inmates.
The mandatory minimum sentencing law provides a judge with a set minimum sentences based on the charges against the defendant. The minimum sentences are usually extremely long sentences. Judges are not able to reduce the charges no matter what the defense’s argument may be. Normally in court, the defense is able to argue for a shorter sentence, but that is not the case for mandatory sentencing laws. All the power of sentencing lies with the prosecutors in these cases.
In the early 1980s, the United States declared an all-out war on drugs and over the past several decades the United States of America has traveled down a dark road when it comes to sentencing for drug offenses. One of the major tools that they used in this war on drugs is the mandatory sentencing laws. These laws were enacted in 1984 to help combat and get violent drug dealers off our streets. What these laws did was set a mandatory minimum sentence that stated if you are arrested for fifteen or more grams of crack cocaine, you would be charged as if you had five hundred grams of powder cocaine thus getting you a minimum of a ten year sentence in prison. If you are arrested for growing 100 marijuana plants under these draconian laws, you would be charged as if you were possession of 100 pounds of marijuana which carries a minimum of a five-year
Mass Incarceration is a term used to describe the increase in the number of people put in jail over a certain period. In recent years, America has had more than two million people put in jail. Most, for minor crimes that were not worth the sentence they received. Privately owned prisons actually make more money based on how many prisoners are in the jail. Organizations like the ACLU are working to cut the number of citizens in prisons by half by the year 2020.
Sentencing is the act of imposing lawfully-approved sanctions against a person or persons convicted of a criminal act. The are several goals to sentencing but this paper will focus on the goal of deterrence. Deterrence is used to discourage or prevent crimes from being committed. This discouragement comes in two forms: specific deterrence and general deterrence. Specific deterrence is aimed strictly at an individual already convicted of a crime and is used to deter that individual from committing future criminal acts.
Those who find themselves sentenced to time in a penitentiary, jail, or prison are at risk of either being broken or strengthened by the time they spend behind bars. There is a great debate of whether or not the prison system in the United States is positive or negative. The following will briefly highlight the positives, negatives, and possible alternatives for our nation's prison system. First, there is a long list of negatives that the prison system in America brings. The prison system is filled with crime, hate, and negativity almost as much as the free world is.
When a non law abiding citizen commits a crime, we the people of the community wants to see some actions taken by the law enforcement officers. When the people see such action being taken and the drug and violence comes to a low, the people feel a little safer in the community in which they live in. However, if the police officer does their part and arrest these destruction law offenders, but the court system has a different approach in the crimes that are being committed in our neighborhoods, why ask the people to work along side with the law enforcement officers? The “get tough” approach on crime has pros and cons to mandatory and minimum sentencing.
“Mandatory minimum prison sentences alter the criminal justice framework. They drain the control of the judiciary over punishing offenders and bestow quasi-judicial powers on police and prosecutors.” (Mirza, 2001, p.493) This will likely occur because it removes any discretion in regards to sentencing and eliminates the consideration of an individual’s circumstance or motive. This also does not take into consideration what happened before the crime.
I would like to bring up the outdated practice of mandatory minimums because I believe they need to be removed or changed. Mandatory minimums give a mandatory minimum sentence for crimes without considering the context. These laws were established in the 1980s and has quadrupled the amount of people in prison. Many people in prison are in for minor drug offenses that get them a very long sentence. One example is Kevin Ott who has a life sentence for 3oz of meth.
Starting from good intentions, the mandatory minimum sentencing sets specific guidelines in assigning terms for the specific types of convictions relating to drugs and alcohol. In theory, the criminal justice policies provide a good course of action
Sentencing Sentencing occurs after a defendant has been convicted of a crime. During the sentencing process, the court issues a punishment that involves a fine, imprisonment, capital punishment, or some other penalty. In some states, juries may be entitled to determine a sentence. However, sentencing in most states and federal courts are issued by a judge. To fully understand the sentencing phase of criminal court proceedings, it is important to examine how sentencing affects the state and federal prison systems, learn the meanings of determinate and indeterminate sentencing, and understand the impact Proposition 57 has had on sentencing in California.
When it comes to being released from prison there are different obligations of supervision for offenders. Some of these different obligations are known as parole, supervised release and mandatory release. These responsibilities vary in supervision requirements and responsibilities of the offenders being released. However, each type of these releases is offered on a case to case basis and is dependent on the type of offences and the sentence given to of each individual offender. Parole is not a guarantee and is process that is dependent on a variety of circumstances.
Early punishments seem to have been extremely brutal and were mostly carried out in a public setting. For example, the execution of Robert-Francois Damiens in 1751 for attempted assassination was designed to inflict maximum pain on him before he died while showing people the entire process. The early punishments were very brutal for various reasons including the fact that the justice system of the day was mostly retributive. For example, the Code of Hammurabi was made with “an eye for an eye” approach.
Introduction Sentencing methods and rationales are continually highly contested in the Criminal Justice system. Monetary penalties are particularly pivotal in these debates. According to Walsh, research from all corners of the world continually demonstrates that the poorest in society are more likely to be subject to the Criminal Justice System. This evidence Walsh argues, ‘cannot be ignored’, when considering which sentencing options should be used. The fine is the most commonly used penal sanction in most Western Penal systems.
