...Noah Messersmith English Comp 101 4/14/14 Persuasive Essay First Draft Did you know that due to mandatory minimum sentencing, the U.S. federal prison populations have almost grown 800 percent in the last three decades? What is mandatory minimum sentencing you ask? Well it is the set sentencing that is given to someone that the judge cannot shorten because it is a set time and they can’t shorten it, even for extenuating circumstances (“What Are Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Laws”). The U.S. Supreme Court should review the mandatory minimum sentences, weigh the positives and the negatives, look at the possible advantages and disadvantages, and then do what they need to do to enforce what they decide. Although many people are for mandatory minimum sentences and think that they are fine and don’t need to be refined and changed, there are many reasons why they should be shortened. One reason is that it will make the prison system is overpopulated and it will make it a safer place for the inmates and for the prison guards. It will make it safer for the inmates because there won’t be as many inmates in there for long periods of time and they don’t have to worry about their safety as much because right now, there are so many inmates that the guards are losing some of their control over them. It will make it safer for the prison guards because they won’t have as many people to look over and they will feel like they have more power and authority because they won’t feel as overwhelmed...
Words: 1131 - Pages: 5
...because of mandatory minimum sentences. Many of them committed non-violent crimes and are being punished longer than what the actual crime may deserve. In fact, some have been wrongly accused or were only vaguely associated with a crime, but are being imprisoned for the mandatory minimum. The number of prisoners is increasing because of mandatory minimums, which is requiring more funding from the states. The major issue associated with mandatory minimum sentencing is that it has increased imprisonment, but it has not reduced the crime rate, especially in drug related cases. Position Statement Mandatory minimum sentences have increased imprisonment, which has cost the states more money. Having mandatory minimum sentences has not reduced crime and therefore, is not effective. It should not be repealed completely, but there need to be certain adjustments made according to what crimes and type of involvement with crimes require mandatory sentencing. The U.S. Senate is considering two bills that would revise the federal sentencing laws in the case of mandatory minimum sentences. The Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013 expands the existing sentencing “safety valve” by allowing a judge to depart downward from any mandatory minimum, if the court finds that it is necessary to do so in order t avoid imposing an unjust sentence. The Smarter Sentencing Act of 2013 applies only to non-violent drug crimes and would permit a district judge to issue sentences without regard to any mandatory minimum...
Words: 762 - Pages: 4
...America makes up five percent of the world’s population but 25% percent of the prison’s population. This is cause mandatory minimum sentencings, which means a person convicted of a crime must be imprisoned for a least amount of time, as opposed to leaving the length of punishment up to judges. This sentencing is mostly used for drug offense but if the offense is non violent the time in prison is usually a decade. Mandatory minimum contributes to the fact that America has a systematic problem of increase of mass incarceration, and that men of color are being deprived of things because of criminal records . Even though some believe that it prevents drug use. Overall nonviolent drug offense should be prosecuted but mandatory minimum sentencing should be eradicated. Mass incarceration refers to the unique way the United States had locked up a tremendous population in federal, state prisons, and local jails. In the text “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness” by Dr. J. Carl Gregg , it states “ In 1972, fewer than 350,000 people were being held in jails and prisons nationwide, compared with more than 2 million...
Words: 526 - Pages: 3
...Introduction The issues of mandatory sentencing have been affecting the prison forecasts, tax revenue, over-crowding in prisons, as well as flooding the court systems and backlogging cases. Mandatory prison sentences take the discretion away from prosecutors, as well as judges. An Inmate who is sentenced under a mandatory sentence does not qualify for early release, good time while in prison, and in most cases, the offender is not required to complete any supervision after release, due to the fact that he or she has fulfilled the obligations of his or her sentence. Several states, including the State of Oregon, have introduced legislation to reform their mandatory minimum sentences. With budgetary constraints in the volatile economy, the government cannot afford to continue to incarcerate individuals without the ability to modify sentences, supervision, etc. How courts are affected by mandatory minimum sentences Congress, as well as some of the state legislations introduced mandatory sentences in the 1970s and 1980s. These mandatory sentences forced the court system to hand down fixed prison sentences to those convicted of certain criminal acts. The lawmakers felt by enacting these sentences then it would help in the battle against the drug trade and hopefully prevent individuals from entering. However, while it did assist the courts in certain areas it has also been detrimental to the court system. According to "Prisonpolicy.org" (n.d.), the mandatory sentencing laws did six...
Words: 1878 - Pages: 8
...Proponents of mandatory, inpatient nurse-to-patient staffing ratios have lobbied state legislatures and the United States Congress to enact laws to improve overall working conditions in hospitals. Proposed minimum, nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, such as those enacted by California, are intended to address a growing concern that patients are being harmed by inadequate staffing related to increasing severity of illness and complexity of care. However, mandatory ratios, if imposed nationally, may result in increased overall costs of care with no guarantees for improvement in quality or positive outcomes of hospitalization. The costs associated with the additional registered nurses that will be needed for the higher, mandated ratios will not be offset by additional payments to hospitals, resulting in mandates that will be unfunded. An alternative approach would be to provide a market-based incentive to hospitals to optimize nurse staffing levels by unbundling nursing care from current room and board charges, billing for nursing care time (intensity) for individual patients, and adjusting hospital payments for optimum nursing care. The revenue code data, used to charge for inpatient nursing care, could be used to benchmark and evaluate inpatient nursing care performance by case mix across hospitals. A nursing intensity adjustment to hospital payment, such as that described above, has already been endorsed by national nursing organizations. Efforts to implement this model nationwide...
Words: 319 - Pages: 2
...Mcevoy 1 Brandon Mcevoy ENG 105 Malory Klocke April, 27, 2016 Prison reform in America For the entirety of our lives in America we all know of certain taboos, the no no’s of American culture. Examples being drugs, assault, theft, drug distribution. What needs to be discussed are how these infractions are handled in America, how our justice system operates, how mandatory minimum sentences are discerned, parole and probation are handled as well as their violations, and punishment for violations are handled. Dating back to Sweden around 1746 coffee was made illegal on the basis of public safety without any evidence. King Gustav the 3rd was fighting for prohibition of coffee for 20 years and citizens suffered because of the ignorance of the peoples in power (Gustav III of Sweden's coffee experiment). Alcohol was banned just the same, and the end result? Legalization and the realization that the governing bodies were essentially harassing people unjustly without truly understanding the substance in question. Yet it is common knowledge that using substances may be addictive and harmful. As well the sale of drugs could be considered tax evasion. These non-regulated drugs may be impure and even more damaging by way of containing harmful chemicals. The real issue is your brain gets used to operating on synthetic versions of natural chemicals or large quantities of the synthetic version. (“What drugs do to the brain”) Early prohibition of marijuana originated after the Mexican...
Words: 2621 - Pages: 11
...“A mandatory sentence is a court decision setting where judicial discretion is limited by law. Typically, people convicted of certain crimes must be punished with at least a minimum number of years in prison”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_sentencing). I am against mandatory sentencing as a mechanism for controlling social deviance for several reasons. In author John Macionis’ Sociology textbook, he refers to sociologist Edwin Sutherland’s “Differential Association Theory”, a theory that states that a person’s propensity toward deviance or conformity is strongly influenced by the amount of association with others who encourage or reject the norms and rules of society. In other words, if you lock up criminals together, they will tend to encourage each other to commit crime. The text also talks about the high rate of recidivism,”3/4s of prisoners in prison have been jailed before, and 2/3s released from prison are arrested again with 3years.” Therefore, the facts seem to support the idea that mandatory sentencing only temporarily gets the criminals off the streets. The problem being, prisons do not succeed at rehabilitating or changing the mindset of a criminal while they’re behind bars, instead, and often times, a more dangerous, and disillusioned person is released back into society. My final argument is in regards to the long term damages done to the criminal and community by these sentences. In most cases, the criminal’s record is permanently tarnished;...
Words: 356 - Pages: 2
...Should minimum wage increase? “The bottom line is that five million low-income Americans working full time for minimum wage, deserve a raise,” says Jim Clyburn. The argument that has continued for years is whether the American federal government should increase the minimum? The two opposing sides on this argument are the Republicans and the Democrats. The Democrats are for minimum wage to increase, unlike the Republicans, who are against it and think of it as a job killer. There are many reasons why the Democrats are for the increase of minimum wage. Currently, there are approximately 3.8 million people who are working at minimum wage or below it. Fewer than one in four minimum wage workers are teenagers and more than half are 25 or older. (Dickinson) If minimum wage were raised to $10.10 it would trim payrolls by less than one-third of one percent, which would help approximately one million Americans out of poverty. It has been proven by the Congressional Budget Office that the raise will not affect the number of jobs as much as people think, and the increase will accomplish more than just harmful situations. There should have been a consistent raise in minimum wage from 1968 to now, but there has not been. The federal government minimum wage should be close to $20 an hour. Tax money could potentially fund less food stamps, welfare, and other financial support for this to occur. A family of four trying to be successful and build their family is living on the earnings of being...
Words: 1107 - Pages: 5
...Should Vaccinations be Made Mandatory for Children? Throughout history, there have been many deadly diseases and viruses that have plagued humanity, killing thousands - even millions. Since vaccination techniques and practices started appearing during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, diseases such as smallpox, polio, and yellow fever have nearly been wiped out, proving that vaccinations are effective in preventing the spread of disease and virus. Smallpox has been officially eradicated, and polio cases have decreased by over 99% since 1989 (World Health Organization, 2015). In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends getting 28 doses of 10 vaccines for kids aged 0 to 6, however, there are currently no federal laws that mandate vaccination for all children (CDC, 2015). Immunizations keep our children safe, healthy, and most importantly, alive. Despite the high success rate and plethora of benefits of immunization, not everyone is on board. Though there is high pressure for children to be vaccinated, and all 50 states...
Words: 1433 - Pages: 6
...security, multi-crop irrigated land had to be acquired only as a last resort measure. v. A scientific method for the calculation of the market value of the land for providing comprehensive compensation to the land owners had been devised. vi. Subsistence allowance, jobs, house, land in case of irrigation projects, transportation allowance and resettlement allowance had been proposed for the land owners. vii. Special benefits for Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. viii. Infrastructural amenities were provided in the resettlement area including schools, health centres, places of worship, fair price shop etc. ix. Unused land had to be transferred to the State Government’s Land Bank after ten years. x. Basic minimum...
Words: 1914 - Pages: 8
...concequences and the principles that the case created. At last, but not least, the paper will speak about how this case influenced all the Inter-European Union trade. It allowed The European Court of Justice to clarify all the jurisdiction influencing the freedom to move goods across borders without any restrictions. 2. Cassis de Dijon In the "Cassis de Dijon" case, the European Court of Justice struck down a German import prohibition. The prohibition disallowed the import, sale and/or marketing of liquors in Germany that didn't meet minimum German alcohol standards of 25%. The ruling gave the European Commission an opportunity to develop the principle of "mutual recognition." 2.1 The Case In February 1979, the European Court of Justice struck down a German prohibition on imports from other European Union (EU) countries. The prohibition banned the importation of alcoholic beverages that did not meet minimum alcohol content requirements. The case involved Cassis de Dijon, a French liquor manufactured from black currants. Cassis contains 15%-20% alcohol and the German standards prescribed 25%. Rowe-Zentral AG, a...
Words: 2842 - Pages: 12
...The welfare, intended as the set of measures and policies devoted to ensure minimum quality life standards to individuals, is normally associated to the state insomuch reference is generally made to “welfare state”. The welfare state is based on ethical ideals: it is created in the name of social justice, to implement the fundamental rights and freedoms of human beings (as developed from time to time in the various cultures). Stuart White wants to clarify in the Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, the main ethical arguments, which are inherent in the creation of the welfare state. First of all a process for the achievement of the basic needs of the citizens (questionable what are the basic needs), latterly equality, seen as same opportunities without racial or social influence, and lastly liberty, conceived as ‘negative’ liberty of coercive ‘redistribution’ in order to achieve a moral and social congruence between all the individuals. However, welfare state, even if based on ethic-philosophical findings, has many implications and effects in the economic field. As Briggs (1961) argued, the welfare state is an organization whose purpose is to modify the market forces in at least three directions: (I) ensure to the individuals and to the families minimum incomes; (II) decrease the level of insecurity; and (III) assure the best standard available of social services (Cittadini 2015). ***** Modern concept...
Words: 1603 - Pages: 7
...Corporate social responsibility and minimum legal expectation Over the last few decades, the issues of corporate social responsibility have become the focus of society. Especially after many company scandals emerged (such as Enron and Libor scandals), the public are more curious about the CSR and the its legal expectation. Some countries have already set mandatory regulation about the CSR. For example, in Australia the Corporations Act 2001 stated that companies need to disclose environmental performance and another Act[1] requires certain companies to provide the information about greenhouse gas emissions. However, in the UK, the regulations mainly govern financial disclosures[2] and there are few regulations about the CSR of company. In the aspect of law, the Companies Act 2006 s.172[3] set some duties for the directors to promote the success of company which are in relation to legal expectation of the corporate social responsibility. The notion of CSR and the relationship between CSR and its legal expectation is the main of this essay. This essay will critically discuss the notion of corporate social responsibility and giving particular attention to minimum legal expectations. The structure is as follows: in the section 1, we are focus on the discussion in relation to many kinds of the definition of corporate social responsibility. In the section 2, we will discuss the notion of CSR through different theory perspectives and the minimum legal expectation. In the section...
Words: 3607 - Pages: 15
...the person being educated but also the productivity of his co-works. The highly skilled workforce permits entirely different kinds of technologies to be introduced or to be introduced earlier in a development cycle. Therefore, this expanded education of an individual may indeed affect other workers in the economy. Then, it is obvious that the improved abilities of the best students lead to more rapid invention and development of new technologies. These spillover benefits of education create a justification for government intervention to compensate for generating external benefits. Secondly, the government involvement in education ensures that every child receives the minimum amount of education is to promote a stable and democratic society. It is impossible to build a stable and democratic society without a minimum degree of literacy and knowledge and without spread acceptance of some common set of values. Education can contribute to both and the gain from the education of a child accrues not...
Words: 544 - Pages: 3
...Running Around Physical Education It is no secret that America has become an overweight country, yet having mandatory physical education is still a growing debate in the U.S. Physical education can help the emergent obesity rates, along with many other problems that exercise aids. Most students that are not in a sport are not receiving the exercise that they need to be healthy. P.E. should be a required course for all students that are not participating in a physical school sport already. Physical education classes are necessary in schools because they can help reduce obesity rates in the U.S. and keep children in better shape. According to Time Magazine, one in three U.S. children is overweight or obese (Rochman). With America’s obesity rates continuously increasing, the government should do whatever they can to lower these rates, and mandatory P.E. is a step they can take. Lately, children are becoming lazier, eating worse, and playing too many video games, all things that can contribute to being overweight. Being overweight or obese can lead to serious health issues, like high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and gallbladder disease. In the article “Va. Senate Approves Requiring Physical Education,” the author claims that doctors are finding more obese-related diseases in young patients, like Type 2 Diabetes and cardiac disease, which were only found in adults before. One doctor even had a patient that weighed 200 pounds at the age of 11, and his obese weight...
Words: 1248 - Pages: 5
