...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...
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...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 It should not be repealed completely, but there need to be certain adjustments made according to what crimes and type of involvement with crimes require mandatory sentencing.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...
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...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...
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... 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 things...
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...“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;...
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...PRINCIPLES OF SENTENCING: TOWARDS A EUROPEAN CONVERSATION Paper delivered at Conference on “The Limits of the Criminal Law” at Leiden University, January 23, 2008 and subsequently published in Cupido (ed), Limits of Criminal Law (Nijmegen, 2008).[1] Tom O’Malley Senior Lecturer in Law National University of Ireland Galway First, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the students of Leiden Law School for having organised this conference. Thanks to their vision and energy, representatives from several European countries have gathered in this historic venue to discuss some key aspects of criminal law and criminal procedure. More often than not, we think of European law solely in terms of European Union law, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights or both. Needless to say, the study of European law even in this limited sense is of the highest importance given its impact on our national legal systems and our daily lives. However, growing levels of legal and political integration now demand that we broaden our vision of European law to encompass the domestic legal systems of individual European states. Some work has already begun in this regard,[2] but it is only on rare occasions such as this that we can engage in a meaningful exchange of ideas and information on areas of common concern. Criminal justice is a most appropriate and worthy topic with which to begin. In times past, sentencing would not have featured very prominently...
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...Do Irish judges have too much discretion in sentencing criminal offenders? If they do, to what extend should their exercise of discretion be curtailed? Judicial discretion is the power the law provides the courts or a judge to choose appropriate sentencing, which is lawful . A sentence is ordered by the judge, based on the verdict of the jury (or judge’s decision if no jury) within the possible punishment set by law . Judges I believe do possess too much discretion in the sentencing of criminal offenders. In the Irish legal system, the sentencing of criminal offences is very broad for judges apart from the mandatory sentence of murder, which leaves the judge no discretion in his/her sentencing. Should Irish judge’s discretion be curtailed? Yes, I would be in favour of a more robust system where judges sentencing is more consistent. The sentencing of criminal offenders in Ireland, at this moment in time, is of the opinion that it is in fact too inconsistent. There are currently certain restrictions on the sentences which are applied to criminal offenders e.g....
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...Introduction With practices aimed at reducing discrimination such as affirmative action, the argument has been made that racial discrimination is no longer a pressing issue in American society.[1] It has further been argued that the Constitution protects all citizens, and race has no weight in the American criminal justice system.[2] While the United States Constitution guarantees equal treatment of all citizens, regardless of race, racism still exists in the American law enforcement and criminal justice systems. In this era with the end of official institutional racism, there has been a corresponding shift from de jure racism to a de facto racism where members of minority groups, especially African Americans, are subject to unequal protection of the laws and excessive in the American criminal justice system, particularly in drug law enforcement.[3] Drug law enforcement is far more discretionary than for other offenses. It is for the police to decide when and where they will seek to make drug arrests, and what priority they will place on enforcing drug laws.[4] Since the war on drugs began in the 1980s, two general trends have been identified. First, there has been a substantial increasing in the number of drug arrests overall; and second, black males have constituted an increasing proportion of these arrests.[5] Based on this evidence, it would be natural to assume that the number of arrests is proportional to the crime rate – that blacks began using drugs in...
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...the Criminal Justice System In the United States Abstract: This research paper explores some problems faced within the criminal system justice in the United States. Larry J. Siegel’s book “Criminology” gives us a history of the criminal justice system, how it operates, and some of the problems we experience with this system. Some of the problems detailed in this paper include the right to equal justice; which he explained the different kind of judgment that people receive based on their race, gender and class, the criminal justice system spends more money on criminals instead of improving technology for the police apprehending them, the criminal justice system lacks of sentencing disparity, reliance on eyewitness and modern technology can lead to conviction of innocent citizen, and finally the rehabilitation model which is set up to educate criminals and eventually let them free because of the belief that they are changed people and have been rehabilitated. According to the definition from the text “Criminology”, the term criminal justice system refers to “the components of government charged with enforcing law, adjudicating criminals, and correcting criminal conduct” (Siegel, 2009, p. 558). According to Siegel, the criminal justice system is essentially “an instrument of social control: society considers some behaviors so dangerous and destructive that it either strictly controls their occurrence or outlaws...
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...views on how “just” the criminal justice system is, we always incorporate the “ism’s”: Racism, sexism and classism, to demonstrate some of the pitfalls that the system has. Though it is obvious that all of these societal differences play a large role in the criminal justice process, I will focus on classism. Classism is the discrimination against a group or individual based on social and economic status. Classism is one of those “ism’s” that occurs more than we notice and sometimes, we may confuse it with things like racism or sexism. Classism, in my opinion, plays a larger role in the criminal justice system as opposed to the other forms of discriminatory practices. In particular, class largely comes into play during the sentencing process. Many authors argue that factors outside of class play a more important role, but I believe that there needs to be more attention paid to the role that class plays in targeting and the sentencing process in the criminal justice system. In order to understand the role that class plays in the sentencing process, we must, first, look at the role that it plays before the criminal reaches the day of sentencing. There are a plethora of publications that speak on profiling and actuarial methods which get people into the system. Though these are two large proponents of the discriminatory acts that exist within the confines of the criminal justice system, it does not begin with these institutionalized methods. The first instance of discrimination,...
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...Marijuana Legalization: The War on Drugs and Criminal Law Howard R. Burke Strayer University Abstract This research will point out that the United States’ current policy on drug prohibition, the so called “War on Drugs,” is ineffective. The current draconian prohibition policies against drug consumption may actually increase their use. As well, contrary to claims made by current drug policy supporters, increased drug enforcement can reduce public safety and compound the individual and social costs of drug use. The U.S. drug policy, born over a hundred years ago, has gone through several transformations becoming more voracious with each new invocation. The War on Drugs is an expensive and failed concept which has incorporated racism in its administration, increased crime rates, imposed harsh sentences for nonviolent offenses, facilitated police corruption and aggressively eroded civil liberties. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Introduction to the Problem Background of the Study Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Research Research Questions Significance of the Research Assumptions and Limitations Organization of the Remainder of the Study LITERATURE REVIEW CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Marijuana Legalization: The War on Drugs and Criminal Law INTRODUCTION The United States has conducted a long experiment of drug prohibition. The prohibition of marijuana and other illicit drugs has only...
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...what it truly means. In general, justice is the idea of righteousness and equality. In regards to society’s views on how “just” the criminal justice system is, we always incorporate the “ism’s”: Racism, sexism and classism, to demonstrate some of the pitfalls that the system has. Though it is obvious that all of these societal differences play a large role in the criminal justice process, I will focus on classism. Classism is the discrimination against a group or individual based on social and economic status. Classism is one of those “ism’s” that occurs more than we notice and sometimes, we may confuse it with things like racism or sexism. Many authors argue that factors outside of class play a more important role, but many believe that we should be more attentive to the role that class plays in targeting and the sentencing process in the criminal justice system. In order to understand the role that class plays in the sentencing process, we must, first, look at the role that it plays before the criminal reaches the day of sentencing. There are a plethora of publications that speak on profiling and actuarial methods which get people into the system. Though these are two large proponents of the discriminatory acts that exist within the confines of the criminal justice system, it does not begin with these institutionalized methods. The first instances of discrimination, which leads to all of the other forms within the system, are the laws and crime control policies that are implemented...
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...where the facts are not disputed- or when one side (defence or prosecution) might have a weaker case and are worried about the outcome. An accused must enter a plea of either guilty or not guilty in relation to the charges they are facing. An early guilty plea usually eliminates the need for a trial and in a lot of cases come about after a plea bargain between the defence and prosecution. When the offender pleads guilty they receive a sentencing discount, which, except in cases that demand a life sentence, results in a sentence discount of between 10% and 25%. These discounts introduced in 2005 go a long way to cutting the cost of criminal trials. When an offender who was originally charged with murder is allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter, securing a lesser sentence, the community can react angrily. They may believe that the offender is getting a minimal sentence that is not worthy of the crime that was committed. This is especially evident in the case DPP v. Loveridge (2013). In June 2013, the NSW DPP dropped a murder charge against 19-year-old Kieran Loveridge after he agreed to plead guilty to the lesser crime of manslaughter....
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...Stu Dent v. State Sentencing Proposal The sentencing stage is the last part of the criminal trial. In the Stu Dent v. State case the outcome of the sentencing can very from charge to charge. The prosecution and Defense attorneys have rested their cases and the decision has been made in this case. The judge now take the arguments in to consideration and pass down a judgment on the sentence the defendant will face. The defendant is charged with Homicide, kidnapping, burglary, assault of a police officer, and possession of drugs. The facts that lead to homicide are Uma Opee was stabbed 13 times and the skin particles under the victim’s nails matched the DNA to Stu Dents. The facts leading to the assault on a police officer comes when he punched Officer T. Chur in the face and yelled "Alien". Kidnapping comes from the fact that Mr. Dents used rope to tie the victim and he stuffed her mouth with cloth. Burglary charges are result of Mr. Dents entering the victim’s apartment without permission to be there and having the intent to commit a crime within that residence. Mr. Dents is also charged with possession of drugs because in his house was drugs that were found, the same drug ecstasy with the "thumbs-up" imprint found at the victim's apartment. In the State v. Stu Dent case the charge of Homicide carries the most weight of any of the charges. Mr. Dents is charged with Murder due the fact that the victim was stabbed 13 times and evidence supported the fact that Mr. Dent was...
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...The Criminal Justice Process Edith Lewis Criminal Law & Procedure (BLJ1442A) Agustin Pena November 15, 2014 The Criminal Justice Process Even though the defendant can be found guilty at his trial he, has the right to to file an appeal to see if legal errors occurred which could possibly affect the outcome of the verdict or the trial. The first step in the criminal justice process is the investigation and plea negotiations begin after the defendant is charged and a trial is set when the plea negotiations fail. The defendant has an arraignment hearing where he is allowed to enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, or no contest. In this step probable cause is established with the evidence that is gathered so that an arrest can be made. Each state has their own way of processing felony criminal charges in a state court. They have their own procedures and rules that describe the criminal justice process for their states. The first step in the criminal justice process is the investigation. Before an arrest can be made in a crime, a crime must be committed and reported so that an investigation can be initiated. The Criminal Justice Process, 2014 noted that, “During the investigation the investigating officer seeks to obtain a search warrant if there is enough evidence in a particular location” (The Criminal Justice Process, 2014). When the investigators submit the information to the judge, the judge decides if there is “probable cause” to issue a search warrant for...
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