...Mandatory Minimum Sentencing A Review of Literature With America's recently increasing problem with illegal substances; a war on drugs has erupted. American drug use has exponentially grown over the last 60 years, causing law enforcement agencies to crack down on drug use, trafficking, abuse and possession. President Nixon stated that the United States' War on Drugs was "public enemy number one" (Jarecki, Barnes, 2013). In response to this growing issue, the United State's criminal justice system began sentencing criminals to jail for a "mandatory minimum" period of time in drug related offenses. With hopes of making a dent in the drug war and of taking the guess work out of sentencing, the courts adopted the law. These longer more harsh sentences have had a positive outcome on the war on drugs. It has helped by getting offenders off the streets and the substances out of the hands of Americans. The criminals that are being sentenced to these long terms deserve the time they are given because they chose to break the U.S. law and came into contact with illegal controlled substances. By giving these mandatory minimum sentences, the criminals are off the streets and away from the pressures of drugs and crime where they used to live, and have the chance to regain a new life through prison rehabilitation. The mandatory minimum sentences are given not only to help punish criminals individually, but also to help the judicial system by way of giving the judges a guideline and a standard...
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...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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...In the United States, sentencing varies from place to place and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Each state has established their own set guidelines and even those can be different from the Federal sentencing guidelines. Sentencing Guidelines are rules that a judge is supposed to follow to determine sentences for individuals and organizations convicted of felonies and serious misdemeanors. These Guidelines do not apply to less serious misdemeanor crimes. The United States Sentencing Commission was created by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 and created these guidelines. In the beginning they were mandatory and very strict. People kept calling for longer, harsher sentences (Marvell 1995 p. 696). Congress enacted the Sentence Reform Act to satisfy...
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...Any person who commits a crime has to do the time, even if that time is in jail, participating in community service, or being confined to specific limits through house arrest. Sentencing a criminal their time of punishment is reasonable, it’s the amount of time these convicts are being sentenced under mandatory minimum sentencing that is the root of the problem. Mandatory minimums have been sparking controversy throughout America for quite some time. These sentences have been seen as the most outrageous sentencings for nonviolent criminals. This problem raises a major question: Should criminals charged with nonviolent crimes be given mandatory minimum sentences? Mandatory minimum sentences are sentences that require a criminal, convicted...
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...Sentencing guidelines are a set of standards that set parameters for trial judges to follow when imposing a sentence. These guidelines are meant to limit a judge’s discretion in deciding an appropriate sentence for convicted individuals. However, this concept is considered highly controversial, due to several Supreme Court cases that have changed the way sentencing guidelines are used today. In Apprendi v. New Jersey, the court ruled that any factor other than a prior conviction that increases the allowed sentence must be submitted to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt; not a judge. In this case, the defendant plead guilty to second-degree possession of a firearm, a sentence carrying between 5 and 10 years. The judge decided that the...
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...line has remained the same: punish the criminals who commit certain crimes and ensure they remain in prison for a specified amount of time. Though these laws are logical, mandatory minimum sentencing, in all its forms, does not effectively reduce crime. Statement of Problem: Mandatory minimum sentencing is an obsolete and ineffective crime control policy that needs to be replaced. There are several reasons that these laws need to be repealed. The first of these is that the discretion is taken away from the judge and given to the prosecutor....
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...Unnecessary rules and regulations is what have become of the required minimum sentencing laws. Laws that are put intact so that Congress might have control over what happens with a convict in the judiciary court system. It is essential that these laws are dealt away with; they are creating greater harms than benefits for the public. They are costing the American people from their money, abstinence from their families, and to some extent even rights as U.S. citizens. The United States Congress should repeal mandatory minimum sentencing laws. “A mandatory term stipulates a minimum sentence that includes imprisonment and mandates that this sentence cannot be suspended and probation cannot be granted” (Schlesinger, 2011, p.64). These required laws...
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... Sentencing Paper When it comes to punishment the State and Federal government handle things not to different from each other. Sentencing in both systems are not too different from each other also. In this paper I will look at the objectives of punishments by the State and Federal systems. We will also look at how sentencing affects State and Federal correction systems. I will also look at determinate and indeterminate sentencing. The definition of punishment according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is the act of punishing, suffering, pain or loss that serves as retribution and a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure. The mission of corrections has always been to court prescribed sentences for criminals or to carry the sentence of the court. When an offender is sentenced it is usually for one or more reasons. It is either deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and or restitution. Deterrence is the goal that is focused on preventing future crimes from happening. The idea is that if criminal receive punishment it would prevent them and others they know from committing crimes. Incapacitation is when you reduce the criminal capacity or intent to commit a crime. Rehabilitation is when you release an inmate back to society with more to offer themselves and the community before they committed the crime. Restitution is when you repay your debt to society financially. This sometimes happens if damaged occurred during the crime. Sentencing affects...
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...noted earlier, nonincarceration sentences include economic sanctions, probation, and intermediate sanctions; incarceration sentences include both short-term and long-term confinement. As described in the next two chapters, short sentences are sometimes linked with an intermediate sanction, so offenders spend part of their sentence in jail or prison and part of their sentence under supervision in the community. Finally, there are sentences of death. For sentences of incarceration, indeterminate and determinate sentences are the two primary models used throughout the United States, although there are many variations for each of these. Indeterminate sentences blend the decision by the sentencing judge and a later decision by a release authority to determine the actual time served. At the time of sentencing, judges sentence offenders to indeterminate sentences, with a minimum and maximum amount of time to be served (for example, two to five years or ten to twenty years). After serving the minimum term, offenders are eligible to be released and their cases are reviewed by a parole board. The parole board determines the release date any time between the minimum and maximum sentence. If a parole board never grants parole, the offender serves the maximum sentence and then must be released. The parole decision and postrelease supervision in the community are described in Chapter 6. indeterminate sentences sentences that have a minimum and maximum time to serve; a decision by a release authority...
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...Sentencing laws in the United States corrections vary, depending on the objectives set at the state and federal levels. Sentencing guidelines provide structure at the criminal sentencing stage by defining offense and offender elements that should be considered in each case to determine the correct sentence. There are four justifications for punishment in the United States; the four principal objectives of punishment are traditionally stated as retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. There are many factors that determine what form of punishment you receive. The factors include the type of crime committed and previous criminal history. The state objectives for punishment are applied to misdemeanors, and the federal objective for punishment is only for felonies and serious misdemeanors. The principal objectives for punishment are retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation and incapacitation. Retribution is the justification punishment in which the offender is given a sentence that is vengeful, this given to make the offender suffer for the crime committed, to also make the offender morally responsible for the offender to accept responsibility for their actions. Retribution is also done to show others that the crime committed will not be tolerated. Deterrence is a justification punishment that is given with the intent of discouraging members of society from committing criminal acts out of fear of punishment. Rehabilitation is the justification punishment that is...
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...Sentencing. Sentencing May 20th , 2012 Sentencing is a major issue in our criminal justice system today. Here in the U.S, our courts have always struggled to maintain goals and balance our policies when it comes to criminal sentencing. Although the Eighth Amendment guarantees proportionality in noncapital criminal sentencing, federal and state courts have struggled when deciding individual cases, and the Supreme Court has failed to articulate legal rules that could promote the development of a coherent jurisprudence ( Lippman, 2007). Working within the governing law and building on the work already done by scholars who have focused on this problem. There are three principles: transparency, limited deference, and a "felt sense of justice," that could guide the process of proportionality review and contribute to defining a retributivist touchstone for proportionality judgments (Lippman, 2007). The Death Penalty. The death penalty in the United States is used almost exclusively for the crime of murder. Although state and federal statutes contain various capital crimes other than those involving the death of the victim, only two people were on death row for a non-murder offense (Victor L. Streib, 2004). No one has been executed for such a crime since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court in Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, held that the death penalty for the rape of an adult was "grossly disproportionate"...
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...Sentencing can be defined as "the judicial determination of a legal sanction to be imposed on a person found guilty of an offence." It is one of several stages, which together comprise what is often referred to as the criminal justice system, although some might argue that it is an overstatement to categorize such disparate functions as a system. These stages are: (A) Crime prevention and maintenance of order (B) Detection and enforcement (including investigation) (C) Prosecution (D) Adjudication (E) Sentencing/disposition (F) Administration of sentences/dispositions. Generally speaking the branches of central government have the dominant role in most of the above, although a number of qualifications should be mentioned. Individuals retain the right to institute private prosecutions at the summary level. In jury trials, members of the public are the determiners of fact and private organizations or individuals often have an important role in the administration of certain sentences. Under our system of government the police take principal responsibility for stages (a) and (b); the police and crown prosecutors for stage (c); the courts (particularly judicial officers) for (d) and (e); and courts, prisons, and community corrections for (f). These agencies all operate within rules, which allow a significant amount of discretion to the officers involved. Increasingly, they are also purchasing contract services from non-government agencies and community groups...
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...Focal Concerns Perspective Focal Concerns Theory The focal concerns theory was developed by Stenonlzxd and his fellow colleagues in 1980. The basis of this theory argues that judges presiding over trials base there decisions around three focal concerns of blameworthiness, practical constraints, consequences, and protection of the community. For example, if a defendant is viewed as blameworthy, dangerous and less likely to have practical constraints and consequences, they would receive much harsher or severe sentences. The first focal concern focus' on the blameworthiness of the defendant. The focus specifically reflects on the seriousness of the offenders involvement with the crime and the offender previous record. In other words, the more serious the offense and the more criminal offenses the offender posses, the more blameworthy the offender appears. The next focal concern is the protection of the community. Judges tend to based their perception of recidivism or re-incarceration by dangerousness of the offender. The more dangerous a offender appears, they will have a higher rate of recidivism is which will cause them to receive a longer than an average sentence length and severity. The last focal concern that a judge considered are the practical constraints and organizational restraints. Organizational constraints are considered to be things like flow of court cases and overcrowding of correctional organization. The practical constraints refer to the offender...
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...Judges like law enforcement have rules and guideline to go by when they sentence someone to a certain punishment. Also like law enforcement, they sometimes go outside those guidelines to accomplish a certain goal. The animal cruelty charge for instance has a sentence of three months in jail but if it is a repeat offender, it can go higher. A judge in Baltimore went outside the guidelines because of the suspect behavior and the sheer disregard for life. This judge has stirred up some controversy with his decision. Was the judge right to sentence this Baltimore cop outside the guidelines while assaults against humans get an insignificant punishment? Montgomery County Judge Richard E. Jordan sentenced a Baltimore Police Officer Alec Taylor to a year in jail for an animal cruelty charge because he was disgusted by the actions of the officer. Police are supposed to held to a higher standard since they are a public servant and swore to protect life. Officer Taylor assaulted “Rocko,” a Jack Russell with a mop and then strangled the dog until he was not breathing. The controversy over this decision brought up in the article is how did Taylor get a year when another officer is suspended with pay for beating a man near a bus stop? Some people think that the some punishments are too lenient on criminals that choose to harm another person and get to go home at the end of the trial. In this case, I agree with the judge but at the same time, I also agree with the controversy. I think that...
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...Miller v. Alabama CJA/354 Miller v. Alabama The United States Supreme Court consists of eight associate justices and one chief justice who are petitioned more than 5,000 times a year to hear various cases (Before the Court in Miller V. Alabama, 2012). At its discretion, the Supreme Court selects which cases they choose to review. Some of the selected cases began in the state court system and others began in the federal court system. On June 25, 2012 the justices of the Supreme Court weighed in on the constitutionality of life without parole for juvenile offenders. The case was Miller v. Alabama and actually included another case, Jackson v Hobbs, as well (2012). Both were criminal cases involving 14 year old boys who were convicted of murder and sentenced to a mandatory sentence of life without parole (2012). In 2009, juvenile courts in the United States handled an estimated 1.5 million delinquency cases that involved juveniles charged with criminal law violations (Knoll & Sickmund, (2012). What made Miller and Jackson so special that the Supreme Court chose to hear the case was their age and the mandatory minimum sentence each of them received at the lower level jurisdictional court. To highlight the significance, a review of the two respective cases is necessary. Additionally, after reading this paper the reader will have a better understanding of what accomplice liability and criminal liability are, and the differences between the various elements of crime, and...
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