...with the different mandatory minimum sentencing law represented in your state and the effect it has on the offender’s lives as a result of the sentencing? Yes or No 7. Please list any topics you would like to receive training in related to mandatory minimum marijuana charges. 8. Please list any mandatory minimum sentencing law topics you feel would be beneficial to prisoner advocacy groups in the new (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) (FAMM) organization, in order to perform their job duties more...
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...law has failed to prevent people from committing certain crimes.” As a result, the nature of this paper is not to completely change the criminal justice system to a restorative justice system but to bring light to the biases and the issues a punitive approach to crime brings. Plus, implement the tools used in restorative approaches in sentencing, to make the criminal justice system more efficient. Furthermore, it’s important to recognize that not all crimes can fall under restorative such as heinous crimes like homicide and murder. Nonetheless, in circumstances of youth delinquents, first time offenders, summary offences and drug related offences should be approached through a restorative approach in sentencing, with the intention of...
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...the programs which manage offenders outside of jail or prison. Community corrections include probation and parole. Probation is a correctional supervision within the community rather than jail or prison. Parole is a period of conditional, supervised release from prison. There are some offenders who do not present any threat to society, and to incarcerate them in a dangerous correctional system, which could cause harm or damage to the person, and possibly lock them into a life of crime. Community corrections would be less costly, and more effective to let them remain in the community under the supervision of a trained court officer. The offender can receive treatment that might help to turn their life around. There are a variety of community sentencing alternatives today that are cost-effective. There is the house arrest concept that requires convicted offenders to spend a designated amount of time per week in his or her home. The sentencing authorities must be assured that the arrestees are actually at home during their assigned times, so random calls and visits are a way for officers to check on the compliance of the house arrest orders. The electronic monitoring device is used to manage an offender in most home confinement orders today. The most secure intermediate sanction is a sentence to a residential community corrections facility; located in the community that houses probationers. Most often, residents are allowed to go free during the day to go to work, school, and...
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...Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," reports there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War. Statistics reported in 2006, by the U.S .Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics support this claim, which show that Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation’s 2 million prison and jail inmates, while Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent. The disproportionate ratio of blacks to whites who are incarcerated is especially great in Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota – greater than 10-to-1 (USJB, 2006). Why this structural inequality towards African Americans is happening, why it matters, and suggestions to rectify this, are issues that are discussed in this paper. Why is this happening? Since 1970, the U.S. has experienced a large and rapid increase in the rate at which people, regardless of race, are housed in federal and state correctional facilities (Snyder, 2011). This rapid growth in the prison population has been attributed in a large part to the rate at which individuals are incarcerated for drug offenses, especially minorities (Snyder, 2011). Between1995 and 2003, the number of people in state and federal prisons incarcerated for drug offenses increased by 21 percent, from 280,182 to 337,872.3 (McVay, D., Schiraldi, V., & Ziedenberg, J, 2007). From1996 to 2002, the number of those in jail for drug offenses increased...
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...Principle Objectives of Punishment within the Correction System This analysis will cover several topics. The paper will compare objectives of punishment between state and federal. Another part of the discussion will cover how sentencing impacts the state and federal correction system. The last section will cover sentencing models. What are the state and federal objectives of Punishment? Each year thousands of individuals appear before a judge for sentencing of a crime one committed. Sentencing for felony offenses normally carries a punishment of incarceration of one year or more. Misdemeanors crimes carry incarceration sentencing of less than one year. Judges must review and consider complicated sentencing laws for each individual’s case, prior to sentencing. Judges of the 21 st century have less discretion in sentencing options than the past. There are mandatory minimum guidelines a judge must follow for sentencing. The judges must also follow the three-strike laws for repeated offenders. There are sentencing for some crimes that have little consideration to personnel factors regarding offenders, their crimes, and the victims. There are six general categories of sentencing under state penal codes that are available to judges for sentencing options. 1) Economic sanctions – offenders pay a fine or restitution to the victim or complete community service. These are standalone sentences without probation. 2) Probation- a prison sentence is suspended on the condition one...
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...must be cost effective by using our taxpayer dollars and public resources wisely. But our criminal justice system is not doing a good job. It has failed on every account: public safety, fairness and cost effectiveness. So what needs to be reformed? What could be done to lower the amount of those incarcerated and the costs of running a prison system? The answer is quite simple, in order to reform we need to empty...
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...minorities are treated more harshly than whites in similar incidents. However, this movement should widen the scoop of its focus to include the discrimination not just of law enforcement officials, but also of the criminal justice system itself. Disparities in sentencing have skyrocketed since the 1980s and this increase is pushed by the war on drugs. Despite the clear evidence showing that sentencing reform must become a priority for policymakers due to both the social and economic aspects of this issue, things remain the same. The purpose of this essay is to inform the debate on sentencing reform, race, and education....
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...The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines on the Criminal Justice System Public Safety Capstone Project Our criminal justice system has an obligation to impose fair sentences. The United States Sentencing Commission is the result of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 that had laws created to ensure that sentencing was fair from state to state, and a judge provided proof of that sentencing was indeed black and white. To eliminate the possibility of being unjust, the government became involved in creating guidelines on the punishment that was rendered based on the type or types of crimes an individual committed. Sentencing guidelines were imposed to set the terms that would fit the crime some of the sentencing may be a payment of a fine, community service, incarceration, the death penalty, and or probation and parole. Throughout the years there has been a concentrated effort to standardize the sentencing especially in felony offenses, and to diminish judicial discretion in sentencing. Due to this there is a perception by lawmakers and the public that arbitrary or discriminatory practice with fair and just sentencing in certain cases and or crimes. “The Federal Government and 16 States have implemented presumptive or voluntary/advisory sentencing guidelines. Each of these states has established guidelines for different purposes and most of them were asked to meet multiple goals, including punishment, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation...
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...Psychological disorders, also referred to as mental disorders, are abnormalities of the mind that result in persistent behavior patterns that can seriously affect your day-to-day function and life. Many different psychological disorders have been identified and classified, including eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa; mood disorders, such as depression; personality disorders, such as antisocial personality disorder; psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia; sexual disorders, such as sexual dysfunction; and others. Multiple psychological disorders may exist in one person ( Health Grade, 2013). The causes of these disorders are unknown; however major factors that contribute to these disorders are a person’s descent, chemical imbalances in the brain, childhood experiences, illnesses, stress, and prenatal exposures while one is still in their mother’s womb. Psychological disorders are serious and can be very detrimental to that person that has it as well as society. One psychological disorder that will be discussed in this paper is anxiety disorder, more specifically obsessive-compulsive disorder. This paper will discuss the relationship between human development and socialization, along with how this relationship affects obsessive-compulsive disorder. Throughout history Elderly Offenders Behind Bars While Reducing the Cost Over time offenders that have been sent to correctional institutions in the United States are sometimes forced to live out the rest of their lives...
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...Department, in 2003 about 10.4% of all African American men between the ages of 25-29 were incarcerated, as compared to 2.4% of Hispanic men and 1.2% on non-Hispanic White men. What is going on here? Why are black men in this age group so much more likely to be in jail than are people of white or Latino descent? Topics discussed in this paper include the most affected ethnical population in regards to criminal behavior and convictions, the difference between convictions and when/how individuals of different ethnic background are sentenced, and what the consequences may entitle based on individuals of alternate ethnical upbringing. African Americans make up 13% of the general U.S. population, yet make up 40% of all incarcerated men. While whites make up 67% of U.S. population, yet they also only make up 40% of incarcerated men. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world compared to other nations ("Sentencing Project," 2013). There is clearly an abundance of African American men incarcerated in the justice system as compared to men of other ethnicity (Hartney & Vuong, 2009). “If current trends continue, one in every three African American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime…….,compared to one in every seventeen white males” ("Sentencing Project," 2013, p. 1) . As stated by Kirby, males of African American descent continue to be arrested, sentenced, and imprisoned at higher rates when compared to males of white descent (2012). These...
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...The Function of Parole in the United States When the subject of parole comes up many things come to mind, such as who make the decisions to release inmates from prison, who is on parole, who supervises them and how, who sends them back to prison, does it work, is it effective, is the community safe, and so on. To begin, lets define what parole is. Parole is a method of releasing offenders from prison prior to the expiration of their sentence (McCarthy and Leone, 121). Inmates are screened for the suitability for release based upon the risk they pose to the public (McCarthy and Leone, 121). If for some reason the parolee’s performance on parole is unsatisfactory, then they may have their parole revoked and be returned to prison. Some people think that parole is a waste of time and that offenders should just be left in prison to do their time and that is that. However, other people think that these offenders have a chance at being rehabilitated with parole and can help them become better people. I think if some of these offenders have been doing well in prison and can be released early under supervision of a parole agency, then they deserve a chance to try and make their lives better for themselves and even their loved ones. This kind of a program could really help some of these offenders get their lives back on track and get them stepping on the right path again. Parole, however, is not for every offender. Some offenders may get released on parole, but do not end up meeting...
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...justice system is ignoring these aspects and is focusing their attention on the rehabilitation principle. They are redefining the meaning of justice, and are letting criminals escape the punishment they are supposed to serve. Juvenile rights advocates argue that juveniles can learn the mistakes of their ways if given the opportunity. They believe that if they are able to rehabilitate these juveniles than they can decrease future crimes. Although this aspect of rehabilitation can be effective in fighting crime it has not been. Instead of this program decreasing future crime, it has in fact risen over the past decade. In the book “Statistics and Trends in Juvenile Justice and Forensic Psychology” it states that the number of juveniles in jail...
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...Kyle Kern 3/6/14 CCS330 12pm Final Paper A Failed Crime Control Policy: Three Strikes Law The majority of crime control policies have positive intentions at first of reducing crime but many, if not all, fall short in making an effective and lasting change among crime rates. One of the largest shortfalls in policy creation and most popular idea in mandatory sentencing can be observed with the set of laws referred too as “three Strikes and you’re out” laws. The Three Strikes law is a statute regulated by state courts that imposes harsher penalties to repeat offenders within the criminal justice system. The commonly referred name of “Three Strikes” is taken from the game of baseball and the idea that after a batters third chance of swinging at a pitch, he is considered out of chances to bat. This analogy of a game is now being applied to determining sentencing of habitual offenders. In the majority of states who impose this type of law, strikes are considered previous felony convictions and after a persons third strike, or third felony conviction, they then fall under a mandatory 25 to life sentence. Being convicted of life in prison gives very little chance of probation. This costs the convicted their lives in prison, their family abandonment and the taxpayers millions of dollars every year. The first of these habitual offender laws was enacted in 1993 by the state of Washington called the Persistent offender Accountability Act and then in 1994 by the state of California...
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...Maine and even though she is just starting out in this profession at the age of 21 she is certain that police work is her calling. When asked why she wanted to be in law enforcement she replied “well my family has been in law enforcement for the past three generations so I was kind of raised to follow suit” not to say she did not think any other professions growing up, but it was police work that that she ultimately came back to every time. Though there was lack of support from her family she has noticed the pressure of being a female in the police force. Just listening to her describe how much she felt she had to prove to be seen as an equal in this profession, I could sense a presence of excitement as she was explained it to me as if it were a challenge that she had been waiting for, for a long time. Shaunna says she was not pressured into the career from her family, and she knew how stressful and demanding the lifestyle could be...
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...Sentencing Paper The punishment of convicted offenders leaves some with many questions. The biggest question of all is, “Who is to know how much time an offender should serve?” This is mostly due to the fact that there are so many different types of crimes committed everyday by various people and it is hard to know if the person is serving enough time for the crime committed. The whole objectives for such punishments are deterrence, retribution, restitution, rehabilitation, and the reason for such punishment. In this paper, I will talk the objectives and how they relate to sentencing. I will discuss the federal and states objectives in regards to punishment and how they affect the correctional systems. The deterrence objective is said to be more effective at putting a stop to crime that is either planned or is flat out premeditated. The main goal is to basically deter someone from making the same mistakes over and over again. Other times it is used to deter people from engaging in a acts that are similar. An “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” objective is used with the thought that offenders need to suffer the same way as their victims. This is the retribution objective. Restitution is when the offender is made to repay their victim’s loss in money or other services. This is done due to the fact that the offender was the person to put the victim in a position to have additional suffrages that they otherwise would not have had if the offender did not commit...
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