...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
...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...
Words: 1442 - Pages: 6
...Monahan, John J. (24 Nov, 2005). Drug-Sentence Laws under fire; Mandatory minimum blasted: Telegram and Gazette (Worcester, Mass) A1. John Monahan a Statehouse Reporter for Telegram and Gazette discusses the mandatory minimum sentencing laws for drug related crimes which were adopted in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Monahan highlights some of the major problems with minimum sentencing laws related to drug crimes. The article relates to the core of the issue by recent research and opinions of government officials who support this view. He finds this opinion strongly supported by people in the legal field and some government officials as well, however the article is also of interest to those effected by or with some interest to mandatory minimum sentencing. Many critics find the laws to be unfair for various reasons. The laws target minorities, take discretion away from judges and put it in the hands of police and prosecutors who misuse this discretion and apply punishments that do not fit the crime committed. Senator Cynthia S Creem, D-Newton has sponsored a bill that would allow inmates to be considered for parole after serving two thirds of their sentence. However this proposal was rejected outright by Lt Gov. Kerry Healey. Rep. Anne Paulsen also proposed to make the law even stricter by adding time to their sentence for those who commit drug offenses nearby a school. The article concludes with Chief Justice Mulligan maintaining the law is a problem because it disproportionately...
Words: 632 - Pages: 3
...prison system there are various key issues that surrounded the operations of the daily activities as well as the administration of the judicial system. Some of these key such as prison violence, prison rape and the drug policy issues are negative and does affect the prison. On the issue of prison violence, over the years, prison violence has been on the rise. This has causes major changes within the prions system, such as implementing strategies to control the prisoners and their criminal behaviors. Prison rape also has continues to rise. This issue has been will probably continue to exist. This is because the prison officials have yet to be able to control this kind of activity. Another issue that has been affects the prison system is the sentencing that are being handed out for drug charges. This has cause the prisons to be overcrowded. Prison Violence on the Rise Prison violence is on the rise, many prison conditions are a recipe for violence, by being overcrowded, understaffed, insufficient staff training, excessive solitary confinement, insecure facilities, mistreatment of mentally ill inmates, policies that weaken family ties, a culture of disrespect between staff and prisoners, and little accountability for wardens. These facilities are causing concern not only for inmates but, for those employed to supervise the convicted offenders. Inmate population continue to grow, staffing levels in most facilities either have stopped or decreased. Violence has increased in the prisons...
Words: 2155 - Pages: 9
...United States Prison System: The War on Drugs The United States of America is no longer the home of the free. It is the home of the locked up and caged. How can this nation embrace the concept of freedom when over 2.4 million of its citizens are locked up in prison? How can Americans have the nerve to utter the words, “racial equality” when over 10% of all African-American men is incarcerated? How can we take pride in a nation that locks up its citizens that suffer from the disease of addiction? This should be an embarrassment to all Americans. The criminal justice system must be reformed and surrender the “War on Drugs.” According to the June 2008 Bureau of Justice Summary, Americans make up only four and a half percent of the world’s population yet boasts twenty-two percent of the world’s incarcerated population. According to the same report, the American Criminal Justice System imprisons six times more of its population than other free nations such as Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, and Italy. America incarcerates ten times more of its population than Japan, France, and Finland. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, much higher than China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, and North Korea whom we consider fascias police states. The 2009 statistics reported in the Prison Index showed that one third of African-American men will serve time in prison at some point in their life. The Bureau of Justice statistics reported, “The number of inmates in...
Words: 2315 - Pages: 10
...administration implemented was part of a Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. Some agree and others disagree with the war on drugs. What we all can agree on, is that prisons have swelled to all-time highs due to the war on drugs campaign. I believe there are many workable solutions that can decrease the prison population in America. First, replace mandatory sentencing laws with more flexible and individualized guidelines. Second, reduce the three strike laws for nonviolent offenders. Third, relax the Truth-in-Sentencing Laws. Last, support community policing efforts. In 1986 Congress passed the anti-drug abuse at which was well intentioned established 5 to 10 year mandatory sentence is for drugs importation and distribution. A couple of years later President Reagan signed the Omnibus Anti-Drug Abuse Act granting the federal government authority to penalize all conspirators and drug related crimes regardless of their role. Believe it or not, most people locked up in the federal system are serving time for conspiracy charges due to drug distribution although nothing was found. By removing minimum mandatory sentences and replacing them with other guidelines, you give the judges more discretion to render a sentence they feel fits the criteria. Another way to reduce prison population is by reducing the three strike law for nonviolent offenders. For example, in California the three strikes law has many people in prison not because they committed a crime, but...
Words: 762 - Pages: 4
...Racial Disparities in America’s Judicial System The mandatory imprisonment policies written for the judicial system are creating disparity of minority inmate population primarily due to non-violent drug crimes and the unjust mandatory minimum sentencing laws. America’s prisons are the most populated in the world, and they are disproportionately populated by minorities due to the set of mandatory imprisonment policies set in place. Over the past five decades, the disparity between races has widened dramatically according to the National Center on Institutions. In the 1950’s, blacks and Hispanics were the minorities in the prison system, whereas today whites are. Is this due to poverty? I’m sure poverty plays a big role in most cases. Robert Woodson Jr., president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise said the reason young men engage in criminal activity is not just for money, it is to make a name for themselves, to have some expression of worth, even if the expression is self-destructive. Crack cocaine hit the streets in the early 1980’s, infesting the lower income areas. It’s a cheap drug compared to cocaine and easier to come by than some of the higher priced drugs. Is this considered racial disparity? The Sentencing Project in 2007 states that two-thirds of the regular crack users are white and Latino, 82 percent of defendants sentenced in federal court for crack offences are African-American. Criminologist William Chambliss suggest that blacks are more...
Words: 2051 - Pages: 9
...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...
Words: 9462 - Pages: 38
...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...
Words: 1206 - Pages: 5
... 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...
Words: 1878 - Pages: 8
...The 1970s saw an increased popularity in cocaine use. Although President Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” in 1972, overall American sentiment toward cocaine in the 1970s was rather indifferent. A 1977 Newsweek article reflected this feeling: “taken in moderation, cocaine probably causes no significant mental or physical damage and a number of researchers have concluded that it can be safer than liquor and cigarettes when used discriminately.” Many viewed the drug as the “marijuana of the 1970s” and relatively few felt that cocaine posed any real threat. Cocaine, an extremely expensive drug at the time, was often associated with ambitious young businessmen and glamorous celebrities, which helped to fuel its popularity, as well as propagate the notion that cocaine was a harmless and enjoyable drug. Freebase cocaine, the purified form of powder cocaine, was also used throughout the 1970s, although it enjoyed much less popularity. As with powder cocaine, the users of freebase tended to be rich, middle class and white. Freebase was produced by “cooking” powder cocaine in a number of steps, one of which included ether, a highly combustible liquid. The resulting process was extremely pure, but never became particularly widespread due to the tricky process to make it and the danger of fire and explosion. The simplicity of making crack was a major factor that led to crystallized cocaine becoming more widespread in the 1980s. Powder cocaine use declined in popularity in the middle...
Words: 2358 - Pages: 10
...Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass 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...
Words: 1793 - Pages: 8
...will lower the number of prisoners in California State Prisons, reducing overcrowding, while also saving the State of California an estimated 70-100 million dollars annually, which could be spent to aid other problems that are currently affecting California such as education. However, those who are opposed to the Proposition argue that even with the revision of The Three-Strikes Law, it is still too automatic and the reduction of crime as a result of the law is insignificant. The concern that some have with the Three-Strikes Law for being too automatic, was an issue from the day the law was first drafted. Only 17% of the U.S. public, support mandatory sentencing under the Three Strikes Law without any consideration to the degree of the third defense. There are many cases in which citizens have received the life sentence that is mandatory under the law, for crimes that are usually categorized as misdemeanors. One of the most famous cases in which the Three-Strikes law has been deemed unfair, is the case of Shane Taylor. Shane Taylor was sentenced for 25 to life for possession of 0.14 grams of methamphetamine, which was his third felony more than ten...
Words: 668 - Pages: 3
...Overcrowded prisons are a huge issue that have been plaguing the United States for quite a few years now. There is no certain cause for the overcrowding in our prisons, however there are many suspected reasons believed to be causing the overcrowding. In order to really begin fixing the problem, concern must be given to each and every one of these causes. Overcrowding in prisons is a serious issue because it affects millions of people in the U.S., not just prisoners, but taxpayers and prison staff as well. Illinois, in particular, is suffering from overcrowded prisons quite severely. Nearly every prison in the state is overcrowded. In order to solve this increasingly serious problem, many steps must be taken to begin prison reform and to begin living in a country in which the way we punish our criminals makes more sense and is more effective than how it is today. Everyone seems to know someone that is in prison these days, whether the person has committed a serious, violent crime, or just got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time, they still end up in some sort of prison facility. In fact the U.S.’s rate of incarceration is 455 people per every 100,000 people (Smolowe, 1994). To put that in perspective, it is the highest rate of incarceration compared to any other country in the world. Even South Africa, our close second, only imprisons 311 people per ever 100,000 (Smolowe, 1994). Due to the harsh punishment of imprisonment for even the most minor...
Words: 4196 - Pages: 17
...Ineffective Treatment of Addiction through the Criminal Justice System According to a recent survey, nearly “two-thirds of people polled support treatment over incarceration (Pew ResearchCenter for the People & the Press, 2014).” While a staggering “sixty-three percent favor doing away with minimum mandatory sentencing” altogether (Pew, 2014). This is extremely significant as it shows that a fundamental shift is occurring. For decades, our primary source of information concerning addiction has been our U.S. Government. Their strong emphasis on the purported “War on Drugs” has led to mass corruption on their part while simultaneously taking an active role in legislating zero-tolerance mandatory minimum sentencing. The recent Pew Poll is a prime example that the majority of Americans have seen the ineffectiveness behind our current policies. As more and more research is released on the subject of addiction, it is becoming increasingly obvious that a solely criminal approach is undeniably ineffective and in some regards, inhumane. Ineffective treatment of addicts has created; over-crowding on our criminal justice system, inexcusable financial hardships on our society, and is a major factor behind the revolving door syndrome. A quick look at the current state of our prisons can be rather glaring. The U.S. currently houses approximately 2.3 million inmates. Out of this number approximately 1.5 million have been medically diagnosed with severe substance abuse issues with an additional...
Words: 1717 - Pages: 7
