...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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...RUNNING HEADER: American Prisons 1 The American Prisons and Judicial Systems Megan Pierce English Composition 122 Professor Angela Temple September 23, 2013 American Prisons 2 There’s no question about the about the racial disparity in America’s prison system. More than 60 percent of people in prison are now racial and ethnic minorities. For black males in their thirties, one in every ten is in prison or jail on any given day. These trends have been intensified by the disproportionate impact of the “war on drugs,” in which two thirds of all persons in prison for drug offenses are people of color. Guerin, P., Harrison, (2011) Washington, D.C: Bureau of Justice statistics. American prisons have a disparity of minority inmate population. Is this trend due to a higher rate of minority crimes, or the manner in which the judicial system operates? Some people have negative views about the people in the inner cities where disproportionate numbers of impoverished and African Americans live. Robert Right, an evolutionary psychologist believed the high rate of young African American men in prison is due to their adaptation to poverty. Conservatives think poverty is due to African American sub culture that is pathologic. Harvard professor James Wilson claimed, “The reason why it is called an underclass is that its members have a bad character: they mug, do drugs, and desert children.” (Miller,1996). There is a recurring idea that the inner...
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...the crime was committed. Just as clear an rare like the first one. An example is raising the age of statutory rape form 16 to 21. Finally it takes away a defense that was available to a defendant when the crime was committed. The Ex Post Facto ban is protect private individuals by ensuring that legislature give them a fair warning about criminal and that they can rely on that requirement. The other purpose is to prevent legislators form passing arbitrary and vindictive laws. The Void-for-Vagueness Doctrine takes aim similar to the ban on ex post facto. Void laws fails to give fair warning to individuals as to what the law prohibits. It can never cure the uncertainty in all laws because laws are in word, not numbers. 14 amendment of the U.S constitutional states that,” no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the Equal protection of the laws. Equal Protection is more frequently an issue in criminal procedure than it is in criminal law. First of all, equal protection doesn’t...
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...University of Phoenix | Parole and Truth in Sentencing | CJS/200-Foundations of the Criminal Justice System | | Roy Burgess II | 3/30/2014 | The parole system is an integral part of the U.S. criminal justice system. The functions of parole are closely tied to the laws regarding truth in sentencing. The focus of this paper is to outline the concepts related to the parole system and the intent of the truth in sentencing laws. | The early release of an inmate from a correctional facility is defined as parole. The goal of parole is to provide a means for an inmate to gradually reenter society and lead a productive life. There are two types of parole, discretionary parole and mandatory parole. An inmate that is eligible for discretionary parole must go before a parole board to show that they are no longer a threat to society and that they are capable of beginning to rebuild their lives and becoming a productive member of society. Mandatory parole is determined by the sentencing guidelines and is not under the control of the parole board. After an inmate has served a predetermined amount of time according to sentencing, they are automatically released from custody. Both forms of parole have specific conditions that must be followed and failing to do so could result in the individual returning to prison. The conditions of parole vary according to the jurisdiction, but they also share some of the same restrictions and requirements. One condition that is common...
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...Sentencing Process In 1998 the District of Columbia Sentencing and Criminal Code Revision Commission was charged with developing a comprehensive structured sentencing system for the District. The Commission concluded that the District could benefit from a comprehensive structured sentencing system. Next, the Commission embarks the difficult task of creating workable sentencing guidelines for felonies. As Washington, DC follows the lead of other jurisdictions as well as an earlier effort in the District, the Commission developed two grids: one for drug cases and one for all other cases in the direction of the dominant factors in sentencing: the offense of conviction and the criminal history of the offender. The Commission also established standards for departing from the recommended prison ranges in extraordinary cases, rules for imposing concurrent or consecutive sentences, along with adjustments and exceptions to sentencing. Together, the grids, standards, rules, adjustments and exceptions form the Voluntary Sentencing Guidelines for the District of Columbia. (ACS, 2012-pg.9) The procedures that must take place following the finding of guilt before a defendant is sentenced for a felony offense are as follow: Sentencing is where the judge imposes punishment after a finding of guilty that resulted from a trial, or entry of a plea of guilty or no contest by the defendant. The judge may order the Department of Corrections to prepare a pre-sentence investigation (PSI) report and...
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...Truth-in -Sentencing Debate Truth in sentencing law deter crime Truth in sentencing refers to a range of sentencing practices that aim to reduce the uncertainty about the length of time that offenders must serve in prison. During the 1990s, throughout the states and in the federal government there was considerable legislative activity related to truth in sentencing. By 1999, 41 states and the District of Columbia had passed laws or implemented some form of truth in sentencing, but the forms of truth in sentencing varied among the states. Truth in sentencing law deters crime by showing offenders that regardless of things such as good behavior or time served the possibility of early release is unlikely. My state of Maryland unlike other state does not have a truth in sentencing law put into place. Some states have eliminated parole release for good behavior or work time credits to impose determinate sentences, which permits relatively precise release dates, assuming that good time credits were earned. Other states have retained parole release, potentially introducing ambiguity into actual release dates. This is supposed to increase the certainty about a minimum amount of time that must be served prior to release. There was a case of drug trafficking in the Baltimore Jail around this time last year if Maryland had a truth in sentencing law in place the offend would not have been eligible for parole or early release after doing 75% of their 9 year sentence. Since they...
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...RAKOFF, U.S.D.J. 11 Cr. 907 (JSR) SENTENCING MEMORANDUM AND ORDER The Court is called upon to impose sentence on Rajat K. Gupta, who on June 15, 2012, was found guilty by a jury of one count of conspiracy and three counts of substantive securities fraud, in connection with providing material non-public information to Raj Rajaratnam. Federal law requires a court to state, not only orally but in writing, its reasons for imposing a sentence “different from” a Guidelines sentence. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c)(2). See also United States v. Rattoballi, 452 F.3d 127, 128-29 (2d Cir. 2006). This will be a non-guidelines sentence, and, accordingly, the Court will both read this Sentencing Memorandum in open court and docket it promptly thereafter. Imposing a sentence on a fellow human being is a formidable responsibility. It requires a court to consider, with great care and The notion that sensitivity, a large complex of facts and factors. this complicated analysis, and moral responsibility, can be reduced to the mechanical adding-up of a small set of numbers artificially assigned to a few arbitrarily-selected variables wars with common sense. Whereas apples and oranges may have but a few salient qualities, human beings in their interactions with society are too complicated to be treated like commodities, and the attempt to do so can only lead to bizarre results. Nowhere is this more obvious than in this very case, where the Sentencing Guidelines assign just 2 points to...
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... 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 by approximately 47 percent, from111,545 to 164,372.4(McVay, D., Schiraldi, V., & Ziedenberg, J, 2007). African Americans are disproportionately incarcerated for drug offenses in the U.S., though...
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...JADM 100 Introduction to Criminal Justice Midterm Exam Answers Follow Link Below To Get Tutorial https://homeworklance.com/downloads/jadm-100-introduction-to-criminal-justice-midterm-exam-answers/ JADM 100 Introduction to Criminal Justice Midterm Exam Answers (TCO 1) Which model emphasizes individual rights? (TCO 1) Who returns an indictment? (TCO 1) Jake Robinson was convicted on a burglary and a drug offense. He was given a sentence of six years in prison for both offenses. These sentences were to run concurrently. How many years would he spend in prison? (TCO 1) The ________ collects information on crimes suffered by individuals and households, whether or not those crimes were reported to law enforcement. (TCO 1) Which of the following would be included in UCR/NIBRS murder statistics? (TCO 1) A juvenile who steals a candy bar and states “No one was really hurt,” is using which neutralization technique? (TCO 1) An 18th-century approach to crime causation and criminal responsibility that grew out of the Enlightenment and that emphasized the role of free will and reasonable punishments. (TCO 2) When a police officer induces a subject to commit a crime, a defendant will probably use: (TCO 2) Bob is sitting on a park bench minding his own business when an undercover police officer comes up to Bob and talks him into buying some marijuana. Then the officer arrests Bob for possession of marijuana. Bob can claim the defense of: (TCO 2) ________ is/are a person’s reason...
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...Bureau of Justice Statistics, out of a total population of 1,976,019 incarcerated in adult facilities, 1,239,946 or 63 percent are black or Latino, though these two groups constitute only 25 percent of the national population. Some of the greatest racial disparities in rates of incarceration happen in states in which minorities are massed in urban areas, which tend to have both higher rates of crime and greater law enforcement activity. This paper will also discuss how these incarcerations affect the offenders, public safety, criminal policies and procedures. Racial Disparities in Corrections There are many factors regarding the disproportional rates of incarceration in communities of color. Data generated by the U.S. Department of Justice predicts that if current trends continue, one out of every three black males born today will go to prison in his lifetime, as well as one of every six Latino males. The rates of incarceration for women overall are lower than for men, but similar racial/ethnic disparities still apply. Some law makers are looking at ways to develop policies and practices to reduce insupportable racial disparities in the criminal justice system, it is essential to analyze the factors that have produced the increasing levels of incarceration in relations to racial/ethnic disparity. Research has shown that the factors are disproportionate crime rates, overlap of race and class...
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...PRELIMINARY STATEMENT Stephen Richards respectfully submits this Memorandum regarding his re-sentencing. The purpose of this submission is to highlight pertinent developments in the lives of Mr. Richards and his family members in the four years since the Court originally imposed a sentence of 84 months imprisonment. Mr. Richards has been incarcerated for 43 months. He has earned all available “good time” credit, which brings his total time served to 49 months. Certain events since his incarceration were unanticipated at the time of sentencing, and others demonstrate Mr. Richards’ rehabilitation to an extraordinary degree. These events are described below and are fleshed out in greater detail in letters and related documents contained in a separately-bound collection of Sentencing Letters and Supporting Materials. We respectfully ask the Court to weigh these intervening developments when fixing a term of incarceration that is “no greater than necessary” to achieve the factors listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). We respectfully submit that under all the circumstances the statutory purposes of sentencing would be satisfied by a sentence of 60 months. BACKGROUND Beginning in the mid-1980s, the corporate headquarters of Computer Associates International, Inc. (“CA”) instituted a fraudulent practice of premature revenue recognition. The so-called “35-Day Month” involved keeping CA’s books open for several days after a quarterly reporting period...
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...This week we were assigned a few articles to read and analyze. Reflecting on this weeks reading, an assessment can be made about the way America has handled crime and prevention within the criminal justice system. As a country the United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.2 individuals behind bars in either prison or jails. Political agendas fueled along with the outcry from the public fueled the legislatures to increase crime sentences thereby increasing the incarceration levels to extremely high levels. By leading the world in incarceration in addition to the crime rates the public can see just how poorly run the system truly is and how we can aim to fix it. Connections can be made between Travis et al.'s (2014) illustration...
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...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 they...
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...Briefly summarize how you qualified your references and what aspects of your topic they cover. The list should follow APA style. Just for information, Wikipedia is not considered an appropriate reference. Bergman, P., & Barrett, S. J. (2000). The criminal law handbook know your rights, survive the system (3rd ed.). Berkeley: Nolo Press. Enos, R., & Holman, J. E. (1999). Alternative sentencing: electronically monitored correctional supervision (2nd ed.). Bristol, IN: Wyndham Hall Press. Castle, M. N. (1991). Alternative sentencing: selling it to the public. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. Prison overcrowding and alternative sentencing: oversight hearing before the Subcommittee on Judiciary and Education of the Committee on the District of Columbia, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, first session, on overcrowding in District of Columbia correctional institutions and alternative sentencing proposals, July 12, 1983.. (1983). Washington: U.S. G.P.O.. Dodge, C. R. (1975). A nation without prisons: alternatives to incarceration. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books. Second chances in the criminal justice system: alternatives to incarceration and reentry strategies. (2007). Washington, D.C.: American Bar Association, Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions. Lankford, R. D. (2012). Alternatives to prisons. Detroit [Mich.: Greenhaven Press. These references cover a broad area from probation...
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...Course Syllabus ________________________________________________________ CJS 200 Foundations of the Criminal Justice System Course Start Date: 08/01/2011 Group ID: AAGR0Z9835 Facilitator: Lee Rankin Copyright Copyright © 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. University of Phoenix® is a registered trademark of Apollo Group, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft®, Windows®, and Windows NT® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Use of these marks is not intended to imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation. Edited in accordance with University of Phoenix® editorial standards and practices. ------------------------------------------------- Course Description This course is an introductory overview of the organization and jurisdictions of local, state, and federal law enforcement, judicial and corrections agencies, and processes involved in the criminal justice systems. It examines the historical aspects of the police, the courts, and the correctional system, as well as the philosophy. Additionally, career opportunities and qualifying requirements, terminology, and constitutional limitations of the system will also be covered. ------------------------------------------------- Course Topics...
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