Prison Term Policy Research Paper

Prison Term Policy Recommendation As a Criminologist Advisor to the State Legislature, I have been chosen to provide a prison term policy on armed robbery. Currently the legislature will soon be voting on a bill that would double the maximum prison term for anyone convicted of armed robbery. First I would like to define what the legal definition of armed robbery is as defined by the Black's Law Dictionary which is: an aggravated form of robbery in which the defendant is armed with a dangerous weapon, though it is not necessary to prove that he used the weapon to effectuate the robbery. The taking of property from person or presence of another by use of force or by threatening use of force while armed with a dangerous weapon (Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition). Before I render my decision to support the bill or not to support the bill, I must examine the disparity as it relates to prison sentencing within our judicial system. Sentence disparity is a term used to describe the variations and equities that result when defendants convicted of the same crime receive varying sentences; may refer also to varying sentences from state to state. An example of sentencing disparity is if a three-time offender in one jurisdiction receives 5 years for armed robbery,
Judges have lost the ability to tailor the sentence to fit the circumstances of each individual case. One size does not fit all. The Guidelines are one cause of the dramatic growth in the federal justice system. A system intended to streamline and simplify the sentencing process has instead created a far more complex system that has clogged the courts with appeals over Guidelines' applications. Furthermore, the federal Guidelines are not simply guidelines, as the name suggests: they are mandatory. Judges are required to follow them, no matter how inappropriate the result (Anderson,