The Role Of Habitual Offenders In Prisons

Are laws targeting the right people? So far in the class, I’ve learned that criminal justice is not black and white. It has the goal of being that way, but mostly it’s a lot of grey area. The topic of habitual offenders is just another grey area. Some of the laws in place for habitual offenders are perfectly affective. I also believe that there are some who commit crimes so small and insignificant that the law should not be enforced. I do believe in mistakes and poor choices. Do those people deserve to be in prison for 25 years? Perfect example was a man named Wallace. Wallace was such an incompetent thief that he was still sitting in the passenger seat of the car by the time police arrived. He went to court and got 25 years to life. In prison, Wallace immediately became a target
Should Wallace have been imprisoned for what he did? No. Should he have been given help? Absolutely. He obviously had some mental issues and in prison some physical ones as well. I thought our systems were supposed to follow a process of arrest, punish affectively, and rehabilitate to release. Wallace, and many others out there, are wrongfully punished every day for simple mistakes. I do not think these laws, overall, target the right people, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think those who deserve it shouldn’t be punished. Misdemeanor, in law, a minor crime, in contrast to a felony…In the United States a misdemeanor usually is an offense that may be punished summarily by fine and by imprisonment for less than a year (Encyclopedia, 2013). By definition alone, misdemeanors should not be punishable by a life sentence. They usually consist of traffic offenses and other small things. There was a man named Curtis in California. He eventually ended up in some trouble as a young man. He served 6 years and when he was released, he found a job and moved away from his old life. He was rehabilitated. Then one afternoon while waiting on his