The War On Drugs In Prisons

As early as the Reagan administration until 1986, there were anti-drug campaign funded by the federal government were their declared $250 million war on drugs. The war on drugs were one of the main reasons for mass incarceration and is responsible for close to over half of the arrest in the United States. According to Lynch (2012), changing of drug laws have caused the increase in the number of prison population and caused the overcrowding of federal penitentiary systems. Alexander (2010) argues that race has an impact on whether or not an individual will be locked up in prison. The new drugs laws have a tendency to target those who are poorer non-white offenders; which subsequently means that more black individuals are being incarcerated
As of 1984 the Congress has passed a mandatory minimum sentences which required extensive prison sentences for drug, weapons, and violent offenses. According Baker (2009) more than 80% of drug cases and 95% of offenders incarcerated were overseen by the federal government. After the changes in these drug laws caused the rate of imprisonment in the federal level to skyrocket. Of the all the drug cases brought to the federal government, most of the offenders received 15 years or more, especially if it was a crack cocaine. According Taxy, Samuels, and Adams (2015) cocaine accounts for more than half (54%) of the drug offenders in federal prison and it carried the largest sentence in the federal government. The race of drug offenders varies but the largest population of crack cocaine offender are more likely to be African Americans, 88% This included the use, trafficking, or possession of crack cocaine. The ones that don’t go directly to prison maybe get sentenced to probation, little jail time or fined. Lynch (2012) states that the United States policies towards the prison pipeline is worse than any other countries.
Beccaria believed that punishment should be positioned around making the society better rather than being in a vengeance. Beccaria also viewed effective punishment, in his essay “On Crimes and Punishment,” should be swift and certain. Beccaria believed that by having
Mandatory minimum sentences plant a generalization on crime that fails to account for the context in which the crime is committed. If there are not interpretation and adjudical of a crime in its entirety, mandatory minimum sentences have imposed harsher punishment to individuals who do not deserve it. Nevertheless, mandatory minimum sentences ultimately go on to satisfy Beccaria’s views on punishment because it allows the punishment to be certain and