From viewing your discussion board you have a great start on an argumentive essay. I would have to disagree with DUI or OWI being a mandatory jail. Experiences that I’ve encountered being in the criminial justice field of study is some offenses don’t need jail time with a first time offense of an dui or owi, they need some rehibilition assistance by a professional to prove that they can remain sober on being on probation. Acaution that comes to mind is not everyone lives in Texas. The main point one isn’t really related to you theisis some people would gather the information thinking if a drivers resulting in a owi gets their license suspended for 3 to 5 years the law would be revoked due to the ignition interlock law. Second…
Regarding police brutality, policies have already been put in place to try to solve this major issue. Examples of policies are special training for police officers to teach them how to properly handle situations, body cameras to monitor officers' actions, and special out of state prosecutors to judge and indict officers and reduce bias. However, these policies alone only solve pieces of the problem, not the big picture. These plans have their advantages and disadvantages, and might not work as planned.…
The United States Sentencing Commission is responsible for sentencing policy in federal courts. In 1980 they reformed the federal sentencing. The intent was to provide determinate sentencing. Determinate sentencing is a fixed period of incarceration without the possibility of parole, but time served can be reduced by accumulating good time. “Coinciding with the development of determinate sentencing has been the development of sentencing guidelines to control and structure the process and make it more rational. Guidelines are usually based on the seriousness of a crime and the background of an offender: The more serious the crime and the more extensive the offender’s criminal background, the longer the prison term recommended by the guidelines.” (Segel & Senna 2006). These guidelines were designed to eliminate judicial discretion and get tough on crime.…
Rough Draft Fifty-five years without possibility of parole. That is what Weldon Angelos is facing for selling a total of $350 worth of marijuana, and carrying a firearm; even though, he has no criminal history and never fired the gun. This is all due to laws called mandatory minimum sentences (MMS); which are sentences that are determined by the weight of the drugs or the presence of a firearm during a felony offense. They are called mandatory because judges are forced to impose these sentences based solely on the amount of drug present without any leniency. The mandatory minimum prison sentences are a controversial way to fight the “War on Drugs” that have a conflicted history and have drastically increased prison populations and costs.…
Keeping in mind the brief overview of each of the major rationales for sentencing will allow the following four arguments to be understood with greater clarity. To begin, the first argument to support the urgent need to restructure the criminal justice system is the effect and impact of mandatory minimum sentencing on the high rates of incarcerations. The effects of mandatory minimum sentencing are staggering, and transcend into many different areas of the criminal justice system. The principal justification for the creation of mandatory minimum sentences is that by increasing the likelihood of custody, it will be a strict deterrent for crime prevention and a response to political “tough on crime” strategies. It was also thought to minimize…
Mandatory minimums are laws which require automatic prison terms for certain crimes, such as drug possession. These laws were passed to ensure that individual criminals served long prison sentences. However, there some critics that have voiced their concerns about mandatory minimum penalties in the United States.…
Every situation in life is unique and has its own set of circumstances. Crime is no different, which is why it often difficult to effectively use policies like mandatory minimum sentences, because not every crime is the same. It is acceptable for their to be some disparity in sentencing for similar crimes, but there still needs to be some consistency. The initiation of mandatory minimum sentences was due in large part to the fact that judges had too much discretion and it led to many similar cases having wildly different sentences.1 There was sound reasoning for enacting mandatory minimum sentences, but they “are the product of good intentions, but good intentions do not always make good policy; good results are also necessary.”1 Mandatory…
Although some may believe that the stand your ground law is a good idea, it comes with many flaws.The stand your ground law overlooks the adverse effects such as abolition would have on women who respond to domestic violence.In the states where it has been implemented, the stand your ground law results in a higher rate of violence (jackson). As jackson states, the stand your ground law doesn’t…
Mandatory arrest laws were put into place in efforts of deterring and reducing the amount of activity in regards to domestic violence. However, recent research has shown that domestic violence arrest rates are higher than what they were when they had first implemented such practices. Domestic violence can be seen as being a very complex and complicated issue within our society. We have issues with what can or is considered domestic violence due to the following types of relationships that are becoming more recognizable such as pre-marital intimate relationships, same sex relationships, blood relatives, and relationships where children are abused. Does mandatory arrest actually help with limiting or reducing the amount of domestic violence within our society today?…
The United States accounts for 5% of the world population but has nearly 22% of world prison population. This means that nearly 2 million people are incarcerated, and 1 in 3 black men will go to prison or jail if this trend continues (Amnesty International). Mass Incarceration has been one of the major debate recently in Politics. The politician has been debating on a method to reduce the prison population, and to do that they need to find the cause of it and the different contribution. In recent year, there has been a cut in funding for many states rehabilitation, education and other programs because the costs to accommodate an inmate is escalating upward. At the same time, laws are put in place that put disadvantaged people within the criminal…
Mass incarceration reveals the essence of the problems in America’s criminal justice system. It shines light on the presence of inequality as well as the flaws in the policies. Mass incarceration became a huge problem in the US with the onset of the War on Drugs. Since then, the number of prisoners has increased significantly and a great proportion of the prisoners include drug offenders. Beckett and Sasson argue that the inequality here lies in the fact that members in the minority populations are sought after because unlike many private transactions that happens amongst upper class individuals, those that take place between members of the lower class tend to be more visible.…
There are many different argument both for and against mandatory minimum drug sentencing. However there are more arguments against mandatory minimum drug sentencing then there are for the support of the mandatory sentencing. One of the biggest arguments against mandatory minimum drug sentencing is that it was originally intended to target the higher level drug dealers but the majority of the cases have only been low level drug dealers. One of the other arguments is that will cause the jail systems to become overcrowded and that if is unfair.…
Since 2002, the United States has had the highest incarceration rate in the world. Although prison populations are increasing in some parts of the world, the natural rate of incarceration for countries comparable to the United States tends to stay around 100 prisoners per 100,000 population. The U.S. rate is 500 prisoners per 100,000 residents, or about 1.6 million prisoners in 2010, according to the latest available data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Prison is a place used for internment of convicted criminals. Not including the death penalty, a sentence to prison is the harshest punishment inflicted on criminals in the United States. On the federal level, imprisonment or incarceration is managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a federal…
The topic we chose was an important time in history dealing with prisons. We chose MASS INCARCERATION and focused on the legacy of Ronald Reagan and the escalating war on drugs. Today we are going to talk to you about the policies surrounding the war on drugs and how they have affected mass incarceration and policies that devalue the meaning of the 4th amendment.…
"Unlawful non-citizens" to be detained, regardless of circumstances, until they are granted a visa or leave the country. This policy was introduced in 1992 and has been maintained by successive governments.…