Community Service For Nonviolent Offenders

     Imagine being a police officer doing your daily routine job. You are in a patrol car on the highway, watching the cars and trucks drive by. You are also looking for speeders to warn them to be more careful and maybe you’ll ticket them. It has been a very boring day for you, since you have only been called on your radio once, and it was for an accident (fender bender). Almost at the end of your shift, a blue car drives by going ninety miles an hour, but you know the speed limit is only fifty-five miles an hour. You pull the patrol car out of the gravel area that you had been sitting in and you start to follow the car. You put your lights on and catch up to them. After a few minutes you pull the person over.

The first problem that can be solved with giving felons their rights back is giving them a way back out of trouble ,and away to be a modeled citizen. For example, in this article Vikki Hankins a convicted felonies tells of her quest to get her rights back. She has tried multiple times with no positive outcome. Her dream is to become a lawyer but because of her record she can’t take the bar exam (Penaloza 1). This here leads to some individuals going back to life they know better such as crime. Since they can no longer progress at a scholarly level into a professional level people tend to settle for less or even reform to crime(Penaloza 1).

Ever since the beginning of time man has committed crimes. Crimes were described as acts which go against the social and moral norms of society and people. People have learned to deal with these crimes in many different ways. One of the most used forms of dealing with crime is punishing those who commit crimes. There are numerous ways in which people have punished those who commit crimes throughout history from making the criminal pay fines to banishing them from the community. However, in modern times, there are fewer acceptable forms of punishment that are used. For very unserious crimes, governments may simply make a criminal pay a small fine or do service for the community in some way. Offenders who

Those criminals need to be corrected and helped, and then brought back into their societies and Imprisonment is thus not meant to be an avenue for inhumane treatment for members of the community who err in their behavior.

Community supervision of law violators can achieve similar advantages and prevent the disadvantages of incarceration. There are both advantages and disadvantages to community corrections and incarceration. I support community corrections because I believe it has more positives outcomes and less negative effects than incarceration.

Whenever a police car goes by, I instantly think about two things: One, that someone is hurt and possibly not surviving, and two, I feel paranoid more than “protected.” If a cop is behind me while I am driving, I instantly think I’m doing something wrong…..even if I am driving perfectly legal. Whenever a cop car, a fire truck, or ambulance goes by, for a few seconds I wonder where they are going. The sirens peak interest for just a short amount; but then I forget all about it and go on about my day. I feel sorry for them, but I’m safe. On the opposite side, cops are fearful during most traffic stops. While the opinions on cop safety and cop brutality can be argued until time stops, The Harvard Courant states the tension felt by cops with the issues has become evident in the fact that traffic stops has decreased by at least 4% since last year. Motorists are seeing police as more aggressive than ever before, and additionally, they are instigating confrontations while having video footage ready. Both sides of the situation seem to be led by fear.

I believe felons can change or become a better person. Examples, Ethea Farahkhan who is now 55 years old once was a felony, but now a change person with a six grandchildren and working with The NAACP to help restore former felons the right to vote. However, Farahkhan is still lacking the right to vote after being released a month in 1985 up to now, she has not been given the right to vote. Although, she is a self-esteem woman who is doing all she can (1). She still away from trouble and other illegal act but she has not been given the right to vote yet. Another person who is struggling with the same problem is Joseph Hayden an ex-felons who is now a changed person working as director of NLPCA to help people with drug abuse problem, but he too have is still denied the voting rights (1). As Conyers said diminishing the legitimacy of our democratic process, denying voting rights to ex-offenders is inconsistent with the goal of rehabilitation

In researching materials of mandatory incarceration for chronic juvenile offenders, I had to define ‘What is a chronic juvenile offender?’ It is a young individual who are chronic reoffenders that is arrested on average two years earlier than juvenile offender (age usually 11 or younger). “The threshold in chronic offending for number of arrests is five. Therefore, youth arrested for the sixth time are extremely likely to later become young chronic offenders. So the use of arrests seems to be more appropriate in measuring of chronicity” (FSU, 1999).

A man can be in the street with a beer that is not in a brown bag, and get charged with a felony. A man can stay out passed curfew and get labeled a felon, and a person could be playing fantasy football for money and get charged with gambling in some states. Aside from the drunken man, these people are not committing serious crimes, but they are getting punished for the rest of their lives, in some states. These individuals are not affecting the lives of others, yet they get charged with a felony just like the people who steal, rape, and kill. A felony should be a more serious offense especially if they are going to be stripped of rights whenever the sentence is

Petitioner’s recording posed an unreasonable risk to bystanders, passing motorist, and the police, essentially creating an inherently dangerous situation. Kelly v. Borough of Carlisle, 622 F.3d 248, 262 (3d Cir. 2010). The Third Circuit has firmly recognized that traffic stops are especially fraught with danger to police officers. Id. A traffic stop always poses danger because of its unpredictable nature, but even more so, when a potential suspect is on the loose. Petitioner was a suspect for a crime of several residential break-ins, which a reasonable office would assume is armed and dangerous; thus creating a heightened risk to the officers’ safety. Furthermore, the Petitioner was stopped on the side of a road congested with traffic. If the officers do not maintain control of the situation, any unpredictable movement could result in grave injury; therefore, the police officers acted reasonably by minimizing the unnecessary danger added by Petitioner’s recording during an already dangerous situation.

these situations for some reason. This is potentially a major problem. Finding out why police are

Police officers pull drivers over for a number of reasons, ranging from driving recklessly to suspicion of possessing illegal substances. Traffic stops pose stress onto police officers because of its hazards. First, police officers risk the chance of getting hit by incoming traffic. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, over 150 U.S. Law enforcement officers were killed since 1999 by getting struck by vehicles along America's highways (National Safety Commission, 2012). When a police officer pulls over a driver, he or she is focused on documenting information on the incident report, leaving him or her open to the risk of getting hit by incoming vehicles.

Society holds expectations for its citizens, and non-citizens at a very high level. They expect everyone to abide by the law, and give back to the community. In a perfect world all citizens and non-citizens would be good Samaritans, sadly it is far from that in today’s society. Many individuals are deviant and stray from society’s expectations of them. We know them as criminals. Indeed some of them may be hardened criminals, yet some of them commit petty crimes that are still a burden on society. Whether, their crime is petty or severe, society expects them to pay for their actions. Most criminals at one time or another will spend time in prison or jail.

Is this cited correctly? Criminal cases should receive punishment according to the severity of the crime. In my research I found the question that ask who decides what a faire punishment should be? No matter what the crime, the debt to society or persons affected, someone has to repay. For some minor thefts, jail time is not really cost effective and appropriate in some cases. Giving them community service, garnishing their wages making them publicly apologize may work for crimes such as littering, public indecent exposure or theft. For the big time thieves, yes, jail is the answer for people that shouldn't be on the streets. If it takes a lifetime in jail for those types of criminals to completely reform themselves, so be it. As theft is one of the 10 commandments, God probably has a more severe punishment in store, but as He is more forgiving than our justice system, I am sure He will give the individual a chance to redeem himself.

When a convicted felon is released from prison, their lives become more limited. They are no longer allowed to vote or own a firearm. They will also have a hard time finding employment due to their felony conviction. Having a criminal record, reduces a person’s chance of getting a callback or job offer by almost 50 percent (NAACP, n.d.). Convicted felons also have a more difficult time receiving an education due to the government not awarding them grants or funds to return to school. The fines that they have been charged with will also cause them to have a difficult time because what money they are able to gain has to go toward paying them instead of towards things such as bills or luxuries. This also makes the felons’ families suffer as well as if they are being punished for something that their loved one took part in. Some criminals will