Longer Prison Sentencing Case Study

The United States is less the 5% of the world population but has almost 25% of the world’s prison population (Coates, 2015; Waldman, 2016). In the last 40 years, the number of American civilians imprisoned by the United States has increased 500%. (Mauer, 2011). However, this explosion in incarceration rates has not been evenly distributed throughout the American population (Waldman, 2016). While one in seventeen White men will be imprisoned in their lifetime, one in sixteen Latino men will face this fate and for Black men, the number is one in three (Mauer,2011). Neither the racial disparity in incarceration nor its scale was accidental (Coates, 2015). The mass incarceration of Black men in the United States was a direct result of the “War

Federal sentencing practices and mandatory minimum laws are far too harsh, and ruins the lives of thousands of united citizens every year. In a modern era where the affects of drugs such as marijuana are well documented there is no logical reason that it should still be classified as a schedule 1 narcotic on a federal level. Even if it made sense in a sane world for marijuana to be a schedule 1 drug, the penalty for having it, or any other drug of the same classification is entirely too harsh. The unfair laws in place can lead to situations that no one in their right mind would consider fair or right. This is the kind of situation Clarence Aaron found himself in when he was 24 years old, and still finds himself in today. Aaron is serving 3 life sentences for being a part of a 1500 dollar cocaine deal in college. Ronald

The recording is based on research founded by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, who is a research analyst for the sentencing project. The sentencing project is a non-profit group that advocates for the criminal justice reform. She also, is an author of a report called “Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies, which is about her study of police shootings disproportionately affecting African American and how media coverage shows racial bias against African American. In addition, a 2002 survey found that people made an estimate that 40 percent of those that committed violent crimes were African American, but the real percentage was only 29 percent. According to Nazgol Ghandnoosh (2015), a research

Prison overcrowding has caused many complications to California’s Correctional System. To resolve this issue, “[o]n April 5, 2011, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 109, the ‘2011 Realignment Legislation Addressing Public Safety’…, which… shifted responsibility from the state to the counties for tens of thousands of offenders,” (Abarbanel et al., 2013, 1). This law was put in action was because of overcrowding in state prison and it was affecting a variety of crucial programs that were necessary for inmates to have, such as mental and health services. These problems are not new to the correctional system for there was a cases that influence the movement for realignment, such as Plata & Coleman v. Schwarzenegger, Madrid v. Gomez, Estelle v. Gamble, and Brown v. Plata. Overall, these cases had an issues with overcrowding and the violation of the eighth amendment for cruel and unusual punishment for having inadequate mental and health care assistance.

Many people in jail are waiting for justice. Having to sit in a jail cell doing time for something you didn't do and having to wait for an appeal that's not going to happen can be rough. There's has to be a change in the sentencing reform. First of all , prison is getting overpopulated. According to source 1 " Imprisonment destroys employment prospects and family ties. This shows how sentencing reform can affect peoples lives because most american lives are Fathers and Mothers trying to support for their families are stuck in prison waiting for an appeal and to beat the trial to get back to supporting their families. Eventually, the more people you put in prison the badder it gets. In source 1 line 5-7" After 45,000 criminals were placed in

In an article published in April of 2000, by the American Correctional Association Incorporated “Comparing Public and Private Prison Costs: The Arizona Method” written by Carl E. Nink and Judith Kilgus, Nink and Kilgus evaluate how the legislation from the State of Arizona makes sure that private prisons are maintaining a cost effective status for the state.

CCA has spent $17.4 million on lobbying in the past 10 years as well as an additional $1.9 million in political contributions in that last 9 years. (Lee, 2012) Marco Rubio is a politician who has received contributions from GEO Corporation – yet another private prison corporation -- in the recent years. This year Rubio announced his bid for President. With the contributions coming into Rubio he has pushed for stricter immigration laws which in turn lock up more non-violent offenders who would qualify to be housed at a private prison facility. (Cohen, 2015) Private prisons only house inmates who are considered to be low risk. To be considered low risk inmates’ crimes either has to be non-violent or they have had to display exceptional behavior over the time of their sentence. Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona, which requires police to determine the immigration status of a person who is lawfully stopped if there is reason that the individual is an illegal alien, was supported by politicians who were supported financially by private prisons. Another controversial law that received the same financial support is California’s three strikes law. These bills help support the 100% occupancy rate mandated by private prisons in their contracts with some states. (Cohen,

In 1973, New York State passed the first harshest statewide anti-drug law in the country. Named after New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the Rockefeller Drug laws required a mandatory lengthy prison sentences for all felony-level drug and possession offenses. The intent of lengthy prison sentence was meant to deter drug abuse and drug crimes. Between 1970s and 2000s, the Prison population tripled from 11 percent (12,579) in 1973 to almost 35 percent (70,154) in 2008 (DCJS, 2011; Feinblatt, Berman & Foxx, 2000). The overcrowding of prison in response to drug-related crime created a new opportunity for reformers to find alternative ways in treating drug offenders instead of placing them in prison. As drug courts began to grow exponentially during the 1990s, advocacy groups led the charge in coordinating efforts to lobby efforts in reforming the Rockefeller sentencing. In 2009, under Governor Paterson, the State legislature enacted legislation that shifted away from mass incarceration towards a public health model.

Many people commit crimes due to their pasts and home life. For example, a young adult with a troubled life by the name of Trevor. Trevor has had many run-ins with the police in his small British Columbia town and the other citizens were convinced that he would go to jail at one point because of this. Soon enough, Trevor was caught smashing the window of a camera store. He was planning to steal and then sell the cameras in the big city. Now, had Trevor been a teenager and not an adult, things may have gone differently. The arrest, the sentencing, and what happens afterwards would differ between the ages. During the time when someone is caught, it can go two ways depending on the age. But in both cases, he would be taken into custody and have a chance to tell the police what he was doing and why, with a lawyer if he wanted. But before that, Trevor would have his rights read to him. As Trevor is an adult, he would have to submit his fingerprints and

These measures were taken to ensure public safety but are now posing a problem for our correctional facilities. Overcrowding and budgets are among the problems brought about by these measures. Both the state and federal correctional population throughout the United States have steadily seen significant increases in their population, every year for the past decades. Based on the census found on the Bureau of Justice website, the data collected between June 30th 2000 to December 30th 2005 showed that prisoners held in custody between federal and state prisons increased by 10%. (“Bureau of Justice Statistics”, p.1 -2)

Crime was at an all-time low in the 1990’s. Researchers wanted to know what the cause of this phenomenon could be. As they began their research that had to figure out what had changed. Therefore, they began to look at the prison system. Here they noticed that there had been some significant changes in prison sentences. Increased prison reliance was a small part in this effect (Levitt, 2006, pp. 105-132).

The fundamentals of court administration did not until the middle 1900s, which was “decades after police administration and even centuries after corrections” (Cronkhite, 2013, p. 124). The courts were not as complex and did not appear to need specific administrators until they had to “conform to social, political, and economic trends” (Cronkhite, 2013, p.124). Sentencing remained simple until the courts had to “focus on probation, parole, and indeterminate sentences during the Community-Based Era of the 1970s and determinate, mandatory, and three strikes and you’re out during the Just Deserts Era of the 1990s to the present” (Cronkhite, 2013, p.125). These complex trends require even more duties of court administrators and many colleges

Determinate Sentence is a jail or prison sentence that you cannot change its definite. But offenders are allowed to be released after they have served their time. Determinate sentences were almost exclusively used throughout the eighteenth century and it was believed that judges were the best people to determine the amount of time needed to punish the offender and to deter them from further crimes. Judges were granted the power to determine sentencing also took much discretion away from the judges.

In this paper the subject to discuss is the prevention and mitigation analysis of the Arizona Department of Correction’s Morey Unit hostage situation. This incident was very terrible in the United States history in escapes made from prisons. In Buckeye, Arizona at the Lewis Prison Correction facility in the Morey, on January 18, 2004, Ricky Wassenaar and Steven Coy made an attempt to escape from the unit by taking two correctional officers hostage and took over Morey’s unit tower, causing a 15-day hostage and standoff incident. The following discussion is an analysis of issues, prevention, and mitigation recommendations for future incidents aiming at fiscal, operational, and administrative problems

I believe what should be emphasized in punishment is the verdict or outcome to all that have done something wrong or harsh. Though we may not agree always on the decisions of the courts (parents, teachers, etc), they are there for societies protection of right and wrong. I believe that the deterrence sentence (or rather a sentence with a deterrent element) are aimed at deterring not only the actual offender from further offences but also potential offenders from breaking the law. This sets a good example for society as a