BATH, N.Y. (WENY) -- After more than an hour of impact statements, Thomas Clayton learned his fate. Clayton will spend the rest of his life in prison for hiring Michael Beard to kill his wife Kelley back in 2015.
While a misdemeanor may be less serious than a felony, it is still serious and you can still be punished with incarceration and a monetary fine. Worse, once convicted of a misdemeanor, it goes on your record and can negatively impact your life in many ways. Not
This essay explains sentencing in the United States Criminal Justice system. The objectives of punishment in the United States corrections is to help deter crime and to ensure reoffenders don’t reoffend. Sentencing impacts the corrections system and society in a positive manor by eliminating offenders out of the community. Sentencing may include one of the following: probation, fines, prison, community service, probation and so forth depending on the state you reside and the type of offense you commit. Each crime committed doesn’t have a set sentence, therefore they are determined on a case to case basis. The main goal of the criminal justice system is to defend the community and serve justice. Sentencing plays a vital role in the Criminal Justice system.
The concept of mandatory sentencing is a relatively new idea in the legal field. It was first introduced in 1951 with the Boggs Act, and it made simple marijuana possession a minimum of two to ten years with a $20,000 fine. This was eventually repealed by Congress in 1970, but mandatory sentences came back with the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Since then, the scope and presence of mandatory sentencing has only grown, especially mandatory sentences for drug related offenses. Recently, there has been a growing concern over the use and implementation of mandatory minimum sentencing, with many believing it reduces a judge’s ability to give out a sentence that they feel accordingly fits the crime. Many advocates for mandatory
It will sentence any person who traffics drugs to a minimum of two years in prison, but since Oklahoma has the strictest drug laws in the United States, because the state is very republican and it’s in the “Bible Belt”, the charges are doubled or even tripled depending on the drug and quantity. Oklahoma has a three-strike system for drug traffickers. The first two offenses are usually 10 - 25 years, but the third strike is life in prison without parole. Drug dealer and drug traffickers are in prison for life. Living the rest of their lives behind bars for a nonviolent crime. When prisons become overcrowded and are flooded with people, the state of Oklahoma sometime say that they need to revisit that law, but they usually just transfer prisoners to different prisons. After being arrested, you have a court case, but there is no negotiating. They giving you your sentencing and send you on your way, but in any other case, you have somewhat of a chance of getting away scott free. “Even in a murder case, you have an option. In this type of drug case, that's no longer the case and that's ridiculous. ” - Bob Ravitz a Oklahoma County
Apart from drug possession for personal use being treated as a misdemeanor, the law also pays attention to 5 property crimes under a worth of $950: theft, forgery, writing bad checks, receiving stolen property and shoplifting. A misdemeanor is punishable by up to one year in prison. The proposition also gives a chance to inmates currently serving time for one of those crimes to appeal for resentencing.
State courts in 32 counties across 17 States sentenced 79,000 felons to probation in 1986. Within 3 years of sentencing, while still on probation, 43% of these felons were rearrested for a felony. Half of the arrests were for a violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, or aggravated assault) or a drug offense (drug trafficking or drug possession).
sentencing is more than six months. When someone is arrested for a crime, the court
The most serious charge, a third-degree felony, carries a potential sentence of up to three years in prison.
Currently Arizona holds the ninth highest incarceration rate in the nation. Responsible for the drastic rate of incarcerated inmates, is the mandatory minimum sentencing laws that have named Arizona the incarceration capital. By implementing the mandatory minimum sentencing law, the discretion that lay within the position as a judge is challenged by that of the prosecutor. With Arizona’s sentencing enhancement making little distinction between individuals who are responsible for either serious or petty crimes,
Determinate sentencing is becoming more popular in juvenile courts. It is a special statute that allows for the possibility of a juvenile serving a sentence beyond the age of 21. It specifically covers certain violent offenses and drug cases, like murder, capital murder, sexual assault, and indecency with a child. Aggravated controlled substances cases are also covered (TYC website). The alternative to determinate sentencing is blended sentencing, which allows judges to issue delinquent offenders both juvenile and adult dispositions. Depending on the behavior of the delinquent while serving out their juvenile sentence, a fail-safe postadjudication stage occurs to determine whether or not their adult sentence
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
Misdemeanors – example prostitution, these are liable to a greater amount of fine or a short jail time.
Many drug court offenders receive sanctions for their violations, some are sentenced to a week or consecutive weeks in jail. After completion of the sentence the inmate returns to drug court and begins the program again, many chances are given by the court.
Truth-in-sentencing law was enacted in 1984; consequently, it mandates offenders serve the majority of their prison sentence before being eligible for release (Ditton & Wilson, 1999). The majority of the States in the United States mandate violent offenders serve at least eighty-five percent of their court ordered sentence before being eligible for release (Ditton & Wilson, 1999). The truth-in-sentencing requirement varies throughout the United States.