The Problem Of New Mexico

The 3 Strikes Crime Law is one of the nation’s harshest sentencing laws. Are you aware that even non-violent criminals are sentenced to life in prison under the 3 Strikes Crime Law? More than 4,000 non-violent criminals are currently serving life in sentence in prison in California alone. (Vega & Galloway, 2012). If you take these outrageous numbers and add them to the rest of the nations non-violent criminal statistics the numbers are shocking. The 3 Strikes Crime Law is a violation of the 8th Amendment, as the maximum penalty for non-violent offenders is severe, unjust, and

Mass incarceration is a major problem in the United States. Since the tough on crime movement that began to emphasize more punishment and creating new policies such as; three strikes law, truth-in sentencing laws, mandatory sentencing, and determinate sentencing, our prisons and jails have become overcrowded. The three strikes law increases the prison sentence of an offender convicted of three felonies or serious crime. Usually the punishment ranges from a minimum of 25 years to life in prison. The truth-in sentencing laws require the offender to serve a substantial amount of their prison sentence (usually around 85 percent) before they are eligible for release on parole. The mandatory sentencing requires a minimum period of incarceration that the offender must serve regardless of the history of the offender or the nature of the circumstance. These get tough policies have implicated longer prison and jail sentences and has reduced the amount of discretion that the judges, parole/probation officers and prison and jail administrators. These actions have consequently increased the prison and jail population, which causes an increase in money spent on jails and prisons.

Since the policy was enacted in the early 1990s, three strikes laws have been one of the most controversial issues facing the American criminal justice system. In general, advocates believe that locking up criminals will protect society. Critics believe that three-strike policy can only be effective with offenders that are on their last strikes (Worrall, 2008). However, other critics explain how three-strike laws don’t significantly reduce crime because most criminals mature out of the criminal lifestyle (Worrall, 2004).

Numerous amounts of research has been conducted on the effectiveness of the three strikes sentencing policy, one of the more thorough ones to come along examined three strikes policy throughout the United States and came an interesting conclusion about the effectiveness of three strikes sentencing laws. The study found three strikes law to be ineffective in reducing crime in a variety of areas. The study found that rarely are they concerned with being caught for their crime, this was further attributed by the fact that a great deal

The yellow field with the red Zia symbol in the middle are the colors of the Spanish flag. Spanish explorers first discovered this territory in 1540. New Mexico is one of the most beautiful states with its timeless traditions and mesmerizing scenery.

On an everyday basis, how is the three strikes law affecting people in New Mexico? The three strikes law is one of the most modernized laws in the criminal justice system of the United States, where it has been created in the efforts to reduce and prevent crimes in the states especially for required sentencing laws for repeat criminal offenders. In 2003, more than half of the United States had adopted the three strikes law; in addition, the law is raised when criminals have committed their third felonies. Therefore, these laws execute a harsher penalty of a minimum of 25 years of a life sentence for criminals who have committed a crime for the third time even though their crimes that are not evil. There were many arguments raised when many of the criminals were sent to prison for 25 years for a very small crime such as petty theft. Many of the people in the United States argued that a 25 year prison is very similar to the punishment for committing murder. In 2013, according to The Washington Times Newspaper by associated press, Santa Fe, N.M. (AP) house majority leader Nate Gentry argues that “New Mexico is the second most dangerous state in the nation as far as violent crime goes” (press). This is the result based on the 24/7 Wall Street data; therefore, Gentry also said that it is one of the most dangerous place to be a child because many children are getting affected by the crimes they are seeing from their perspective. For the last few years, three strikes law has

From 1980 to 2008, the number of people incarcerated in America quadrupled-from roughly 500,000 to 2.3 million people.For decades, the United States had a relatively stable prison population. That changed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some factors included a rise in crime from the 1960s to 1980s; rising concerns over crack cocaine and other drugs, resulting in huge increases in drug penalties; a move to mandatory minimum sentences; and the implementation of other tough-on-crime policies, such as "three-strikes" laws and policies to ensure prisoners served at least 85 percent of their sentences. What's more, the movement toward broad, punitive crime control and prison policies wasn't based on any scientific rationale, says Haney, who studies

In March 1994, California voted to pass the Three Strikes Law with the majority of the vote, a bill that had been struck down multiple times by the state legislature (Naomi Harlin Goodno). This law would allow criminals with two prior felonies on their records to receive life in prison. These laws were proposed to keep serious repeat offenders off the streets, this was a result of the rising crime rate of the nineties. The law was presented to the electorate as a way to keep rapists, child molesters and killers of the streets, the most incorrigible of inmates; however, it has been proven that such laws unproportionally target minorities and persons with mental illnesses. African Americans are incarcerated at a rate thirteen times higher than

Before we talk about why New Mexico enacted the three strikes law, I want to first talk about its origin in California which influenced New Mexico to pass the law in 1994. The three strikes law is a penalizing system that allows the court to add significant time to the prison judgements of certain repeat offenders who have been put away for serious or violent crimes. The three strikes law was adopted in 1990s to allow stricter punishments for those offenders who have convicted very serious crimes more than once. In 1990s, Californians were encouraged to get tough on crime measures which histrionically increased the prison population and the length of prison sentences. Most candidates in the past years have dreaded with being considered as “soft on crime,” which got worse throughout the legislative route. The three strikes law was generated in the 1990s in reaction to18-year-old Kimber Reynolds, daughter of Mike Reynold murdered in Fresno in 1992 by Douglas David Walker, and kidnapped and murdered of 12-year-old Polly klaas by repeat offender Richard Allen Davis in 1993 (Figure 1). There were many citizens in California who were terrified by the statement that the repeat criminals are still on the streets wandering around freely with the long past history of violent crimes. After all the horrific violent crimes happened in California, California legislators and voters

. I do not think, so I need to change anything in my current problem from the HCP to AP. My current problem is that for the last few years, three strikes law has enormously increased more crimes in New Mexico. A main reason there is an increase in New Mexico is because in New Mexico the three strikes law is mainly only applied for 5 specific crimes such as kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, shooting, and criminal sexual penetration. Moreover, there is debate going on in New Mexico that the crime rate is rising very rapidly to increase that New Mexico government need to toughen the three strikes law. Governor Martinez is arguing that the three strikes law is very weak that is no narrow that no inmate is currently serving a life sentence under it. There are many criminals out there on the streets of New Mexico who keep crimes but there is no one to stop them because most of the crimes in New Mexico do not even apply to the three strikes law. This is the few of the reasons why New Mexico crime rate is still high.

Between 1993 and 1995, 24 states and the federal government adopted some form of the three strikes law, which reduced judicial discretion practices and mandated severe incarceration periods to those who were convicted of three or more felonies (Peak, 2012). The rational of the three-strikes you are out law was an attempt to protect society and deter crime by targeting repeat offenders such as murders, rapists, and child molesters by locking them up for long periods of time. The law was built around a political push in the early nineties adopted around public perception that the prison system was lenient on criminals and society needed to get tough on crime. While the three-strike law was intended

Originating in Washington State in 1993, by the end of that year, over half of all states, including the federal government had enacted their variation of a “three strikes” law. Roughly contemporaneous with these measures, crime rates have declined nationwide.”(Michael, V. (2002) para. 1) “This law approving mandated life in prison without parole for offenders convicted of committing serious offenses such as murder, rape, and robbery a third time.” (Meehan, K. (2014) para4).

One of the most controversial laws in the efforts to reduce crime has been the "three-strikes" laws that have been enacted. This law, which is already in twenty-seven states, requires that offenders convicted of three violent crimes be sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. The law is based on the idea that the majority of felonies are committed by about 6% of hard core criminals and that crime can be eliminated by getting these criminals off the streets. Unfortunately, the law fails to take into account its own flaws and how it is implemented.

From 1900 to 1950 New Mexico changed in many different ways. New towns sprang up as more people came into the state. People began to develop agriculture and the economy. While other places in the United States had had much more technology for much longer New Mexico did not adapt until around 1930.____________________

By the mid-1980s, and the early 1990s, states began passing habitual offenders statutes, which in effect, identified repeat offenders in the justice system, and sentencing them to long, mandatory prison sentences, up to, and including life in prison without parole (Mays & Winfree, 2009). These statutes are known as the “three strikes” laws. The meaning behind this is that if an offender, who has been convicted three times for criminal offenses, is incapable of reforming, and therefore should be incarcerated, and kept away from the rest of society. In principle, this may sound like a great idea, and a great way to keep society safe,