I personally feel tougher sentences do not necessarily mean deterrence, especially with drug offenders. I also feel habitual offenders that are serving life sentences for non-violent crimes never received the correct treatment for them to stop repeat offending. This has led to the overcrowding of our prisons and cutbacks to resources which makes it even harder for inmates to receive any kind of treatment they may need. We live in a county that leads the world in sentencing offenders to prison yet our crime rates haven't changed("Criminal Justice," 2017). A study conducted in 2009 by the top criminologists in the United States discovered 88% of their peers believed the death penalty which is the harshest sentence one can be given, did not
