Introduction
In 1994 Bill Clinton and his administration passed The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. This bill was passed with bi-partisan support and became a mixture of President Nixon’s War on drugs and President Regan’s tough on crime initiatives. My goal in this paper is to identify why this crucial bill was passed as well as analyze the hardships it may have caused including all the major agencies that took part in ratifying this bill. To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into three main sections. In the first section, I will provide an overview of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and the main issues it encompasses. Furthermore, I will analyze the role the government played while implementing …show more content…
However, in July of 2015, former President Bill Clinton spoke about this bill during a Criminal Justice Reform discussion. President Clinton said, “…Because I signed a bill that made the problem worse and I want to admit it… The good news is, we had the biggest drop in crime in history, the bad news is we had a lot people who were locked up, who were minor actors, for way too long” (msnbc.com). President Clinton went on to speak about smarting sentencing still being key for a successful Criminal Justice Reform movement, however, the reality is urban communities and people of color are still weary of police and the trust has been broken. This could be partially blamed on the bill and partially on poor policing. However, this bill played a major role with regards to straining police and community trust. Moreover, many states still are implementing the policies that were listed in the bill, once again, going back to the “three strikes” law that is still being practiced today in California as well as the mandatory minimum sentencing that erased Judicial discretion …show more content…
The clear majority - an estimated 87% - of the country 's prison population is housed in state prisons. (BBC.com) It is not directly responsible for the worst excesses of mass incarceration or police militarization. It 's simply not, the mass incarceration came from the states, and Bill Clinton got on their bandwagon. (abcnews.com) However, with the bill being passed 22 years ago, the Federal prison population also has doubled. The BBC News quote above sided with the Clinton administration claiming these laws were for Federal Prisons, not State institutions. The unintended consequences that drove the Federal prisons population from 95 thousand inmates to over 200 thousand cannot be ignored and must stem from somewhere and the legislation passed during this boom is a culpable suspect. During Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign, she stated:
That was not as apparent at the time, but part of being a responsible decision maker is to keep track of what’s happening.... And now I think it’s clear there were some consequences that we do have to address.
In 1994 Bill Clinton and his administration passed The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. This bill was passed with bi-partisan support and became a mixture of President Nixon’s War on drugs and President Regan’s tough on crime initiatives. My goal in this paper is to identify why this crucial bill was passed as well as analyze the hardships it may have caused including all the major agencies that took part in ratifying this bill. To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into three main sections. In the first section, I will provide an overview of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and the main issues it encompasses. Furthermore, I will analyze the role the government played while implementing …show more content…
However, in July of 2015, former President Bill Clinton spoke about this bill during a Criminal Justice Reform discussion. President Clinton said, “…Because I signed a bill that made the problem worse and I want to admit it… The good news is, we had the biggest drop in crime in history, the bad news is we had a lot people who were locked up, who were minor actors, for way too long” (msnbc.com). President Clinton went on to speak about smarting sentencing still being key for a successful Criminal Justice Reform movement, however, the reality is urban communities and people of color are still weary of police and the trust has been broken. This could be partially blamed on the bill and partially on poor policing. However, this bill played a major role with regards to straining police and community trust. Moreover, many states still are implementing the policies that were listed in the bill, once again, going back to the “three strikes” law that is still being practiced today in California as well as the mandatory minimum sentencing that erased Judicial discretion …show more content…
The clear majority - an estimated 87% - of the country 's prison population is housed in state prisons. (BBC.com) It is not directly responsible for the worst excesses of mass incarceration or police militarization. It 's simply not, the mass incarceration came from the states, and Bill Clinton got on their bandwagon. (abcnews.com) However, with the bill being passed 22 years ago, the Federal prison population also has doubled. The BBC News quote above sided with the Clinton administration claiming these laws were for Federal Prisons, not State institutions. The unintended consequences that drove the Federal prisons population from 95 thousand inmates to over 200 thousand cannot be ignored and must stem from somewhere and the legislation passed during this boom is a culpable suspect. During Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign, she stated:
That was not as apparent at the time, but part of being a responsible decision maker is to keep track of what’s happening.... And now I think it’s clear there were some consequences that we do have to address.