Mandatory sentencing

and procedure than the “typical courts.” First of all, drug courts deal with defendants with substance abuse. The courts get the nonviolent offenders, and they are offered treatment in the community. The judge overseeing the drug court requires mandatory drug testing and monitoring. They defendants are like on probation but…

jail and prison populations were less than 200,000 increasing to 2.2 million today which has led to prison overcrowding and has substantial strains on state budgets across the country. Mass incarceration came after a series of law enforcement and sentencing policy changes on the “tough of crime” era and the official beginning of the War on Drugs. Today, there are more people behind bars for a drug offense than the number of people who were in prison or jail for any crime in…

drugs abuse as a threat to national security or “public enemy number 1,” launching the United States into one of the most costly “wars” its ever fought. The presence and size of federal drug enforcement were increased as long as pushing for mandatory sentencing among other striker jailing laws. When Reagan came into the office, it marked the start of ballooning rates of incarceration and costs due to the expansion of the effort to fight drugs. The publics fear of drug use skyrocketed from single…

Laws, rules, and new ideas are always being put into action in an attempt to deter the criminal yet they rarely ever reduce serious crime. Attempting to deter the criminal by placing more officers on the ground, implementing longer jail and prison sentences, or fear tactics have proved to solve the issue of deterring the criminal. Many offenders feel they are invincible and therefore no threat exists for them and will continue the behavior. I am pretty confident that most criminals do not make…

think in certain ways, which is sometimes ok, but it is not ok when it serves to perpetuate racial inequalities. This happens in law enforcement, lawyers, and judges at an individual a systemic level, as can be seen in statistics for arrests and sentencing for similar crimes, though there are differences on racial lines. I think Implicit bias can be combatted through trainings on cultural competency and emotional intelligence so individuals can better understand circumstances the communities…

Whitehouse, both believe that the prison system needs reform to solve the issues prevalent in the justice system. The Senators want to combat the population and prepare inmates for life after prison. The reform of the prison system makes “changes to mandatory minimum sentences for low-level, nonviolent offenders, the bill also includes legislation [Cornyn and Whitehouse] previously introduced to help inmates better prepare for life after prison”(Cornyn, Whitehouse). The ability to give inmates a…

Recidivism. A noun used to describe “the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend.” This has been a growing problem in the past couple of decades. Several ethical concerns rise as the US prison system goes through several changes and find ways to refine their system, but with change comes consequences. Prisons use workarounds in order to reduce costs which end up being entirely unethical. Prisons also have a lack of institutions that help prevent multiple incarcerations, prisons use…

tends to make people feel afraid because all they show is bad news. This cause our unconsciousness to allow fear come into our lives, even though there really is not anything to be fearful for. Crime is a problem. This will never change. Harsher sentencing and police brutality will never help the removal of crime off our streets. Something needs to happen in our prison system because it is terribly wrong. We are digging a hole for our ourselves and letting our neighbors and country men rot away…

(Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280) the court ruled that a mandatory death sentencing is unconstitutional, this case was also ruled as being disproportionate. It seems as though it wanted to promote and increase the number of executions. The act goes against religion, in many religions execution is an immoral act; this is…

Obviously, for many users, OxyContin serves merely as a substitute for heroin, but many people with legitimate pain problems were duped into taking the drug. For instance, that was seemingly the case with Rush Limbaugh who started taking the drug after back surgery. After all, most patients trust their doctor’s word as the gospel and the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, convinced doctors that it had “reduced addiction risk.” That was a completely false marketing claim as OxyContin is just as…