Social issues and concerns  / Criminal justice system

Criminal Justice System

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The U.S. prison population has grown 340% over the past thirty years -Largely due to stiffer penalties such as mandatory minimums, three-strike laws, and life in prison without the possibility of parole.  Federal prisons account for roughly 10% of the total number of incarcerated individuals.  While the nationwide arrest rate for all offenses decreased by 16% during this period, the arrest rate for drug crimes increased by 93.4%.

 

More than half of federal drug offenders (58.64%) were low level employees that never took part in the management or the organization of the drug trade.  In federal prisons, drug offenders make up 50% of the population, while violent offenders total just 7 percent .

 

The return rate for all offenders is 76.6% within five years.

 

We can no longer afford to house and feed low-level nonviolent offenders.   It's just not cost effective.  There are too many stories of first-time drug offenders serving exorbitant sentences.   Our laws are dated, ineffectual regarding rehabilitation, and cost a tremendous amount of money Americans are no longer willing to pay.

Our criminal justice system may be broken, but not beyond repair.

 

Capital Punishment

 

Capital punishment is the current law, but I value all human beings.  I do not believe in the death penalty.

 

 

 

¹ “Table: Estimated number of persons under correctional supervision in the United States, 1980 – 2013,” Key statistics: Total Correction Population, Bureau of Justice Statistics, www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=kfdetail&iid=487.

² “Table: Estimated number of persons under correctional supervision in the United States, 1980 – 2013,” Key statistics: Total Correction Population, Bureau of Justice Statistics, www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=kfdetail&iid=487.

³ The New York Times, By Rick Lyman, “Marriage Programs Try to Instill Bliss and Stability Behind Bars,” Dated April 16, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/16/us/marriage-programs-try-to-instill-bliss-and-stability-behind-bars.html.

⁴ Joseph Murray, David P. Farrington, and Ivana Sekol, “Children’s Antisocial Behavior, Mental Health, Drug Use, and Educational Performance after Parental Incarceration: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” Psychological Bulletin 138, no. 2 (2012).

⁵ Brookings analysis of “Arrests in the United States, 1980-2012,” dataset generated from the Arrest Data Analysis Tool, Bureau of Justice Statistics, www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=datool&surl=/arrests/index.cfm#.

⁶ Forbes, “Ted Cruz Abandons Criminal Justice Reform on the way to the White House,” by Jacob Sullum, January 28, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2016/01/28/ted-cruz-abandons-criminal-justice-reform-on-his-way-to-the-white-house/#4f511f19548f.

⁷ Forbes, “Ted Cruz Abandons Criminal Justice Reform on the way to the White House,” by Jacob Sullum, January 28, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2016/01/28/ted-cruz-abandons-criminal-justice-reform-on-his-way-to-the-white-house/#4f511f19548f.

⁸ Politico, “Cruz takes exception to pope on death penalty,” by Seung Min Kim, September 24, 2015, http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/ted-cruz-pope-francis-death-penalty-214023.