Friday, September 20, 2013

Mandatory minimums are being re-evaluated


Category: Federal Law
Level: National
Concerning: Policy that will help taxpayers money become more efficiently used in the penal system
My Views:
The United States penal system has been a huge topic of debate for a long time. In the entire United States we have “5% of the worlds population, and 25% of the world’s prisoners”, which in my opinion, is a little high. This new policy that is slowly but surely coming into play, will help eliminate a lot of those prisoners that do not deserve to be in a high level penitentiary. Non-violent offenders do not deserve to be with rapists, murders, and violent convicts. I am not saying that non-violent drug offenders do not need to be punished, but they do not deserve to be grouped in with drug lords and hired guns, it is not fair. By not wasting taxpayer’s money on these nonviolent criminals, the judicial system can more efficiently spend resources on actually apprehending and prosecuting actual dangerous criminals that hurt people and cause unrest. This policy will help the nonviolent criminals by letting them avoid the mandatory minimum sentencing laws that are still in effect. The policy states that you must meet the four criteria: you’re not a leader of a criminal organization, no ties to gangs or trafficking, no significant criminal histories and your offense did not involve the use of weapons or violence. Personally, I would rather have these nonviolent criminals on the street rather than offenders that used weapons, or sold drugs to a child.

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