The War On Drugs And Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Laws

Out of Order Why are so many violent criminals walking free while so many non-violent offenders are locked up? Although various aspects have fueled this inequity of justice, the factors that have contributed the most to this development are, undoubtedly, the War on Drugs and mandatory minimum sentencing laws which have led to punishment disproportionate to the offense. 59% of rape cases and 36.2% of murder cases in the United States are never solved. In 2011, less than half of all violent crimes committed found any resolution. This dilemma poses the question, why are so many violent criminals walking free while so many non-violent offenders are locked up? Although it is not responsible for all of the justice system’s failures, the War on Drugs has been a key factor in exemplifying these failures since 1971. For instance, New York City can be used as the perfect example of just one city in the U.S., representative of so many others, which distinctly illustrates this particular issue. Michael Bloomberg was the mayor of New York City from January 1, 2002 until December 31, 2013. In that time, police spent over one million man hours working 440,000 arrests for marijuana possession alone. This is a lot of police time and resources spent on busting parties instead of tracking down violent criminals. However, this goes beyond any one city or state. Nationwide, the U.S. would save 41.3 billion dollars every year by ending the War on Drugs. This includes tens of millions of manShow MoreRelatedMandatory Minimum Sentencing Laws For Drug Offences1089 Words   |  5 Pages In the U.S. the â€Å"War on Drugs† has been at the forefront of debates and discussion since it was formally declared by President Nixon in 1971. This war continues to have many problematic consequences today, the most notable being mandatory minimum sentencing laws for drug offences. This issue has been extensively researched by Kieran Riley with an article in the Boston University Law Journal titled â€Å"Trial by Legislature: Why Statutory Mandatory Minimum Sentences Violate the Separation of PowersRead MoreMandatory Minimum Sentences For Nonviolent Drug Related Offences1031 Words   |  5 PagesMandatory minimum sentences are the backbone of a racially unjust, overpopulated, and overpriced criminal justice system. The Smarter Sentencing Act is a bill that aims to reduce the mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug related offences. â€Å"The United States has five percent of the world’s population, and twenty five percent of the world’s prisoner s. Our prison population has grown eight hundred percent in the last thirty years, mostly because of changes in state and federal sentencingRead MoreEssay about Negative Consequences of Mandatory Sentencing747 Words   |  3 PagesConsequences of Mandatory Sentencing In recent years several mandatory sentencing laws have been put into motion. The original goals of the mandatory sentencing laws were to stop repeat offenders and to exhibit a get tough attitude on crime. These laws have not been working as intended, instead mandatory sentencing has led to some unfortunate consequences. Some of these consequences are overcrowding in prisons and less prison based rehabilitation. Mandatory sentencing laws do not narrowlyRead MoreMandatory Sentencing For Minor Drug Offences957 Words   |  4 PagesSince 1971, the United States has been on a war against drugs. Yet four decades and one trillion dollars later, we are still fighting this war (Branson). All that we have to show for this war is drugs running rampant and tons of citizens incarcerated. Mandatory sentencing for minor drug offences should be overturned due to overflowing prisons, damaging families, and the scare tactic it was created to be has failed. Due to mandatory sentencing for minor drug offences, the American prison system isRead MoreThe Concept Of Mandatory Sentencing1096 Words   |  5 PagesThe concept of mandatory sentencing is a relatively new idea in the legal field. It was first introduced in 1951 with the Boggs Act, and it made simple marijuana possession a minimum of two to ten years with a $20,000 fine. This was eventually repealed by Congress in 1970, but mandatory sentences came back with the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Since then, the scope and presence of mandatory sentencing has only grown, especially mandatory sentences for drug related offenses. RecentlyRead MoreMandatory Minimum Sentences For Nonviolent Drug Crimes Essay1644 Words   |  7 PagesMandatory Minimum Sentences For the vast majority of crimes committed in the United States, the fate of those who have been found guilty is left in the hands of a judge, after a trial by jury. However, since the 1950’s the fate of nonviolent drug offenders has been shifted to the hands of the partisan prosecution with the expansion of mandatory sentencing. Mandatory minimum sentencing is a system which sets minimum jail sentences for crimes, which not even judges can overturn. In the decades afterRead MoreThe War On Drugs And The United States1506 Words   |  7 Pages When, in 1971, Richard Nixon infamously declared a â€Å"war on drugs† it would have been nearly impossible for him to predict the collective sense of disapprobation which would come to accompany the now ubiquitous term. It would have been difficult for him to predict that the drug war would become a hot topic, a highly contentious and polarizing point of debate and, it would have difficult for him to predict that the United States would eventually become the prison capital of the world, incarceratingRead MoreThe Incarceration Rate Of The United States1370 Words   |  6 Pagesfamilies. The number of people that have been incarcerated also represents the number of families that have been shattered. Mass incarceration has been a huge social problem since the 1980s; it came hand in hand with the war on drugs. Elliott Currie, a professor of criminology and law, suggests that building more prisons, imposing longer sentences, and applying harsh punishments will not lower the incarceration rate. In his chapter on â€Å"Assessing the Prison Experiment,† he explained that the increaseRead MoreThe Expansion Of Mandatory Sentencing Penalties For Federal Crimes1778 Words   |  8 Pagesexpansion of mandatory sentencing penalties for federal crimes (especially non-violent drug crimes), which have helped catalyze the increase in the prison population, is an aspect of the criminal justice system that must be reformed. Public officials on both sides of the political spectrum support amending federal mandatory sentencing laws and in July of 2013 Congressman Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced The Smarter Sentencing Act of 2014. This legislation would lessen mandatory minimum sentences for Read MoreThe Incarceration Rate Of The United States1543 Words   |  7 Pagesnumber of families that have been shattered. Public Domain File:US incarceration timeline-clean.svg Created: 28 July 2009 Mass incarceration has been a huge social problem since the 1970s; it came hand in hand with the war on drugs. Elliott Currie, a professor of criminology and law, suggests that building more prisons, imposing longer sentences, and applying harsh punishments will not lower the crime rate. In his chapter on â€Å"Assessing the Prison Experiment,† he explained that the increase of crime