Thursday, August 24, 2017

The Importance of the Criminal Justice Bill Part 2

Hey Everyone,

This is a continued analysis of the two bills I authored, and their importance in our society. I will be focusing on the Justice for our System Act. The first part of the analysis can be found here.


To continue on with the bill, Sections 6 & 9 can be grouped together as both are similar in regulating the laws and sentencing of our criminals. The bill removes three strike laws and mandatory minimum sentences. Three strike laws are common in several states including New York and California, and they essentially deem that if a prisoner commits two violent or serious crimes, their third crime, no matter what it is, could lead to an imprisonment time of 25 years to life. These laws are ridiculous because our system in and of itself perpetuates a cycle of crime, which means that if we are not properly rehabilitating criminals, we should not lock them up for serious amounts of time, effectively ruining their livelihoods and the possibility of redemption. Mandatory minimum sentences are sentences means if a person commits a certain crime, they must spend a minimum amount of time in prison for that crime. There are many things wrong with this law, however, as they take away the decision making power of a Judge and create arbitrary numbers regardless of the facts of a case. Mandatory minimums are incredibly arbitrary, and have severe impacts on the communities and families who are victims of such laws. 

The bill continues on to address something titled the "ICE Bed Detention Quota". The ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) by law is forced to detain 34,000 immigrants every day for their "quota". This is needless mostly because quota's such as this force the ICE to simply detain people, no matter who they are. This also leads to worse living conditions for the immigrants forced to satisfy this quota. By eliminating the ICE Bed Detention Quota, taxpayers could save up to $1.4 billion, making it a necessity that we eliminate this policy. 

I will group the final two sections (Rehabilitation Programs & Prison Safety Requirements) together as a broad conclusion to this analysis. The bill's main focus was rehabilitation, as I mentioned in my first post. The separate pieces of the bill all function as ways to improve the prison system, but they don't make the necessary change from punishment to rehabilitation.  The section specifically on rehabilitation programs discusses numerous possibilities to help convicts in prison. Higher education programs, drug treatment programs, and prison contemplative programs can all greatly help criminals maintain a stable peace of mind, as well as better themselves and prepare themselves for life after prison. The honors program is something a bit different than those listed above. The program was something experimented in a few California prison systems where prisoners have to show a commitment and desire to better themselves for society. Prisoners must create their own plan which shows a commitment towards improvement. There are limited studies, however they have shown promising results with a decrease in recidivism rates across the board. Programs such as these do work, and it should be our duty to implement them in our prison system. Finally, on Prison Safety Requirements, prisoners can not truly function and receive the proper help and care they need through harsh conditions. Prisons are run down and prisoners are forced to live in terrible living conditions. We should make it a priority to make prison conditions significantly better for the sake of rehabilitation - prisoners should be treated as humans and our prisons should reflect that fact. 

If you stuck by and read all this text, thank you! I will most likely write up an analysis on the opioid addiction bill I had posted. 

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