Halle Clark

Criminal Justice Reform Criminal Justice has been a boiling issue in the 2020 election, so I feel we should address as many parts of it as we can. Many argue that the criminal justice system needs to be reformed in a lot of ways, including reducing mass incarceration and taking another look at nonviolent drug charges. Republicans and democrats alike have been taking action to initiate change, and as we discuss various criminal justice issues, hopefully you decide where you believe the change is needed, too. Cash Bail The Political Issue Cash bail is the amount of money the court decides a person in detention must pay in order to be released. Due to varying factors, including low income as a primary one, three out of five people in US jails today have not been convicted of a crime, according to the ​Center for American Progress​. The majority of opposers believe the cash bail system is completely unfair to those in poverty, which then forces said people to take plea deals out of desperation or sit in jail until trial, even if they're innocent. Any amount of time in jail can have a serious effect on somebody's life, including negatively impacting their job status or housing. That is why a lot of people do not like the cash bail system and are calling to change it. According to the ​Stanford Law Review​, pretrial detention leads to a greater likelihood of the individual committing future crimes, which means the jail time could have a criminogenic effect. This explains the majority of people opposing cash bail calling for pretrial release policy reform. Those in support of cash bail, or at least against ending it completely, say that allowing possible offenders to walk the streets endangers the public and places more unfunded mandates on communities, as stated by New York State Senator John J. Flanagan. Politicians That Want to End It Completely Some of the current politicians that believe we should eliminate the system all together include Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Beto O'rourke, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Politicians That Want To Reform It Some of the current politicians that believe in reform, not elimination, include Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang. Politicians That Are Opposed to Taking Away Cash Bail Some current politicians that are opposed to taking away cash bail include Donald Trump, John J. Flanagan, and Joseph Griffo. Mandatory Minimum Sentencing The Political Issue Mandatory minimum sentencing is the minimum prison sentence a judge must give a defendant based upon the charges brought by the prosecutor when a case results in a conviction. There are many states that hold the mandatory minimum sentencing law, including Michigan, Missouri, and Arizona. People argue that this law takes away the judge's ability to consider the circumstances of the crime and the characteristics of the defendant when sentencing them, according to the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation (cjpf.org). Supporters of mandatory minimum sentencing state that the minimum mandatory sentence is a huge threat to offenders, and most of the time, individuals looking at a 15-year sentence will usually rat on a worse criminal as a plea deal. This is according to Maxwell Jackson, the police chief of Harrisville, Utah, who also states that an amount of 90% rat on worse criminals as a plea deal. In opposition to this standpoint, many believe that minimum sentencing contributes to mass incarceration, especially when it comes to drug charges. Minimum sentencing most often affects nonviolent drug offenders, who pose the least physical dangers to communities according to the Brennan Center for Justice​. The initial intention of mandatory minimum sentencing was to encourage fairness, which some agree it has, but many say instead, the law has widely contributed to mass incarceration. For a long time, this law has been used in response to the drug epidemic and crime spikes. While benefits clearly exist, including more criminal offenders being reported, many argue that minimum sentences allow prosecutors to manipulate the scenario and use the threat of charges that carry steep minimums to elicit a guilty plea on lesser charges, regardless of the defendant's guilt. President Donald Trump backed a sentencing reform bill in 2018 that shortened minimum sentencing and promoted vocational training in prisons, something that could be seen as a step in the right direction. Politicians Who Believe in Eliminating Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Some current politicians that believe in ending mandatory minimum sentences include Joe Biden, Cory Booker, and Julian Castro. Politicians Who Support Reforming Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Some current politicians that support at least reforming mandatory minimum sentencing include Donald Trump, Rand Paul, and Lindsey Graham. The Cocaine Sentencing Disparity The Political Issue In 1986, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act created a disparity in sentencing between two forms of cocaine- crack and powder. The act created a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison if an individual was in possession of five grams (or a few rocks) of crack cocaine. A coke-snorting individual would have to be caught with 100 times the amount of powder cocaine, or at least 500 grams, to face a similar sentencing. This act was put into place in effort to combat the crack epidemic that was occurring, but it is argued that it disproportionally affects black communities because crack cocaine is cheaper, easier to get, and distributed more commonly for personal use, which makes it more accessible in poor, urban communities than powder, according to ​The Criminal Defense Lawyer​. The sentencing disparity between crack and powder now sits at 18-to-1, and some politicians believe it should be eliminated entirely. Supporters of the disparity believe crack cocaine is much more dangerous than powder, but powder cocaine and crack have very similar long-term effects, including cognitive problems. Therefore, many believe the disparity is unwarranted. President Trump's First Step Act helped reduce the sentences of many previously convicted cocaine users, which did help reduce mass incarceration due to the disparities. Politicians Who Want To Eliminate the Cocaine Sentencing Disparity Some current politicians who want to scrap the disparity all together include Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Tom Steyer. Politicians Who Are Still Undecided Some current politicians that are undecided include Michael Bloomberg and Steve Bullock. Private Prisons The Political Issue Private prisons are for-profit prisons that are run by a third party contracted by a government agency. According to ​The Sentencing Project​, 22 states do not have any for-profit prisons, and 18 of the states that do have for profit prisons incarcerate more than 500 people in them. In August 2016, the Justice Department announced their plans to end the use of private prisons due to concerns about their safety and their effectiveness to save money, but less than a year later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed this plan, according to ​The Justice Policy​. Today, private prisons incarcerate about 9% of all U.S. prisoners, as stated by ​The Week​. Many people oppose private prisons because they cut corners to save money, hiring fewer employees with less training. It was reported by ​The Sentencing Project​that private prison employees receive over $5,000 dollars less than government-run prison employees and receive 58 hours less training than them. The Justice Department conducted a 2016 report that showed private prisons had 28% more inmate-on-inmate assaults and more than twice as many inmate-on-staff assaults. People who support private prisons mainly argue that they save money, which can definitely be true. They do help taxpayers, which could be the deciding factor for some. Private prisons started during the massive war on drugs and became a thing partly because government prisons were becoming too full. The main persuasion was that the private prisons new construction and electronic surveillance would allow them to hold prisoners with a smaller staff, saving the public money, but the negative effects stated above show why that arguing point may not be enough. Private prisons also provide less educational, medical, and enrichment programs for inmates. Overall, they tend not to care about the rehabilitation of the inmates, primarily because they make more profit and secure future contracts with higher recidivism rates. Politicians That Want To End Private Prisons At The Federal Level Some current politicians that want to end private prisons at the federal level include Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Politician(s) That Support Private Prisons Some current politicians that support private prisons include Donald Trump and the members of his administration.