Mandatory Minimum Sentencing’s Impact on Prisons in America In 1971, President Nixon, enacted the War on Drug campaign, in hope to reduce the amount of illegal drugs being sold. When Ronald Reagan was in office the incarcerated population increased tremendously. The number of people sent to jail for nonviolent charges from 1980 to 1997 increased by about 125 percent. According to Pattie Saris, when it came to sentencing on the drug charges, judges were able to sentence how they felt were appropriate
related convictions due to the diligent efforts of the Federal Justice System to convict those offenders. Mandatory minimum sentencing became popular in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the war on drugs effort. Since then mandatory minimum sentencing has been one of the more prominent measures taken when determining sentencing for drug related crimes. The implementation of mandatory minimum sentencing in general is in efforts to lower the rates of recidivism. Recidivism according to the National Institute
Essay Prompt #1 It is no secret that racial disparities exist within the criminal justice system. It is shocking that the number of racial disparities continues to grow even after the advancement of technology within the system. According to the Sentencing Project (2017), sentencing policies, implicit racial bias, and socioeconomic inequality are all factors that contribute to the racial disparities in the criminal justice systems. In order to address these disparities we must first look at