Prison Term Policy Recommendation Paper
CJA/314
June 6, 2011
Julie Molloy
Shannin Jenkins
I want to get your prepared for the maximum prison time for armed robbery. Yes you heard right its doubling now. You might think it is crazy but in all reality, it is the best so that it will teach lessons. I would say this could be an overwhelming opinion one way or another in the statehouse, to argue for your stance, or to be able to tell the same electorate why you have changed your mind. I want to make sure everyone understands that prison time DOES NOT reduce recidivism unless the jail term is longer than 5 years. Anything that makes a sentence lesser will not make the streets any safer even if people feel safer because they feel that others are being locked up longer. Armed Robbery is a very serious crime in all the states in the United States of America. I would have to say that everyone treats this crime to be very important and about everyone member of the judicial branch will not take is lightly even if this case was to come before him or her. In most situations, it does require consideration of several factors:
1. Armed Robbery as a state law, where the felon will be imprisoned for trying to take property that belongs to someone else.
2. In most cases, federal laws regarding the possession of either an illegal firearm or a firearm by someone who is not allowed to have one.
3. State laws regarding owning the firearm.
I would have to say that now there are multiple laws that criminals could be held and tried for which everyone of these add considerably to the amount of time he or she will serve in prison. This problem will then arise but most people think it is not beneficial to society to put every criminal in jail as long as others. Everyone gets a different time in jail. In some cases, these laws are juggled about so that someone who is willing to cooperate with the police and prosecutors can admit guilt to one of them for a shorter sentence. Alternatively, in a truly hard-core case, those same police and prosecutors are allowed to charge the criminal with every law they can find to hold the person responsible for everything they can and to keep them out of the community to keep the residents of the state feeling a little safer. At this time, the prison populations around the country are increasing much faster than the rate of new felony convictions are. Convictions are rising around 18% from 1992 to 2002, while the number of people in prison increased by 59% (Mauer, 702). Part of this may be answered by the large number of states that enacted “three strikes and you’re out” laws during the 1990’s. In California, that alone has caused an increase in the prison population to where there are now 8,000 people (among a prison population of around 1.2 million) serving terms of 25 years to life (Mauer, 702). Mandatory convictions for drug related arrests probably also increased this number, especially at the Federal level.
As noted at the beginning, the only time studies show a reduction in recidivism is when the jail term is longer than five years. “[T]he most comprehensive data on recidivism from the Department of Justice demonstrate that while recidivism rates are high—two-thirds of released prisoners are rearrested within three years of release—there is no significant difference among people spending anywhere from one to five years in prison. Only after five years do recidivism rates begin to decline somewhat …” (Mauer, 703). Realize that this reduction may be entirely due to the aging of that population. Older people supposedly commit fewer crimes, whether they have been in prison before or not. Now we talk about those individuals that are older and have been to prison, there is a huge debate ongoing as to whether or not why return to prison because they are bad criminals, or if they just caught more than often (Marvell). We do know this: “After peaking around the
