Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Law

The criminal justice system consists of a mandatory minimum sentence law with which I have a concern. This law is stipulated such that each offense, especially concerning drugs, has its crafted punishment, which, as a result, is some years imprisonment (Bandes 2016). These laws overlook other facts and take the judge's power of leniency despite the type of situation if one is found guilty in a court of law. My biggest concern about these laws is that they tend to affect only the poor and defenseless, and the people of color. Prosecutors threaten lawbreakers in the name of longer sentences to pleading guilty because of these laws. This paper describes why I have a concern with the minimum mandatory sentence laws and gives my career goals as a criminal justice student.

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My Concern on The Minimum Mandatory Sentences

My primary concern towards the justice policy is the compulsory minimum sentencing statutes. These laws are designed for certain charges, such that each crime has its own planned cost that that is several years to be served by the culprit if found chargeable in a courthouse of law. The mandatory least penalties are getting prevalent in many countries today. My interest also rises on how prosecutors are using these laws to their privileges to the levels of sometimes frightening defendants with more extended sentences in the attempt of fortifying guilty plea in trade with less punishment. I feel that these laws are calling for solid argumentation and to majorly reduce the jurisdiction of the magistrate to estimate for the specific conditions neighboring a situation or the persona of the culprit, leading to severe punishments.

Since compulsory least penalizing laws, explicitly these associating pills, the national reformatory system has developed in size massively (Feeley 2017). National drug laws estimate for the highest extreme rulings out of any violation one could perform, with some leading up to 40 years or time in jail for hefty amounts of pills. Even minor amounts of drugs end up descending violators in prison for years, but my main concern is the unjust penalizing for drugs that aims at popular lawbreakers. The Anti-Drug Misuse Deed of 1986 demands the least penalty of five years for five grams of narcotin, 500 grams of cocaine, 1 kg of heroin, 40 g of fentanyl, 5g of meth, 100 kg of marijuana (Kim, Cano, Kim & Spohn 2016). Five grams of Narcotin is exceptionally diverse compared to 500g of cocaine, for instance, while the two drugs are so comparable.

In my concern, I believe that these drug laws and minimum mandatory sentencing are affecting the low in society. Among the victims of these harsh sentences and regulations are the people of color, drug enthusiasts. People that cannot afford legal exemplification and the nonaggressive drug addicts are frequent victims of the harsh rules. Due to the incapability for lesser level criminals to trade vigorous statistics on illegal administrations, many people do not stand a chance no matter how innocent they are concerning the crime at hand. This might be the reason 95% of drug offenders plead guilty annually.

How I Would Change the Concern

I would work with one of the organizations advocating for the criminal justice system reform. These establishments use public functions or constitutional disagreements in the open eye to bring information to the citizens and administration. Some of the head official associations and social justice groups include The American Legislative Exchange Council and Penal Reform International fight for fair and effective criminal justice systems worldwide. A reform act would be one of my bigger targets and increasing awareness of the public. The types of reforms in this act would be such as changes in the minimum sentencing system. This sentencing will at least reform such that each sentence is well suited to the crime committed. The citizens should be given freedom to just trials, without oppressing the weak or the people of color, through the new system.

My Career Goals

My primary career goals as a criminal justice student are; to obtain active probing and interpersonal skills to work with individuals with different backgrounds. I aim at becoming competent and aggressive in; administration of Justice, Law Enforcement, Law Adjudication, Corrections, Criminological Theory and, have skills in Research and Analytical Methods. I believe that this career in criminal justice will grow my abilities to think critically and my communication skills. I also aim at gaining application skills towards theory in the field related situations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these minimum mandatory sentence laws are unfair as they do not put into consideration other factors. According to these unfortunate people's inability to purchase attorneys and be represented in court, most of them do not have chances of escaping the sentences no matter their innocence (Neubauer & Fradella 2018). I believe that the lawbreakers deserve fair trials, and by the imposition of these laws, they have gotten denied this right. Organizations such as The American Legislative Exchange Council would work towards bringing reforms to the criminal justice system, and increased awareness to the people would also contribute to the reformation.

References

Bandes, S. A. (2016). Remorse and criminal justice. Emotion Review, 8(1), 14-19.

Feeley, M. (2017). Two models of the criminal justice system: An organizational perspective. In Crime, Law and Society (pp. 119-137). Routledge.

Kim, B., Cano, M. V., Kim, K., & Spohn, C. (2016). The impact of United States v. Booker and Gall/Kimbrough v. United States on sentence severity: Assessing social context and judicial discretion. Crime & Delinquency, 62(8), 1072-1094.

Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2018). America's courts and the criminal justice system. Cengage Learning.