Re:Quarter of inmates could have been spared prison without ...
by rhizome on Sunday December 11, 2016 @08:14PM
(#13154731)
Who said that long sentences had anything to do with making people safer?
Everybody involved in establishing sentencing policies.
The criminal justice system doesn't exist solely to promote safety. That's an outcome, but the system is there to enforce laws.
Just a nitpick, the conviction is the enforcement of the law. Sentences are something else, as you later detail, but also something that many many people study. You can say that judges have too much leeway, but then we see overcorrections into things like mandatory minimums and three-strikes laws, which sweep up too many low-level offenders who step a little too far out of line and receive severe punishments, not to mention the very selection of offenses which are subject to these requirements. You never see white-collar crimes in these statutes, but a bad financial criminal can wreak greater havoc on a person or family's life than many of the crimes under the 3-strikes and MM laws.
Everybody involved in establishing sentencing policies.
The criminal justice system doesn't exist solely to promote safety. That's an outcome, but the system is there to enforce laws.
Just a nitpick, the conviction is the enforcement of the law. Sentences are something else, as you later detail, but also something that many many people study. You can say that judges have too much leeway, but then we see overcorrections into things like mandatory minimums and three-strikes laws, which sweep up too many low-level offenders who step a little too far out of line and receive severe punishments, not to mention the very selection of offenses which are subject to these requirements. You never see white-collar crimes in these statutes, but a bad financial criminal can wreak greater havoc on a person or family's life than many of the crimes under the 3-strikes and MM laws.