Time for Change A Look into Sentencing Reform
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Abstract
There is a prodigious amount of information that illustrates the issue, cause, effect, and plausible solutions regarding sentencing reform. Sentencing reform is a widely discussed and controversial topic in the United States. There are two million people in the nation’s prisons and jails—a five-hundred percent increase over the last forty years (The Sentencing Project, 2022). Many argue that President Nixon’s “War on Drugs” coupled with other “Tough on Crime” legislation have resulted in this mass incarceration. Prisons are now overcrowded, with a disproportionate number of inmates being African American or Hispanic and many of them incarcerated on nonviolent, low-level drug offenses. This paper will look at previous research regarding criminal justice reform and recommended solutions to change the current sentencing structure.
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References
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