Last year for my American Cultures class we spent a lot of time discussing incarcerations as a part of America's identity. For this blogpost I wanted to look at legislation that involved jails and prisons, and specifically look at legislation that is aimed at reducing the amount of incarcerated people in this country. While looking around I found California Proposition 36 (2000), which allows defendants convicted of non-violent drug possession offenses to receive a probation sentence where they have to pass treatment, instead of being incarcerated. In my eyes Proposition 36 makes a lot of sense because it keeps non-violent individuals out of jails and gives them a chance to improve their lives, without subjecting them to hard time with dangerous people.
Proposition 36 came up again in 2012 with the
three strikes revision which states that a life sentence can only be imposed when the new felony conviction is "serious or violent". I believe this law is successful because it frees space in prisons for violent offenders, and also raises a lot of money for California. Also, it seems excessive to put someone in jail for life due to drug possession. I found this proposition to be particularly fascinating because it deals with incarcerations- a major problem in the U.S.
There are many different sites explaining Prop 36, but the link above is for voter information- and surprisingly is not the most informative. Just found that interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment