Social Impact of Mass Incarceration
The term mass incarceration stems from the historical legacy of slavery on a wide range of sentencing outcomes. According to Gottlieb and Flynn (2021), mass incarceration describes ways the United States has imprisoned a large group of people. Every year, millions of inmates are freed from prison and must be reintegrated into society. The system purposefully makes it harder for those with convictions in their past to obtain employment, including leading valuable lives.
For example, ex-offenders will always need welfare, college loans, public housing, and food, but they are frequently socially isolated from essential services and family and community support networks. As a result, individuals not only have high rates of recidivism but also homelessness, suicide, turning to crime, and endangering society. Although lengthy prison terms have contributed to a reduction in crime, they come at a higher cost to individuals, nations, families, and communities and lead to poor policies.
Sentencing Guidelines
Sentencing guidelines are rules to create logical and uniform judgment procedures within a given jurisdiction. Before these standards were adopted, every state had an indeterminate sentencing system, where the legislature outlined criminal behavior and imposed the highest maximum punishments (Hester, 2021). As a result, rather than stating a specific prison term, the court would impose a time range, such as two to eight years.
Mandatory sentencing is one of the reforms that guarantee everyone who committed the same crime gets similar sentences. However, mandatory sentencing, including the three strikes laws that impose stiffer penalties on repeat offenders, has increased rates of incarcerations rather than achieving equity and justice (Nellis, 2021, p. 29). For example, the war on drugs and imprisonment policies have affected Black communities by enforcing longer mandatory sentences and aggravating racial inequalities in sentencing (Komar & Porter, 2023, p. 5). Some of these guidelines have taken flexibility away from the judgments, resulting in longer jail terms, which may sometimes be infective.
Factors Contributing to Sentencing Disparities
Racism is one of the contributing factors in sentencing disparity, especially in racially diverse countries. According to a study by Gottlieb and Flynn (2021, p. 3), filing a criminal case in a county where there was a large concentration of slavery in 1860 raises the possibility of pretrial detention, the likelihood of receiving an imprisonment sentence, and the duration of the sentence. For example, a case study has revealed that jurors are three times more likely to recommend the death sentence for Black offenders than Whites in the state of Washington (Death Penalty Information Center, 2023).
Additionally, decades of studies show that race-based decision-making frequently results from racial differences among those administering justice, including preliminary stages of investigation by the police (Nellis, 2021; Ramirez, 2021). Other times, negative perceptions held against a given group of people are likely to influence unfair judgment. For instance, people from areas with high rates of terrorism may potentially get harsher sentences.
Does Life Imprisonment Deter Crime?
Discussions regarding the virtues of long sentences typically end with references to violent crimes, although life imprisonment does not make usage safer. Although prolonged incarceration has little influence on crime deterrence, it has an impact on crime prevention, in my opinion. The emotional agony and reality of never being released from prison is a powerful motivator to refrain from behaviors that would result in life imprisonment (Rogers et al., 2020). Fear of heavier punishments, I believe, has contributed to many accused cooperating with investigators to decrease their sentences. As a result, it is acceptable to conclude that potentially facing life in jail deters crime.
Opinion on the Death Penalty
The death sentence is a violation of the most basic human right, the right to life. Although capital punishment deters murder, it does not justify punishing an offense with another. I think life sentences can serve a similar purpose without subjecting the offender to a similar act. Some detainees have successfully repealed their cases and proven their innocence, hinting that others could potentially benefit from new technologies to fight their cases.
References
Death Penalty Information Center. (2023). Facts about the death penalty. Death Penalty Information Center. Web.
Gottlieb, A., & Flynn, K. (2021). The legacy of slavery and mass incarceration: Evidence from felony case outcomes. Social Service Review, 95(1), 3–35. Web.
Hester, R. (2021). Uniformity and discretion: Lessons on reform from a failed sentencing guidelines effort. Corrections, 8(5), 485–504. Web.
Komar , L., & Porter, N. (2023). Safety beyond sentencing. The Sentencing Project. Web.
Nellis, A. (2021). America’s enduring reliance on life imprisonment. The Sentencing Project. Web.
Ramirez, M. (2021). Unmasking the American death penalty debate: Race, context, and citizens’ willingness to execute. Social Science Quarterly, 102(4), 1931–1946. Web.
Rogers, R., Sharf, A., Myers, B., Drogin, E., & Williams, M. (2020). Capital juror questionnaires in death‐penalty cases: A study of attitudes, denials, and deceptions. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 38(1), 12–31. Web.