Civil Forfeiture: Pros And Cons

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According to McCaw (2011), civil forfeiture has multiple benefits. One benefit of civil forfeiture is that it does not need a conviction to render a punishment (McCaw, 2011, p. 196). It allows the government to provide a lesser punishment when a criminal conviction is too harsh. For instance, if a juvenile is distributing pictures of underage classmates a prosecutor could decide to forfeit the cell phone instead of charging the juvenile with distribution of child pornography (McCaw, 2011, p. 198). This means that civil forfeitures can act as an alternative to incarceration. Specifically, it can increase revenue for the government through forfeiture funds without the cost of sending someone to prison (McCaw, 2011, p. 198). McCaw (2011) stated …show more content…

Doug Ducey, Governor of Arizona: He has the ability to veto or sign your planned bill. Ducey is in favor of increasing the transparency of forfeiture reports submitted by law enforcement. On March 23, 2015 Ducey required law enforcement agencies to submit quarterly civil forfeiture reports to county and city governments (Phillips & Mahoney, 2015). Originally, law enforcement agencies where only require to submit reports to the ACJC and the federal government (Phillips & Mahoney, 2015).

ACLU AB: The ACLU is a non-profit organization that aides in defending people’s constitutional rights. The organization is nationwide and has 50 offices that file state and federal cases (ACLU, n.d). Moreover, the ACLU has over one million “members, activists, and supporters across the country” (ACLU, n.d). The ACLU AB strongly opposes civil forfeiture. They took on Ms. Cox’s case because they believe that Arizona’s forfeiture laws violated her First Amendment rights, which is her ability to petition the government (ACLU, 2015b, p. 3). Moreover, they see citizen’s lack of ability to petition the government as an incentive for law enforcement to seize property (ACLU, 2015b, p. 5). Their solution is to abolish civil

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