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The California proposition 57 is one of the most controversial measures in this presidential election. Prop. 57 would expand opportunities on parole for nonviolent offenders and suggests that they are the judges, not prosecutors, who decide when an adolescent older than 14 years of age should be tried as an adult. If proposition 57 were to pass, the Governor said that more than 7,000 criminals could qualify, but only 10% would come out of prison early. Annually we spend about $36,000 per person to keep them in jail and we are spending about 9,000 per year for each student to keep them in school, then there is a problem, if we invest more in schools and less prisons then chances are that crime is decreasing.
Proposition 30 (prop 30 or SB11) is supported by the schools and local public safety protection Act of 2012. Prop 30 is a tax initiative led by California governor Jerry Brown. Prop 30 is aimed at reducing forecasted budget cuts to public schools also higher education, by increasing the California sales tax from 7.25% to 7.50%for the next four years. It also will create three new tax brackets for taxable incomes. Incomes exceeding $250,000, $300,000 and $500,000 will pay more in taxes for the next seven years. With the extra money being saved will go towards adding more classes for higher education students. Also to help reduce California’s state budget, prop 30 should raise $6 billion annually form raised taxes.
"New York Passes Major Gun Control Law -- First since Newtown Massacre." NBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Proposition 36 The Real Truth As you might already be aware, there is a ballot initiative in this upcoming November’s election about drugs, and drug treatment. This measure is called Proposition 36. If this measure were to pass, state law would be changed, so that certain non-violent adult offenders who use or possess illegal drugs would receive drug treatment and supervision in the community, not prison. Right now, California is ranked number one in the nation for its rate of imprisonment for drug offenders. If Proposition 36 passes, California could become number one for its treatment of drug offenders.
According to LD Online (2015), Public Law 94-142, also known as Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA), was passed in 1975. Since then, the law has taken on many changes in order to improve its effectiveness, and is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA 04). The original Public Law 94-142 guaranteed a free and appropriate public education to each child with a disability from the age 3 to 21 (LD Online, 2015). It is required to make efforts towards improving how children with disabilities are identified and educated, as well as provide evaluations for the success of those efforts. Furthermore, the law provided due process protections
The proliferation of prison overcrowding has been a rising concern for the U.S. The growing prison population poses considerable health and safety risks to prison staffs and employees, as well as to inmates themselves. The risks will continue to increase if no immediate actions are taken. Whereas fighting proliferation is fundamentally the duty of the U.S. government, prison overcrowding has exposed that the U.S. government will need to take measures to combat the flaws in the prison and criminal justice system. Restructuring the government to combat the danger of prison overcrowding, specifically in California, thus requires reforms that reestablishes the penal codes, increases the state’s budget, and develops opportunities for paroles to prevent their return to prison. The following context will examine and discuss the different approaches to reduce the population of state prisons in California in order to avoid prison overcrowding.
In the November 2008 General Election, citizens of the state of California will be asked to consider many issues affecting the state as a whole. Out of the many propositions to be decided upon, Proposition Two has become one of particular interest. Currently, forty million animals are being raised on California farms for production of milk, dairy, cattle, and chickens: given these very large numbers and increased consumer awareness of current management practice, there has been an increase in concern for ethical treatment and welfare of livestock within the public. Proposition Two challenges standards of confinement for livestock, specifically: veal crates, battery cages and gestation crates. Veal crates are restricted areas in which calves (young domestic cattle) are reared for slaughter. Battery cages are enclosures in which multiple female chickens are housed to lay their eggs, and similar to veal and battery cages, gestation crates are areas of restricted space in which female pigs are housed during periods of pregnancy. If passed, Proposition Two would require all farming operations as of January 1, 2015 to house these farm animals in areas where they are able to extend their wings or limbs to full potential1.
Mass incarceration has caused the prison’s populations to increase dramatically. The reason for this increase in population is because of the sentencing policies that put a lot of men and women in prison for an unjust amount of time. The prison population has be caused by periods of high crime rates, by the medias assembly line approach to the production of news stories that bend the truth of the crimes, and by political figures preying on citizens fear. For example, this fear can be seen in “Richard Nixon’s famous campaign call for “law and order” spoke to those fears, hostilities, and racist underpinnings” (Mauer pg. 52). This causes law enforcement to focus on crimes that involve violent crimes/offenders. Such as, gang members, drive by shootings, drug dealers, and serial killers. Instead of our law agencies focusing their attention on the fundamental causes of crime. Such as, why these crimes are committed, the family, and preventive services. These agencies choose to fight crime by establishing a “War On Drugs” and with “Get Tough” sentencing policies. These policies include “three strikes laws, mandatory minimum sentences, and juvenile waives laws which allows kids to be trialed as adults.
Today, half of state prisoners are serving time for nonviolent crimes. Over half of federal prisoners are serving time for drug crimes. Mass incarceration seems to be extremely expensive and a waste of money. It is believed to be a massive failure. Increased punishments and jailing have been declining in effectiveness for more than thirty years. Violent crime rates fell by more than fifty percent between 1991 and 2013, while property crime declined by forty-six percent, according to FBI statistics. Yet between 1990 and 2009, the prison population in the U.S. more than doubled, jumping from 771,243 to over 1.6 million (Nadia Prupis, 2015). While jailing may have at first had a positive result on the crime rate, it has reached a point of being less and less worth all the effort. Income growth and an aging population each had a greater effect on the decline in national crime rates than jailing. Mass incarceration and tough-on-crime policies have had huge social and money-related consequences--from its eighty billion dollars per-year price tag to its many societal costs, including an increased risk of recidivism due to barbarous conditions in prison and a lack of after-release reintegration opportunities. The government needs to rethink their strategy and their policies that are bad
After about twelve years of the DREAM Act floating around in congress, many people on both sides of the issue are unsure of what will happen. For some, the fact that it has been around for long without much progress means that the DREAM Act will not pass. On the other side of this issue, the dreamers, continue fighting to keep the DREAM Act alive, so that all the immigrant students can continue to post secondary education, and not have to stop their education at the end of 12th grade. These young immigrants were brought here when they were younger and have lived in the United States most of their life. They are known as dreamers because many of them cannot continue their education due to the barriers placed on them because of their undocumented status. Those who wish to continue to a post secondary education have to pay higher out-of-state tuition rates. The passing of the DREAM Act will provide a path to legalization for educated and dedicated individuals who will continue to contribute a lot to the U.S. economy and in many other ways. The majority of undocumented students were brought to the U.S. when they were small children, and they “should be allowed to have the chance to stay in the country call home” (Bennion).
Section 3: More tax money put to expand preventative programs in communities with at risk youth. This will allow us to eliminate the upbringings and necessities that result in crime. In a study about the preventative program, Quantum Opportunities (QOP), proved that preventative programs like QOP, result in an increase of 21% in graduation rates and a 26% increase in college attendance. This is a huge impact since 68% of prisoners don’t have a high school diploma and estimates suggest that education should reduce crime in youth and in their future because they put more time in education rather than crime.
Overcrowding in our state and federal jails today has become a big issue. Back in the 20th century, prison rates in the U.S were fairly low. During the years later due to economic and political factors, that rate began to rise. According to the Bureau of justice statistics, the amount of people in prison went from 139 per 100,000 inmates to 502 per 100,000 inmates from 1980 to 2009. That is nearly 261%. Over 2.1 million Americans are incarcerated and 7.2 million are either incarcerated or under parole. According to these statistics, the U.S has 25% of the world’s prisoners. (Rick Wilson pg.1) Our prison systems simply have too many people. To try and help fix this problem, there needs to be shorter sentences for smaller crimes. Based on the many people in jail at the moment, funding for prison has dropped tremendously.
Not everyone loves the ideas of alternatives to prison because alternatives to prison seem to work only when there is a limited number of cases that adhere to the sentence, However, when places like California is spending more money on their prison systems than on actual education, alternatives to prison seem to be the best choice (David, 2006).
Most people have the common view that the criminal justice system’s increasing arrests and imprisonment is an effective strategy for reducing crime. If the judicial system makes greater distinction among violent and nonviolent crimes, the prisons will have the vacancies to incarcerate the Jeffery Dahmers of the world in prison for life. By providing alternatives to imprisonment for nonviolent offenders will reduce the burden of taxpayer’s dollars for added funding for construction of new prisons. I know as a College Student I would like to see increased State funding for education system rather than the millions allocated to the prison system of Pennsylvania.
Tulman, J. B. (2008). Time to Reverse the School-to-Prison Pipeline. (Cover story). Policy & Practice (19426828), 66(1), 22-27.
Juvenile crime in the United States is ballooning out of control along with adult crimes, and politicians and law enforcement officials don’t seem to be able to do anything about it. Despite tougher sentencing laws, longer probation terms, and all other efforts of lawmakers, the crime and recidivism rates in our country can’t be reduced. The failure of these recent measures along with new research and studies by county juvenile delinquency programs point to the only real cure to the U.S.’s crime problem: prevention programs. The rising crime rates in the United States are of much worry to most of the U.S.’s citizens, and seems to be gaining a sense of urgency. Crime ranks highest in nationwide polls as Americans’ biggest concern (Daltry 22). For good reason- twice as many people have been victims of crimes in the 1990s as in the 1970s (Betts 36). Four times as many people under the age of eighteen were arrested for homicide with a handgun in 1993 than in 1983 (Schiraldi 11A). These problems don’t have a quick fix solution, or even an answer that everyone can agree on. A study by the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy has found no deterrent effects of the “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law recently put into effect by politicians (Feinsilber 1A). It has been agreed however that there is not much hope of rehabilitating criminals once started on a life of crime. Criminologist David Kuzmeski sums up this feeling by saying, “If society wants to protect itself from violent criminals, the best way it can do it is lock them up until they are over thirty years of age.... I am not aware of any treatment that has been particularly successful.” The problem with his plan is that our country simply doesn’t have the jail space, or money to ...