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Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Paper

Satisfactory Essays

Republican Representative Bill Konopnicki and Sen. Carolyn Allen released a report explaining the reason as to why the growth in Arizona’s incarceration rate has increased drastically based off of Arizona’s mandatory sentencing laws.

Currently Arizona holds the ninth highest incarceration rate in the nation. Responsible for the drastic rate of incarcerated inmates, is the mandatory minimum sentencing laws that have named Arizona the incarceration capital. By implementing the mandatory minimum sentencing law, the discretion that lay within the position as a judge is challenged by that of the prosecutor. With Arizona’s sentencing enhancement making little distinction between individuals who are responsible for either serious or petty crimes, …show more content…

These crimes include low-level offenses; drug offenses, sex offenses, property offenses, etc. With 94% of inmates in Arizona prisons being sentenced on behalf of these specific low-level crimes, the rate of those who are incarcerated increase drastically. By incarcerating inmates based off of low-level offenses, correctional costs increase as well. Arizona’s increases in mandatory sentencing laws do not deliver justice nor does it improve public safety. To perform this research I had increased my knowledge based off of primary and secondary information. This range of research examines the majority of inmates sentenced within Arizona’s prison population, along with the reasons as to why overpopulation occurs in prisons.

I have discovered that the main reason for Arizona being the incarceration capital is based solely off of the mandatory minimum sentencing law that places low-level non-violent inmates in prison. By sentencing these individual’s for an increased period of time based off of their offense, they do not only lack the rehabilitation needed to reiterate back into society, but they also increase the prison population as well.

On the basis of my research I recommend that Republican Representative Bill Konopnicki and Sen. Carolyn Allen not only identify the issue that has caused the increase in incarceration rate, but also form a plan in order to decrease the incarceration rate in the state of

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