Question

Has mandatory sentencing laws reduced drug use and abuse? What has been the ultimate impact of these laws on society as whole? How is are mandatory minimum sentencing laws directly related to our current explosion in our prison population? When did private prisons begin to appear in our criminal justice system? How has the private prison corporations benefited from the war on drugs? What impact would more lenient drug laws have on our country’s prison population What impact would it have on the bottom dollar of the private prisons?

Answer 1

Although the mandatory sentence would strike fear in the minds of people for drug use, there are other structural parameters that would influence the use of drugs among people. these structural parameters include poverty, unemployment, unhealthy neighborhood, socio-economic status etc. This would mean that many people who live in poverty, unemployment and unhealthy neighborhood would tend to become preys of drug use which no law would be able to prevent. Besides, it would only help in establishing institutional racism that would put many people of color especially the African Americans and Hispanic males. The continued leniency on the drug use, especially the recreational drug use would only force more people to use it and engage in deviant behaviours that would land them in trouble. This would worsen the lives of their future generations. In a capitalist economy private prisons would only benefit the private owners and would provide better place and facilities for more money while those in the low socio-economic order would experience the normal prison.

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