Habitual Offender Laws free essay sample

Discussion Board Introduction to Criminal Justice Hello Everyone, Are habitual offender laws targeting the right people for incarceration? Well first I am going to speak a little about the habitual offender laws. State legislators angered with the situation drafted new laws designed to prevent early release, especially for certain crimes. These new laws are called enhancement statutes. Examples of such statues would be the Habitual Felons Act, RICO, the Career Criminal act, mandatory minimum sentence for trafficking in narcotics, perpetuating crimes in a violent manner, three-strikes laws, hate-crime laws and 10-20-Life for using gun during the commission of a crime. Enhancement statues are designed to get tough with chronic and persistent offenders and keep them off the streets for an extended period of time. The central features of enhancement statues are (1) that they add severe penalties (twenty to twenty-five years) on to the penalty for committing the original crime, and (2) those receiving enhancement-statue punishments are not entitled to features such as early release, gain time, and provisional credits. We will write a custom essay sample on Habitual Offender Laws or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In sentencing-guideline states, enhancement statues provide the amount of punishment by calculating the amount outside of the guidelines. The ultimate consequence of enhancement statues is that they ensure that the inmate undergoes a significantly long period of incarceration; this period is a flat-time sentence that cannot be affected by early-release procedures. Judges know that legislators have totally castrated the judicial discretion powers in every instance where they are faced with sentencing defendants convicted under enhancement statues. These enhancements have become common household names: three-strikes, 10-20-Life, habitual-criminal, and trafficking. Enhance sentences are almost universally disliked by trial judges, because they have no choice but to impose the statue in spite of mitigating factors. Of great importance for the judges’ disdain is that enhancement statues almost nullify judicial discretion. Between 1994 and 1995, twenty-four states adopted so-called three-strikes laws. Well I feel that the habitual law is not suit for every one because when it comes down to petty theft and small crimes that is a pretty harsh sentence when you looking at 10-20 years for stealing a candy bar four times in a row. This is not fair do to the crime not being significant . There are offenders that are rapist, murders, and vehicle assault/murder that do not get 10-20 years, So no I don’t feel the habitual offender law is targeting the right people. Should individual who commit misdemeanors, regardless of their status be subjected to lengthy prison terms? No I feel that should not because there are many programs that can help the offenders before they even reach lengthy prison terms. If we try and motivate and help these offenders on some of these circumstances you would be amazed. There are plenty of programs that are offered through the government to help try and prevent these things from happening over and over again. In my opinion the standards should be govern whether defendants are prosecuted as habitual offenders she be the case of the severity of the crime. If the crime do not fit the time it is not worthy to me. If someone get caught stealing candy bars five times don’t mean for you to give them the habitual statues because the nature of the crime is to petty for them to do 10-20 years. Now if the offender has raped twice I feel they should automatically get 10-20 years because of the severity of the crime.