Criminal Justice

For this assignment I decided on the article “‘Nothing’ Works: Sentencing ‘Reform’ in Canada and the United States” by Michael Tonry for my first topic on sentencing. The journal was published in October 2013 and provided by the “Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice.” The article ““Prison Will Either Make Ya or Break Ya”: Punishment, Deterrence, and the Criminal Lifestyle” by Beverly Crank and Timothy Brezina was chosen to represent my second topic on prisons and jails. In August 2012 this article was offered by the journal “Deviant Behavior.”

The first article studies the United States and Canada sentencing progression, or a failure to progress would be a better choice of words. Canada has not made many changes to the law policy and practice whereas the United States has changed many things, most of which have had negative effects on the criminal justice system. Mandatory minimum sentencing, life without parole, and the three-strikes laws are a few factors that really set off the rise of imprisonment. Most of these policy changes were added during the 1980s, but were extremely controversial and actually still are. It was almost comparable to the death penalty in terms of opposition by the people during the 1970s because virtually everyone saw the laws as too harsh and thought of it as a violation to human rights. Judges, parole boards, and legislators could determine the fate of the criminal’s freedom, which most of the time, was based upon gender, race, ethnicity, and other characteristics. If the general population’s opinion counted, then most likely the policies would be nothing more than rejected bills, and the criminal justice system might differ from the one we currently have in terms of equality. From the lo...

... middle of paper ...

...d could apply to this article, but the Social Process Theory stands out because it states that everyone has the potential to become a criminal, depending of the influences that impel one toward or away from crime. This is a prime example for why imprisonment is sometimes ineffective because it shows how outside factors such as friends, family, education, and poverty levels influence crime rather than the fear of imprisonment itself. I have always been surrounded by a loving family and grew up in a small town in Kentucky which had an extremely low crime rate, but no one knows what would have happened if I grew up in the inner city where the crime rate is higher, but the studies show that my chances of imprisonment would be way higher. Outside factors other than fear of prison, whether some believe it or not, really do influence the chances of an individual’s success.