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Denisse Franco
Professor Cordes
ENG 123 BE
25 September 2016
Non-violent crimes: Literature Review
Criminals are committing crimes every day. Since people are violating the law thousands
of people are being sent to prisons. However, there has been a sudden increase of prisoners in
prison because people who commit non-violet crimes are being sentenced for years in prison.
The expansion of inmates is linked to the Bill of Rights and the way police officers convict
criminals. With the rapid changes in policies the government is trying to find a way to limit the
number of inmates. In California the problem is huge with overflowing prisons. The state
government does not know what to do with so many inmates. The government is using tax
payers money to pay for institutions rather than necessities like education. The main purpose of
this essay is to identify a way to help prisoners that have been put into jail by identifying where
the problem came from, how it affects society and figure out a way to help the government limit
long sentencing for people who committed non-violent crimes.
The way the founding fathers structured the foundation of America has caused multiple
discrepancies. The Bill of Rights is the blue- print to how Americans should convict criminals.
However, it bases its principals on policies rather than giving the government an idea of how to
convict someone. The Bill of Rights ultimately only gives the government of things that they can
or cannot do. It also tells the people their rights that the government cannot take away. However,
the Bill of Rights never says this is the way to convict a person. For instance, the fourth

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amendment is about sere aching a person with reasanboel cause, but as William Stuntz writer
of The Collapse of American Criminal Justice stated Whatever searches and seizures local

police officers conducted were usually reasonable. In addition, the content of the Bill of Rights
applies to the time frame during the time of the writers. The justice system cannot compare the
foundation of laws in the 1800s to modern 2000s. Both time periods have different needs for
punish people. Therefore, the idea of the Bill of rights causes flaws within the American justice
system. Since the time periods are different multiple laws have been changed to fit modern
generations.
One of the main reasons there has been an accumulation of prisoners is because of the
changes in policies that make people serve multiple years for making a simple mistake. Society
voted on the idea to increase sentences because they acted in fear, which caused them to believe
that if more people are in prison there would be less crime on the streets and less people would
want to commit a crime. In addition, police officers are changing the way they convict criminals.
According to Michelle Alexander who is a professor at Stanford Law School wrote the book called The
New Jim Crow Laws states that the Supreme Court that grant law enforcement a pecuniary

intrusion the drug war and make it relatively easy for the police to seize people virtually
anywhere on public streets sidewalks, on busses and usher them behind bars Since the war on
drugs, they are targeting random people on the street. This act of putting people behind prison
wall without having permission to search them goes against the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of
Rights. The Fourth Amendment states The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and
no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and

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particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Policy
change has been linked to the number of prisoners.
A man can be given the same jail sentence about the same time for a non-violent crime
when being compared to someone charged for a violent crime. Therefore, California has one of
the highest number of prisoners. CQ Researchers article on Prison Reform highlights that
prison crowding in California has become so critical that Republican Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger has tried sending inmates to other states.. The current problem in the justice
system is that prisoners are being charged with multiple years in jail for a non-violent crime,
which causes an over crowed prison. Not only is the over-flow of criminals affecting them it is
affecting society.
Criminals are being affected when they stay in prison. Life in prison is not only stressful
it creates poor habits that are taken back to society when they are released. Once a person has
been in prison their life changes. The life in prison is not easy. Sometimes prisoners are raped by
each other inmates. Prison rape is so endemicmore than seventy thousand prisoners are raped
each yearthat it is routinely held out as a threat, part of the punishment to be expected. (The
New Yorker) The family members of the inmates tend to forget about them making them socially
isolated. Even after the prisoners are released they have problems with society.
Having prisoners be released from prison may cause a problem because the people who
are sentenced to prison for non- In any given year, between 600,000 and 700,000 former
inmates are unleashed upon societya massive number of people to habituate to the patterns of
normal life. (National Affairs) Eli Lehrer writer of Responsible Prison Reform ties poverty
and poor living conditions to prisoners going back to jail. Also while in prison they inmates can
get habits such as lying and stealing, which causes them to go back to prison for the same reason.

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Even though, a non-violent crime is still should be punished, prisoners are being treated far
worse than they should be treated and once they are released they have no hope into regaining a
normal life.
The problem of having many non-violent criminals serve time in jail has caused the two
major political parties to work together to find a solution. The democratic and the Republicans
can never agree on a topic when debating. However, when it comes to prisons they know they
dropped about 6 percent from its high point, in 2009, but experts say they thought it would drop
even more, given the scale of initiatives by states and the federal government. (Martin Kaste)
The result of this statistic means that the government is trying to regulate. In addition to the
government trying to regulate the number of prisoners, they introduced Proposition 47.
Proposition 47 reclassified a range of lower-level felonies down to misdemeanors. The
reclassification was retroactive, which meant roughly 3,000 prisoners found themselves set free.
(Martin Kaste) According to the article Is It Possible to Let More People Out of Prison, And
Keep Crime Down? An example of an inmate who was released early on Proposition 47, Leroy
Arlington who was released early from his two and a half sentce from stealing alcohol. The
Amity Foundation is paid by the state to help people like Arrington re-enter society there isn't
enough transitional help for people leaving prison. (Martin Kaste) Since there is not a lot of
help with government rehabilitation groups. Communities can help by providing recently freed
inmates with rehab, worship groups and help them join organizations. Also they can help inmates
by passing laws that will help establish a balance in the justice system. Finding a way to limit the
number of non-violent prisoners is a long process that involved both the community and the
government to find a common ground that will punish them for a crime but will still allow them
to succeed after that punishment.

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Mass incarceration is a problem in America especially in California. Inmates are treated

harsh for minor crimes. Society tends to act in fear when they hear the word criminal. Therefore,
an Americans first response is to put them in prison and throw away the key. However, this idea
is hurting the country because with a high population in jail, most of the money has to contribute
to expanding prisons. Most of the people in jail are there for nonviolent crimes such as stealing
and possession of drugs. Society needs to help create programs with the youth and young adults
that teaches them right from wrong. But, society also needs to help the people who have
committed crimes, after all we are all human and we all make mistakes.

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Work cited
Alexander, Michelle. The Lockdown. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of
colorblindness. N.p.: New, 2012. 59-96. Print.
Blades, Joan, and Grover Norquist. This Is the One Thing the Right and Left Are Working
Together On In Congress 7 May 2014: n. page. Time. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Glazer, Sarah. "Sentencing Reform." Are Mandatory Sentences Too Harsh? 24.2 (2014): n.
pag.
CQ Researcher Online [CQ Press]. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. Gopnik, Adam. "Why Do We Lock up so Many
People?" The Caging of America. The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Kaste, Martin. "Is It Possible to Let More People Out Of Prison, And Keep Crime Down?" NPR, 16 July
2015. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Lehrer, Eli. "Responsible Prison Reform." National Affairs 2013: n. pag. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Prison Reform." Are Too Many Nonviolent Criminals Being Incarcerated? 17.13 (2007): n.
pag. CQ Researcher Online [CQ Press]. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Stuntz, William J.. The Collapse of American Criminal Justice. Cambridge, US:
Harvard University Press, 2011. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 25 September 2016.