A Simple Guide to Key Politics

Criminal Justice Reform

Criminal Justice has been a boiling issue in the 2020 election, so I feel we should address as many parts of it as we can. Many argue that the criminal justice system needs to be reformed in a lot of ways, including reducing mass incarceration and taking another look at nonviolent drug charges. Republicans and democrats alike have been taking action to initiate change, and as we discuss various criminal justice issues, hopefully you decide where you believe the change is needed, too.

Cash Bail

The Political Issue

Cash bail is the amount of money the court decides a person in detention must pay in order to be released. Due to varying factors, including low income as a primary one, three out of five people in US jails today have not been convicted of a crime, according to the Center for American Progress (americanprogress.org).

The majority of opposers believe the cash bail system is completely unfair to those in poverty, which then forces said people to take plea deals out of desperation or sit in jail until trial, even if they're innocent.

Any amount of time in jail can have a serious effect on somebody's life, including negatively impacting their job status or housing. That is why a lot of people do not like the cash bail system and are calling to change it.

According to the Stanford Law Review (stanfordlawreview.org), pretrial detention leads to a greater likelihood of the individual committing future crimes, which means the jail time could have a criminogenic effect.

This explains the majority of people opposing cash bail calling for pretrial release policy reform.

Those in support of cash bail, or at least against ending it completely, say that allowing possible offenders to walk the streets endangers the public and places more nonfunded mandates on communities, as stated by New York State Senator John J. Flanagan.

Politicians That Want to End It Completely

Some of the current politicians that believe we should eliminate the system all together include Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Beto O'rourke, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.

Politicians That Want To Reform It

Some of the current politicians that believe in reform, not elimination, include Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang.

Politicians That Are Opposed to Taking Away Cash Bail

Some current politicians that are opposed to taking away cash bail include Donald Trump, John J. Flanagan, and Joseph Griffo.

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

The Political Issue

Mandatory minimum sentencing is the minimum prison sentence a judge must give a defendant based upon the charges brought by the prosecutor when a case results in a conviction. There are many states that hold the mandatory minimum sentencing law, including Michigan, Missouri, and Arizona.

People argue that this law takes away the judge's ability to consider the circumstances of the crime and the characteristics of the defendant when sentencing them, according to the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation (cjpf.org).

Supporters of mandatory minimum sentencing state that the minimum mandatory sentence is a huge threat to offenders, and most the time, individuals looking at a 15-year sentence will usually rat on a worse criminal as a plea deal. This is according to Maxwell Jackson, the police chief of Harrisville, Utah, who also states that an amount of 90% rat on worse criminals as a plea deal.

In opposition to this standpoint, many believe that minimum sentencing contributes to mass incarceration, especially when it comes to drug charges. Minimum sentencing most often affects nonviolent drug offenders, who pose the least physical dangers to communities according to the Brennan Center for Justice (brennancenter.org).