Prision Terms

As we look at the proposal that involves doubling the maximum prison sentence for armed robbery, we must first ask ourselves if this bill would have any effect on the offenders. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will provide you with the research and knowledge on this subject so you can vote on the proposed bill with the utmost confidence that you understand if this type of punishment would work. I will also write the results of my recommendations for this bill and my reasoning behind those recommendations. You can then take into account my recommendations before you place your vote on the bill and vote with confidence no matter which way you vote.

First, I would like provide you with history of repeat offenders. With the ‘three strike and your out” legislation the United States is locking individuals up at a rapid pace. With 1.75 million people currently in prison, we have increased our inmate population by a million people in the last four years (Three Strikes Rule, 2006). Under this legislation, the defendant would get a mandatory life sentence if the offender is convicted in federal court of a serious felony or have two prior convictions in state or federal courts. The offender receives 25 years to life in prison on the third strike if he or she is convicted of a serious violent felony. The prior two strikes could involve two or more prior convictions in federal or state court which one must include a serious violent felony and the other may be a serious drug conviction. California does not require the strikes to be violent or serious. Each State’s law varies, though under all federal and state “three-strike law” if a person is convicted of a crime three times, there is no judiciary discretion in sentencing the repeat offenders. This means that no matter what the judge feels would be the right punishment, the offender is sentenced to a mandatory sentence; in most states, that is 25 years to life without parole (Three Strikes Rule, 2006).

For what are these individuals under the repeat offender law serving time? Thirty-seven percent are serving time for crimes against a person, 30% for property crimes, 23% are drug crimes, and 10% are other crimes. Of the 37% of crimes against another person 15% of it is robbery with 12,728 individuals on their second strike and 3,277 on their third strike. The 30% of property crime 8% are 1st degree burglary and 6% are 2nd degree burglary and petty theft with no prior (U.S. Department of Justice, 2006). As you can already start to see even though we have started to implement tougher legislation against repeat offenders, it has not necessarily stopped the increase in crime. It has started to hold steady and slightly decrease in certain states.

However, with the amount of inmates currently in prison do we need tougher legislation against individuals that commit first offense crimes? Let us look at these numbers to see where if that is the direction we want to go in. In 2002 there were 9,540 individuals convicted of armed robbery, the average length of incarceration for robbery was 91 months or just under 8 years (U.S. DOJ, 2005). However, if you add in parole the majority of these individuals were serving roughly 58 months in prison. If you look back at the “three strike rule,” you will notice that at least 15% of those individuals will end up committing the same offense. This does not mean that that the individual has been rehabilitated and will not commit a different crime once released. This is something else we must take into consideration. If we do not double the sentence length for armed robbery and we allow these individuals to go back onto the streets, he may commit a different crime and one far more serious and with grave consequences. That is why this bill has a lot of support right now from people in our community. The community feels that we are allowing too many convicted felons back into our community to commit additional crimes.

Most research has confirmed what many of us already expected, a small percentage of criminals are responsible for a large percentage of crimes. In Kentucky, courts have taken action to prevent repeat offenders from recommitting crimes after criminologist stated that 6% of criminal are responsible for 70% of crimes in America. This means that if we can identify this 6% we incarcerate the individuals for as long as possible; this would reduce the amount of crime happening in our community. In 1995, the Justice Cabinet in Fayette County, Kentucky funded a project called R.O.P.E. or Repeat Offender Prosecution Project. This project reveals that the criminal histories of these offenders have 7,480 prior convictions as a group with 10.3 convictions for each. Since the project started each year, the conviction rate has stayed in the 98th percentile. Individuals average sentences ranged from 7.6 years to 8.2 years for the repeat offenders, meaning that the county did not have to