Dear Next President, 

 Many people believe that criminals should have harsher punishments to show them the effect of their choices. Some criminals feel reform when they have been imprisoned for a certain amount of time and then find themselves to never do their crimes. For the few people that do not learn their lesson after a certain amount of time, the government has developed a law to prevent them from ever seeing daylight again. Many people believe that an increase in sentencing will scare people into committing a crime, but this could lead to even higher populations in prisons than that already exist.

Since many people believe that criminals with prior convictions need to be imprisoned to reform them, the community has approved of the “Three Strikes Law.” The “Three Strikes Law” is similar to a game of baseball, whereas if someone is convicted of the same felony, three different times, they will receive a life sentence. This law is helpful in removing people from the streets when they have not learned their lesson, but has the ability to create overcrowding in prisons. The government tried to combat this increase in prison populations with the “Broken Windows Law.” This law focuses more on the quality of life versus the severity of a crime, allowing an inmate to be released earlier if they possess exemplary behavior. The “Broken Windows Law” is supposed to decrease prison populations and the overcrowding issues, but has not had as strong of an effect as the government had hoped. These two laws have helped to make neighborhoods safer, and to decrease overcrowded populations.

 Harsher punishments have the ability to scare people, but to also cause greater problems. The government has tried to prevent overcrowding with multiple laws and tried to stay adamant with Amendment VIII, and its sole purpose of giving defendants an impartial justice system. Harsher punishment can affect a person’s character and behavior during and after incarceration. Harsher punishments are not needed to help the crime rate, more crime prevention is needed instead.                                                                                                                                                                                      Sincerely,                                                                                                                                                                                Madison

Bond, Philip, and Kathleen Hagerty. "Preventing Crime Waves." Kellogg Insight. Kellogg

School of Management at Northwestern University, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2016.

Francis, David R. "Sentence Enhancements Reduce Crime." Sentence Enhancements Reduce

Crime. The National Bureau of Economic Research, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2016.