Essay, Research Paper
Argument for Keeping Repeat Offenders in Jail
Why do killers, rapists, and child molesters go free? A large portion
of early release prisoners commit serious crimes after being released. In fact,
“in a three year follow-up of 108,850 state prisoners released in 1983 from
institutions in 11 states, within three years sixty percent of violent crime
offenders were re-arrested. More than half of those charged with violent crimes
were discharged within two years.”(from Truth In Sentencing by James Wooton).
These criminals are sent right back to the streets to cause trouble again. The
laws and justice system has to stick to their guns when it comes to prison terms.
If some person is charged with armed robbery and sentenced to 15 years in
prison, why should they be released in five years or less? We must make
criminals pay for their crimes. If individuals are incarcerated for the full
length of their given sentence, I believe that there will be less repeat
offenders and an overall smaller crime rate.
Some say that if we cut down on prison terms we will save loads of tax
money. There will be less need to build, maintain, and expand existing staff if
there are fewer prisoners. But how much more can we cut these sentences, aren’t
they short enough already? The average jail sentence is seven years and eleven
months, but the actual average time served is two years and eleven months. I
think there are better ways to save money. For example, we should cut back on
the funding of foreign governments. We have plenty of our own problems in the
United States that we need to take care of. We should take care of our own
before we try to help others. The money we would save would not affect us
directly either. The money the government would save would not reduce our taxes
or anything like that, they would take the money and invest it in something else
important, like maybe giving themselves a raise. How can you put a price on
your child’s safety? When a repeat rapist is released early and rapes your
daughter or sister, how important is that saved government money going to be?
There should be no tolerance for repeat offenders. I agree that
everyone makes mistakes, but you must pay for those mistakes and learn from
those mistakes. When criminals make the same mistakes over and over they should
pay heavily for these repeat crimes. But criminals know that our justice system
is soft, they know they will never serve their full sentence, if any at all. So
they take that chance, they make that drug deal, they rob that store, they
assault our community, and all because they know the consequences. And as for
the juveniles, they have it easiest of all. The juvenile justice system is
easier than the adult system. This is where we definitely need to lay down the
law, because if from the beginning they know that breaking the law is no joke,
they will be less likely to offend later in life.
The bottom line is, money should not be the issue. Public safety should
be our main concern. Individuals must respect our laws and our society. If
they can’t show this respect, they should be punished in a straight forward
manner. There should be no room for bargaining here, you do the crime, you do
the time, all of it.