Executive Orders In The Criminal Justice System

Introduction Crime has been a part of American society since its creation and it is still today. According to the FBI (2012), more than 6,000 people are arrested per day. To counteract the criminal activities throughout the United States, law are proposed and passed by elected officials. These policies create domestic crime policies. Donald Trump’s platform had a large section involving law and order. In his inauguration speech, Trump noted, “crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.” On February 9, he signed three executive orders that created a “Crime Reduction and Public Safety” task force and increased intelligence sharing among different law enforcement agencies …show more content…
Executive orders are very commonly used. The three mentioned earlier signed by Trump on February 9th are great examples of this. “It shall be the policy of the executive branch to reduce crime in America,” states one of the executive orders. This statement shows renewed interest in crime fighting, which was one of Trump's main pillars in his campaign. Executive orders are not the only way to pass legislation about crime. According to govtrack.us, a website that tracks legislative activities, there are currently 191 bills about crime prevention in Congress. One specific bill that is extremely relevant in today’s crime landscape is H.R. 994, Examining Opioid Treatment Infrastructure Act of 2017. This bill would require for the government to research and report on the treatment capacity of rehabilitation centers around the country. This is especially important due to the raising number of opioid usage and overdose deaths that have spiked in the recent years. If this bill was able to pass it would allow local, state, and federal governments to see holes in their drug response program. A successful program could lead to total rehabilitation and make it less likely for offenders to become repeat offenders. Problems with the enforcement of crime prevention policies can arise from the widespread nature of local law enforcement. While government agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and …show more content…
Ridding the system of mandatory minimums for lesser offences is the key to starting meaningful reform. Proponents of MMs say it deters crime. However, many disagree. Marc Mauer (2016) said that, “To date, there is virtually no data that is capable of demonstrating a direct link between federal mandatory penalties in particular and any declines in crime.” Mauer also cites research that shows as little as 10% of crime declines since 1990 can be attributed to “rising imprisonment.” This can also be seen in the decline of crime in Canada. Canada has had a similar decline in crime in the last 20 years but their prison populations are falling at a most faster rate than us (Mauer). These numbers show that MMs are not responsible for the dropping crime rate. That can be attributed to a number of different factors including the legalization of abortions and removing lead from gasoline (Ford 2016), as well as many other theories. Mandatory minimums do not need to be removed completely. The scope of the minimums do need to be changed and this could be done by two different proposals in congress. The first, titled Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013 expands the notion of “safety valves” which exempt some drug and other offenders from the minimums. The second, lifts MMs from being enforced on only nonviolent drug related offenses (Larkin