The theory stated that “As a defender of the existing social order … The criminal justice system ultimately serves the interests of the capitalist class … The system is designed so the rich get richer and the poor go to prison.” Now, I found this particularly interesting and I thought about it a bit, especially with the war on drugs that we have been discussing in our Community and Justice course. The war on drugs was established mandatory minimum sentencing and harsher punishments on drug offenses, and a result of this was massive incarceration rate increase. Now, as we discussed in class, crack and cocaine are the same exact drug, yet the sentencing is completely different. In 2010, we passed a law called the Fair Sentencing Act, and I think that our system expresses all but that. Prior to this law, the sentencing ratio from crack to cocaine was 100:1. That means if you were caught with 5 grams of crack, you would be charged the same as somebody with 500 grams of cocaine. This absolutely disgusts me, being that crack is very prominent among the more poor african american oriented neighborhoods, and the cocaine is only used by rich white people for the most part. It was literally a stab at the poor, it was an excuse to lock up the poor and let the rich become richer. Now after the
The theory stated that “As a defender of the existing social order … The criminal justice system ultimately serves the interests of the capitalist class … The system is designed so the rich get richer and the poor go to prison.” Now, I found this particularly interesting and I thought about it a bit, especially with the war on drugs that we have been discussing in our Community and Justice course. The war on drugs was established mandatory minimum sentencing and harsher punishments on drug offenses, and a result of this was massive incarceration rate increase. Now, as we discussed in class, crack and cocaine are the same exact drug, yet the sentencing is completely different. In 2010, we passed a law called the Fair Sentencing Act, and I think that our system expresses all but that. Prior to this law, the sentencing ratio from crack to cocaine was 100:1. That means if you were caught with 5 grams of crack, you would be charged the same as somebody with 500 grams of cocaine. This absolutely disgusts me, being that crack is very prominent among the more poor african american oriented neighborhoods, and the cocaine is only used by rich white people for the most part. It was literally a stab at the poor, it was an excuse to lock up the poor and let the rich become richer. Now after the