Justice For All - Feb 2015

One of the problems in the criminal justice system is the existence of mandatory minimum sentences. On the federal level, these are laws imposed by Congress that require judges to sentence a guilty offender to a minimum amount of time behind bars. This one-size-fits-all approach is flawed because it does not allow judges to exercise discretion based on the individual circumstances of the case.

The practice of asset forfeiture has been a hot topic in Washington D.C. lately, whether it has been Attorney General Eric Holder announcing the federal government will no longer take part in the equitable sharing program or the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations calling into question the entire practice of civil asset forfeiture. Because of the importance and timeliness of the issue, CPAC had a panel consisting of Pat Nolan, Derek Cohen and Darpana Sheth to discuss what is wrong with asset forfeiture and what we the people can do to fix it.

How should the punishment for convicted offenders be determined?

In November 2013, Trevor Paine was on his through Humboldt County, Nevada on his way to California when he was stopped by a deputy from local sheriff's department for driving nine miles per hour over the speed limit on I-80. The deputy who stopped him claimed that his police dog had alerted him to something in Paine's vehicle and searched it without his consent.

Prisons, when used correctly, serve an important purpose of keeping violent criminals off the street and protecting the general population. But one prison in Chicago is allegedly operating less like an instrument of law enforcement, and more like a military installation.

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, as well as the largest prison population anywhere on Earth. With all those people locked away, one would hope that the streets would be pretty safe for the rest of us. Yet in many parts of the country, crime rates remain high, leading some to question whether putting so many people in prison is actually making us any safer.

Over 2.2 million people are currently in U.S. jails or prisons.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a lengthy record of abusing power.