Week 5: Criminal Justice System

I think that the criminal justice system in the United States is unbalanced. There are criminals who commit horrendous crimes and they are given a minimal sentence. There are criminals who commit insignificant crimes and they are given extreme sentences. If we were to analyze at least half of all the cases in each of our counties, we would see that harsher sentences are given to people who committed an insignificant crime. I recently read about a man who was given two years in jail for being in possession of a marijuana cigarette. After that, I read about a man who raped a woman and then tortured her. He was given five years in jail with all but six months being suspended. He would only be in jail for six months and the remaining 54 months would be on probation. That's absolutely ridiculous. I believe our justice system should be changed. There should be harsher punishments for people who commit sexual crimes or murder.