Our prisons are overflowing and the costs in human and monetary terms are enormous. How and why have we sentenced the over 2.2 million adults currently in our prison systems? This class discusses how judges decide criminal sentences and how politicians control those sentencing decisions. We discuss the impact of the "War on Drugs", the fact that more than half of all federal prisoners are serving sentences for drug offenses and the huge proportion of drug-related offenders in our state prisons. Alternative approaches to drug abuse are discussed. The Hon. Donald E. Shelton directs the Criminology and Criminal Justice Program at UM-Dearborn. This class is for adults over 50.
https://olli-umich.org/olli/index.php/member/ctlg/viewEventDetails/934