Prison Term Policy Recommendation Proposal

Prison Term Policy Recommendation Proposal

I am a criminologist hired as an advisor to a state legislator. The legislation will soon be voting on a bill, if passed it will double the maximum prison term for individual convicted of armed robbery. This bill is very important and needs to be examined to see if it would be a solution to decrease arm robberies. The reason for this proposal is to point out different solutions that might be very beneficial in the deciding process. Army Robbery is a very serious offence and seems to be on the rise. Robbery is a crime of theft and can be classified as Larceny by force or by threat of force (Crime in The United States, 2009). The elements of the crime of robbery include the use of force or intimidation and all the elements of the crime of larceny (Crime in The United States, 2009). The penalty for robbery is always more severe than for larceny.

If the legislature were to pass a bill that allows the maximum prison term to be doubled for armed robbery they would be making a mistake. Armed robbery is a serious crime and could also be an attempt murder someone. I do not think doubling the maximum prison term of armed robbery would be worth the problems it could cause. The prisons are already overcrowded and this is an issue across the nation especially big states like California and Texas (Crime in The United States, 2009). There are other offenses that are committed, that are more serious then armed robbery. These are the crimes that need to have more punishment. This bill wants to double the maximum term of armed robbery, there are some states have a harsh punishments and could lead an offender serving up to 30 years for and first offence .Offender do need to be punished for the crime they have committed but the punishment needs to be consistent with crime. However, I do think that, if a criminal injures or murders the victim during the act of armed robbery deserves to be punishment more, along with added charges (Crime in The United States, 2009). For this bill to it would need to have conditions along with it. It should also matter how the criminal was armed. I say this because some states carry firearm enhancement laws. What this means is, if someone pulls a gun on someone and proceeds to rob them of their money, there would be added years to the armed robbery charges.

There are a lot of factor to be considered when it comes to armed robbery. My recommendation to the legislature is not in the passing this bill for armed robbery in general. However, if there is a need to increase the prison terms for armed robbery crimes, the legislation will need to have conditions in place. The legislature could possibly even just have enhancement laws to go along with armed robbery instead of just increasing the prison term for armed robbery. As stated earlier the United States already have some major issues with overcrowding in the prisons system and this bill