How has this discretion been used? The prosecutor is free to dismiss a case for any reason at all. Both the police and prosecutors have a great deal of discretion in their roles. (2000 Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act) How did the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act affect prison sentencing? (Chpt 2) It established extremely long mandatory minimum prison sentences for low-level drug dealing and possession of crack cocaine. Police officers could keep the money & assets they find in drug raids, even if those arrested are not convicted.

Why do police departments in the various states prioritize drug arrests? There are major incentives. Operation Pipeline (Reagan 1984) trained police officers to use pretext stops on a large scale for drug intervention. What are the problems with pretext traffic stops? Especially with regard to Operation Pipeline? Police officers will use minor drug violations as an excuse to search for drugs without evidence.

Road blocks inland from borders other road blocks search through reasonable suspicion. They often don't have real viable cause to search.How have the courts weakened the Fourteenth Amendment since 1982 and how has this further perpetuated racial biases in the criminal justice system? (Chpt 1-2)? They have weakened the fourth amendment by allowing there to be exceptions to the amendment when cops and others who are in the federal system have violated the search and seizures rule. That it works if someone commits a crime they should go to prison. Society assumes those who are convicted are guilty. What myths and assumptions does the general public believe about the criminal justice system? Shows such as law and order perpetuate the myth that the primary function of the system is to keep our streets safe, and our homes secure by rooting out dangerous criminals and punishing them. Jim Crow Guy who wore blackface in a popular minstrel show Disenfranchisement To deprive someone of the right to do something.Īfrican Americans were denied the right to vote through poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses and felon disenfranchisement laws, even though the fifteenth amendment specifically states that the right to vote shall not be denied.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander