Dynamical Systems

1. More than 2 million people are incarcerated in U.S. prisons as well as local and county jails. Democrats and Republicans alike agree that mass incarceration is a problem, and state and federal efforts are underway to enact criminal-justice reform. But enacting effective reform requires an understanding of what caused the problem in the first place. Many argue the War on Drugs was responsible for mass incarceration and that drug offenses should be punished less harshly in order to help reduce the prison population. However, if everyone in America currently held for a drug-related offense in state and federal prison were released, that would reduce those prison populations by approximately 20 percent. That would be significant in its own right, but it still wouldn’t be sufficient to end mass incarceration.

2. For your discussion post, please consider and answer the following questions: 1) Do you agree with the Judge’s decision to allow Mike Anderson to go free, even though he never served his sentence for the robbery conviction? Please explain your answer. 2) Do you think Mr. Anderson should have served some other punishment? If you were the judge, what punishment would you have sentenced Mike Anderson to in lieu of prison time?

3. Make sure to answer all questions for full extra-credit and if you refer to an article or to the video clip, make sure to use the title. In order for your post to qualify for full credit it must be at least 250 words long. This post is due by Tuesday 4/21.