Mandatory Minimum Prison Sentencing in the U.S (PowerPoint)

Managing Competing Agendas 1

Mandatory Minimum Prison Sentencing

The U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) instituted a judicial policy, which requires

judges to punish certain crimes with an absolute minimum period of incarceration regardless

of the circumstances. The DOJ has a mandatory minimum sentence that could define the

amount of the time that an individual could stay in prison for the crime the person had

committed. The most common offenses the department was dealing with is drug offenses.

The department was campaigning against anti-drug abuse to blitzkrieg the increasing

incidents of drug trafficking in the country.

The mandatory minimum sentencing was established during the Reagan

administration to address the perceived drug epidemic, which expands to the next decade.

The issue became popular, which embraced by the parties of Republican Reagan and Bush

administrations, which later continued to the Clinton Democratic administration in the 1990s.

The mandatory minimum was enforced in 31 states and Washington in 1994 (Baker, 2018).

Congress abandoned the idea that federal judges can determine sentencing, being appointed

by the president and afterward confirmed by the U.S senate, as they said they have the

training and necessary knowledge of identifying the most dangerous drug offenders and

punishing them.

The DOJ is led by the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the U.S.

The Department is broken down into agency’s such as the Office of Legal Policy, the Office

of Violence Against Women, the F.B.I., U.S. Attorney’s, U.S. Parole Commission, etc. Each

agency within the DOJ operates independently and has their own missions, but still falls

under the Attorney General and supports the overall mission of the DOJ.

MANDATORY MINIMUM PRISON SENTENCING 2

Human Resource Management

Mandatory minimum sentencing laws were enacted by Congress and must be

followed by the DOJ. The role of human resource management in the DOJ plays a crucial

part in taking care of the human capital. They are responsible for ensuring the department is

working well. Human resource management develops policies and programs to attract and

retain the best and brightest employees for the agency (Jiang, 2012).

Human resources within the DOJ can both negatively and positively impact the issue

of mandatory minmum sentencing. With the mission of human resources being to hire the

best employees for the department, if employees that are hired have ideas and agendas to try

to make mandatory mimimun sentencing laws more reasonable, then the outcome would be

positive (or negative I suppose, depending on the opinion of reader). Employees could

perform research studies, compile statistics and facts to support a change to the current laws

and empower their leadership channels to listen and consider such a change. Human

resources can provide employees with the right channels for their voices and opionions to be

heard.

Budgeting As Part of the Organizational Structure

The eith amendment of the U.S. Constitution states there should not be excessive bail

nor excessive fines imposed on offenders. One could argue that mandatory minimum

sentencing laws violate the constitutional right as sometimes sentences are viewed as cruel

and unreasonable. This Mandatory minimum sentencing and excessively long sentences are

very unfair, very expensive, and wasteful. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws negatively

impacted the budgeting part of the government. It has brought a negative impact on the

budget of some of the agencies within the DOJ. For example, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP)

MANDATORY MINIMUM PRISON SENTENCING 3

now has the burden of housing many of these criminals for extended periods of time and this

comes at a price of approximately $100/day and per person.

The BOP is not the only agency effected by the cost of mandatory minimum

sentencing. Take into consideration the financial cost to the U.S. Attorney’s office, FBI,

DEA, ATF and other similar agencies that may be involved with each case. The financial

burden is most likely not placed on the criminal, but moreso the tax payers and the budget set

in place for each specific agency. The cost of mandatory minimums often far outweigh the

cost of rehabilitation programs to reduce recidivism rates as well as reducing the sentences

for drug crimes with non-violent offenses.

Political Environment

Most of the political parties and leaders are involved in making the laws and

regulations in the DOJ. The presidential administrations and Congress are responsible for

instated the mandatory minimum sentencing with the primary purpose of addressing the

perceived crack problems and enormous drug epidemic. The mandatory minimum

sentencing laws were very popular across all the parties and was being embraced by the

Republican Reagan and the Bush administrations and was later continued with the democratic

of Clinton administration in the year 1990. From the year 1994, the mandatory minimums

were enforced in 31 states and Washington, D.C.

The political responsiveness determines management effectiveness as the political

parties are the main variables and elements of the appointees in the department. For example,

if the judges are the ones who are appointed by the president they will be dealing with the

activities that are on the key agendas of the president.

Judges have sufficient career experience and career background, and they are the ones

who are supposed to bring the development using effective public policies. But, on the other

MANDATORY MINIMUM PRISON SENTENCING 4

hand, the political parties who are the chief appointees and who do not have any information

and experience on the public policies are the ones who control the systems. Therefore,

development is impacted.

There are challenges in the development and forward movement when the appointed

judges cannot act using their career knowledge and experience to make sentencing decisions.

They differ with the critical agendas of Congress than that of employees within the DOJ.

Therefore, when the the department intends to exercise the policies towards the development,

they vary with the opinions of the political appointees.

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References

Baker, S. (2018). Written Communication. Unpublished communication assignment.

Strayer University.

Mandatory Minimums and Sentencing Reform. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.cjpf.org/mandatory-minimums.

Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Hu, J., & Baer, J. C. (2012). How does human resource

management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating

mechanisms. Academy of Management Journal, 55(6), 1264-1294.

Oliver, C., & Holzinger, I. (2008). The effectiveness of strategic political

management: A dynamic capabilities framework. Academy of Management Review, 33(2),

496-520.