ABSTRACT
There has been a trend in the past 30 years to address crime with increasingly harsher sentences. Many who advocate for harshness justify such measures on the basis that they are “getting tough on crime.” In the debate over the War on Drugs, many conservative ideologues believe that addressing crime and drugs with harsher sentences will deter crime and punish the “offender.” However, this analysis is shortsighted. Those who support this belief fail to understand the impact that such policies have on communities and on the nation as a whole. When we, as a nation, penalize “offenders” with such severity, we dehumanize not only the individual, but also the community and the nation. Whereas the United States may possess material wealth, it falls short in the humane treatment of individuals and progressive social policy that incorporates “all” persons.
