Another stab at the Constitution

“The Constitution has failed to check this pathological process. The Eighth Amendment bans “cruel and unusual punishments”. And the requirement that a sentence be “unusual” has meant that the justices often do little more than count up states with similar sentences without looking at how states reached these outcome.”

In this quote by Racheal E Barkow from her “New York Times” article Revisiting the Constitution: Clarify What’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment, she believes prison uses punishment excessively. People are sentenced to prison and treated how ever the authority figures there, which are the correction officers the way they see fit. Also the judge that gave the sentence doesn’t see it through, therefore the authority figures take it into their own hands. Often the punishment crosses the line and become “ cruel and unusual”. This occurs despite what the Eighth Amendment bans. This is what I understood this quote meant.

I chose this quote because I disagree with Racheal E Barkow. I believe that different people have different views and beliefs therefore the Eighth Amendment shouldn’t be “clarified”. She didn’t specify in this article what exactly was going on that made prisons “cruel and unusual”, she didn’t support this article with any evidence, not even one example. In the judicial system when a crime is committed the judge and sometime the jury decide on the sentence if the person is proven guilty. They take all the evidence into consideration and the person is sentenced according to the crime they committed. I don’t believe someone that kills another person and gets sentenced 25 to life “cruel and unusual punishment”. Actually now the corrections department is trying to decrease jail time by offering rehab to people who are charged with drugs to prostitution, instead of jail time. If the Eighth Amendment is re-written it will leave too much room for speculation because everyone had they’re own perspective. They have their own beliefs and even though they try to not incorporate their beliefs in decision-making especially in politics it usual fails. Most of the time they do put their own beliefs onto others. Who is todays government to define “cruel and unusual punishment” when we have come so far from 1787, they didn’t have the weapons or resources we have now, they had less back then so I say leave it alone!