Title: Hard bargains : the coercive power of drug laws in federal court /
Authors: Lynch, Mona Pauline,
Year: 2016
Subjects: Drugs of abuse Law and legislation United States Criminal provisions; Drug traffic United States; Criminal justice, Administration of United States; Sentences (Criminal procedure) United States.; Plea bargaining United States.; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology.; LAW / Criminal Law / Sentencing.; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General.; Criminal justice, Administration of; Drug traffic; Drugs of abuse Law and legislation Criminal provisions; Plea bargaining; Sentences (Criminal procedure); United States
Abstract: "The convergence of tough-on-crime politics, stiffer sentencing laws, and jurisdictional expansion in the 1970s and 1980s increased the powers of federal prosecutors in unprecedented ways. [The author] investigates the increased power of these prosecutors in our age of mass incarceration. [The author] documents how prosecutors use punitive federal drug laws to coerce guilty pleas and obtain long prison sentences for defendants—particularly those who are African American— and exposes deep injustices in the federal courts. [This book] proposes a broad overhaul of the federal criminal justice system to restore the balance of power and retreat from the punitive indulgences of the war on drugs."--
Contents: Introduction : a system out of whack -- The rirst drug war : laying the groundwork -- The great war : creating an infrastructure of legal power -- Paternalism and power : the deployment of drug law in the liberal northeast -- Hammers and nails in southeast district -- Drugs, mules, and the looming border -- Inducing the plea : strategic uses of legal power -- Taming the power to punish? -- Some hope and more despair.