Hard bargains
Subtitle: the coercive power of drug laws in federal court
By: Mona Lynch
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
ISBN-13: 9780871545114
Subjects: Drugs of abuse; Drug traffic; Criminal provisions; Plea bargaining; Administration of Criminal justice; Sentences (Criminal procedure); Law and legislation
Description: "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."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The First Drug War : Laying the Groundwork; title: The Great War : Creating an Infrastructure of Legal Power; title: Soft Hammers? : The Deployment of Drug Law in the Liberal Northeast; title: Respecting Law and Deterring Lawbreakers? : Hammers and Nails in Southern District; title: Drugs, mules, and the looming border; title: Inducing the plea : Strategic uses of legal power; title: Conclusion; title: Epilogue.