And Justice For All?

Being that we have been writing about our views on the death penalty, some other ideas about legal issues have turned up. For example, one thing that I'd like to talk about would be the sentencing of non-violent offenders. I think that someone who commits a minor crime that does not happen to harm anyone or someone's property should not have to go to jail depending on the severity of the crime. I feel this way because these offenses can range anywhere from littering to drugs. I think that in most cases however, since you are not harming anyone, non-violent offenders should not be sentenced to jail time, just something like community service or a fine. as with the topic of trying children as adults, I think that this is unjust in some cases, but sometimes it's necessary. What I think about this is that since most of the time children don't know the consequences of what they're doing, they should not be tried as an adult that would know what they are doing. But sometimes they know what they are doing which might condone this type of trial/sentence. I think that with the trial of children, a mental evaluation of sorts would be necessary to determine how to sentence children.