Cengage Advantage Books: Foundations of the Legal Environment of Business 2nd Edition by Marianne Jennings, Albert Napier, Marianne Jennings

تمرين 8

Feigned Addictions and Reduced Sentences
In 1994, Congress passed a law that permitted nonviolent convicts to reduce their sentences by up to 12 months if they completed a drug-rehab/counseling program. When the program was first created, 3,755 inmates entered the program. In 2008, 18,000 federal prisoners were in the program and there was a waiting list of 7,000 inmates.
Dr. Sam Waksal, the former CEO of ImClone, served nine fewer months than his original seven-year sentence because he participated in a prison rehab program for inmates who have a problem with substance abuse. However, when Dr. Waksal was interviewed for the presentencing report, he told the probation officer that he was a "social drinker" and had perhaps five glasses of wine per week. One month after the interview with the probation officer, Waksal's lawyers informed a federal judge that Waksal now had a "dependence on alcohol" and requested approval for Waksal's entry into a prison rehab program.
The former mayor of Atlanta, Bill Campbell, was admitted into a federal rehab program and got a nine-month reduction on his 30-month sentence for tax evasion. He was admitted to rehab despite that fact that his lawyers argued at his sentencing hearing that he had no substance abuse problem and that he hated the taste of alcohol, therefore urging the judge to conclude that Campbell's imprisonment was not necessary.
The Bureau of Prisons indicates that it is cracking down on admissions to the program, looking more closely at doctors' letters and past histories of the inmates.
Evaluate the ethics of the inmates who feign addiction. Evaluate the ethics of the consulting firms that help them get into the program.