DPA/ NPA

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Deferred Prosecution Agreements / Non-prosecution Agreements: an out of court settlement where the government approaches a company with enough evidence to prosecute, but instead of doing it the company promises to behave for a certain time and the crimes will just disappear. Non-prosecution agreements means it doesn’t even get written up. Companies have used these DPA’s to literally get away with murder. This was started in 1974 for juvenile offenders to avoid prosecution and focus on rehabilitation. Concerns come because most employees do nothing wrong and are being penalized for the company’s wrong-doing. However, this makes it so about 47% of wrong-doing get off with no fines or prosecutions at all.

Corporations that benefit from breaking the law, and the people in charge who make those decisions should not get a pass and keep their stolen wealth. They should be blacklisted from that industry, and replaced with more capable people who will follow the laws.

Also, since the original purpose of DPA's and NPA's was to assist in rehabilitation efforts, they should be used once more to assist in those endeavors rather than almost exclusively for companies and organizations.