What is the Dent act and how it could possibly work out?

Question

I have a question regarding The Dark Knight Rises. It is shown in the film, that the police managed for 8 years to completely suppress the Gotham criminal world by using the Dent Act, proposed after

the death of Harvey Dent in the previous movie.

The question is - what is this act about? I mean, what kind of law improvement did it make so that the crime would cease to exist for such a long period? This question has two aspects:

• The main obstacle in fighting the crime is the need for the Police itself to obey the Law and not to violate the Rights of the criminals. You cannot torture people under suspicion, these people have a right for lawyer and etc. How could Dent Act violate that? After all, Gotham is just a city, not even a state. Therefore it cannot introduce laws that contradict state laws and federal laws (although I am not an US citizen and not sure about that).
• The economical basis. Organized crime exists due to the nature of the market trade economy. If it is profitable to sell drugs, there always will be someone who sells them. If prostitution is profitable, someone will always practice that. In order to defeat the basis of the crime world you have to change drastically the economy basis. Could the Dent act do that?

Answer 1

The image below shows a press release regarding the Dent Act. It appears the act allows the denial of parole, as well as the creation of "stricter penalties". This appears to make sure that crime lords can't pay their way out of prison, and average thugs have less incentive to work with them as well.

Whether or not that's actually legal at a federal level doesn't entirely matter, as the Dent Act is a plot device to show that Gotham City was peaceful at one point, and that Dent died a hero.

Transcription (bold added):

MAYOR ANNOUNCES HIS SIGNING OF THE DENT ACT

This morning, Mayor Anthony Garcia signed the Dent Act. The legislation, passed unanimously by the City Assembly, will bolster the city’s campaign against organized crime. One of the main features of the Act is the creation of stricter penalties, including the denial of parole, for those who commit any crime deemed as a part or function of a larger criminal enterprise. This will close the loophole that existed in the previous laws that hampered the city’s ability to stamp out organized crime.

“Harvey Dent was a hero in the true sense of the word,” said the Mayor. “His courage in taking on the criminal empires that ruled out streets saved our city. It would be inappropriate for us not to honor his sacrifice.”

“Fifteen minutes ago, I signed a Bill, suitably named the Dent Act, that allows us to pick up where Harvey Dent left off. The legislation gives Police Commissioner Jim Gordon the tools need to deal the final blow to the criminal and the corrupt that remain active within our city.”

“To those who claim this legislation creates a police state, my answer is very simple. Before the Dent Act, our city was so desperate that we placed our trust behind a masked vigilante who ultimately murdered the man who was truly Gotham’s shining hope. Luckily for us, the hope has endured. This Bill is Harvey Dent’s legacy and I intend to protect it.”

At the Mayor’s request, the City Assembly will introduce another Bill making the date of Harvey Dent’s sacrifice an offical city holiday, calling it Harvey Dent Day.

_{RELEASED ON BEHALF OF MAYOR ANTHONY GARCIA
BY GOTHAM CITY COMMUNICATIONS BUREAU.}

The source is unfortunately a retired Mountain Dew campaign website (DewGothamCity.com). But I guess that's what happens with popular fiction.

Answer 2

1. The Dent Act didn't violate any rights of criminals. If anything, its main provision, denying parole, is not unconstitutional at all. A lot of laws deny parole to people depending on certain criminal behaviors, especially repeated criminal offenses. In this case, it denies parole to those in the organized crime machine.

2. The economic factor of organized crime isn't important since Dent's prosecution and the mob leaders' deaths had already severely damaged the machine. Dent's prosecution had already locked up 549 of Gotham's 1000 mobsters. After 18 months of jail time, according to the mayor, the men would try to appeal by using any dirt about Harvey. But since Batman took the fall for Dent, there wasn't any dirt to be found so the criminals were locked up still. And since the rest of the mobsters had no leader and Joker was arrested, it would be very easy to capture them and then pass the Dent Act to deny parole to all mobsters. So, since the machine was already so damaged and denying parole basically locks up any mobster for good, regardless of economic opportunities, it was impossible for organized crime to bounce back.