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Challenges in the criminal justice system
Strengths and weaknesses of the criminal justice system
Challenges in the criminal justice system
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We have a system in place that is meant to serve the American people and incarcerate those who are a menace to society. A system like this seems good on paper, until the people in the system and those who contribute to it, taint it with their bias. We see this predominantly evident in the story written by Walter Dean Myers “Monster” and the documentary “Murder on a Sunday Morning”. Though these things show us the same theme, they have their individual differences separating them.
Advised of a neighbor disturbance. Margaret Maloney called the Comm. Center and stated her neighbor Travis Beam, is harassing her. I asked what he did. She related when she walked outside he was on the porch and yelled "shut the fuck up."
“...Much of the recent crime increase threatens the vitality of America’s cities–and thousands of lives–it is not, in itself, the greatest danger in today’s war on cops. The greatest danger lies, rather, in the delegitimation of law and order itself’ (Mac Donald). In the book “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” published in the year of 2016, author Heather Mac Donald provides credible evidence to expand on her viewpoint of our country’s current criminal crisis. In addition to “The War on Cops, Mac Donald has written two other books. Her works “Are Cops Racist?”
One of the theories it speaks of is the Pyrrhic defeat theory. This theory states that the criminal justice system is created to function in a particular fashion in order to create an image of crime where crime is actually seen as the “threat from the poor”.(Reiman, 2010, p.5) “Reimans’s theory suggests that those who have power to change the system benefit from the way it operates: they can go on committing harms and accumulating wealth without punishment, while the country remains focused on street crime and poor minority criminals. ”(Leighton 2010) In order to accomplish this “The system must actually fight crime-or at least some crime-but only enough to keep it from getting out of hand and to keep the struggle to substantially reduce or eliminate crime.
Mass Incarceration: Transforming an Unconstitutional System. Guild Notes, 40(4), 12. Brad Broussard in his article, Mass
Working closely with people placed on death row, incarcerated children and many others; Bryan Stevenson is able to provide some clarity as to how unjust the criminal justice system truly is. Mr. Stevenson graduated from Harvard University Law School and is currently a Professor of Law at the New York University of Law. He is the founder and Executive Director of Equal Justice Initiative, with the help of his team he has been able to successfully “relief or release over 115 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row.” As well as establishing “life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger are constitutional” through various cases handled by the United States Supreme Court. The cruelest of acts are those committed under the false
Another perspective surrounding the American criminal justice system is that people only criticize the system because the results they wanted did not occur. Some people go as far as to say, “THE criminal justice system doesn 't work” (Haberman). But why do people have these strong feelings against the American criminal justice system? Haberman’s interesting viewpoint answers that question when he says, “It seems to be a popular pastime: trashing the system when it does not produce the results you want.” From this quotation one can consider that some people disparage the system so heavily because they disagree with the rulings, not because the judgements are wrong, but simply because they do not like them.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.
Slavery, Jim Crow, the ghetto, and the carceral apparatus are all structural institutions that share a mutual beneficial relationship where each has supplemented and historically progressed into more advanced subtle forms of oppression and racism. Past and current regimes served as social functions with the objective of encompassing African Americans in a permanent subordinate position. In each generation, newer developments of a racial caste emerge with the same objective of repudiating African Americans citizenship. The only thing that has changed since Jim Crow is the language we use to justify racial exclusion (Alexander, 2). These four regimes are genealogically linked because they all advanced and developed from one another.
Famous American cereal killer, John Wayne Gacy, had murdered and raped 33 adolescents, many of whom were teenagers, the justice system made sure this man could never do this again. The public is turning a blind eye to the many contributions the justice system makes, we should look at not only how we can reform, but how it contributes to society The justice system creates many contributions to society, such as the safety it provides for children and their chances of exploitation, the many instances where they convict dangerous individuals therefore creating a safer environment for the present and future of society, and the fact it provides all citizens of the public and private sectors, to have the right to a fair, speedy, and public trial,
Law enforcement’s increased arrest rates affect other criminal justice agencies including prosecutors. The increased arrest rate increases prosecutor’s caseloads. Prosecutor’s caseloads were increased due to legitimate and illegitimate arrests. Due to some officer’s misconduct, prosecutors became suspicious of arrests and were dismissing many of the tagging cases that came from certain blocks. Prosecutors were forced to use their limited time and resources to dismiss the suspicious charges while simultaneously pursuing charges for other legitimate cases.
The biggest issue within the Criminal Justice system is the large number of wrongful convictions, innocent people sentenced to die for crimes they did not commit. People are put in prison for years, even executed for false convictions. This affects not only those put in prison but friends and family of the accused. Wrongful convictions aren’t solely a tragedy for those directly involved either. It weakens the faith the public has for the justice system as well as poses safety issues; when innocent people are put away, the real criminals are still out there.
During the Great Depression, crime was targeted as grave problem, and while many criminals found imprisonment and punishment, most found opportunity and even success. Prohibition and the Great Depression changed the United States’ strategic needs. Organized crime turned government attention away from outside threats, toward the need to contain highly dangerous criminals within the United States. In 1933, Alcatraz Island was turned over to the Department of Justice to serve as a new kind of prison. Alcatraz’s and McNeil Islands main accomplishments weren’t putting away the most dangerous criminals and keeping America safe.
For the Application of the Criminal Justice System project of the Criminal Justice course, I chose the arrest of John Burke. This case is about the arrest and sentencing of John Burke who had shot and killed Joseph Ronan. Twenty-five year old John Burke agreed to meet with 22 year old Joseph Ronan at Ronans home, in Reading, Massachusetts on Monday, August 15, 2011 around 1pm, with the intent of purchasing Percocet pills. (Boston.com, 2013) However, shortly after entering Ronans home, Burke opened fire (News, 2011), and after shooting Joseph Ronan several times, with the belief that Ronan was involved in a robbery at Burkes apartment in April 2011 (Boston.com, 2013), fled the home.
There are three components that make up the criminal justice system – the police, courts, and correctional facilities – they all work together in order to protect individuals and their rights as a citizen of society to live without the fear of becoming the victim of a crime. Crime, simply put is when a person violates criminal law; the criminal justice system is society’s way of implementing social control. When all three components of the criminal justice work together, it functions almost perfectly. For a person to enter the criminal justice system, the process must begin with the law enforcement.
