Essay On Criminal Justice Reform

Found in the first section of the 14th Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause instructs states to provide equal protection under the law to all citizens. Therefore, states are required to treat all persons within their jurisdiction in the same manner when brought in front of the law for the same circumstances. The Equal Protection Clause and violations to this clause have been at the heart of the calls for Criminal Justice reform. Citizens believe reform is needed due to violations of the clause based on race and gender. The Criminal Justice System and the stages within it are seen as being affected by socioeconomic factors, race and gender. Many citizens who call for Criminal Justice reform point to the statistical factors showing racial and gender disproportionality in arrests, convictions, wrongful convictions and the population composition

Accountability is an important aspect of a thriving society. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2, English Standard Version). Accountability is then being open to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ but at the same time keeping one another on the path to salvation. It is for this reason that those people within society placed in chairs of judicial administration, such as judges, must be champions of Christ. They must, “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11, English Standard Version). The fall of man has resulted in the human heart to be easily swayed towards sin, therefore judges and other judicial administrators must first know that they are protecting the Law of God and not a human conceived