Corruption in U.S Justice The justice system of the United States has held a complicated history of racism, greed, tragedy and corruption. Though less than three centuries old, the United States has grown to be one of the largest and most powerful of nations in the world. With a population of 323 million people, the nation is expected to be capable of keeping up with the crime and justice of the people. However, when the law is constantly changed and ratified to fit the needs of the time, control over how much power one body of the justice system has, is never constant. What defines a criminal is not strict, and the treatment does not have to necessarily be humane. Even back to the colonial times in the Americas, the idea of a judge, the overseer of justice, being independent from the approval of his leader, was the ideal philosophy; as Thomas Jefferson wrote in his arguments against the king of England "...He [King George] has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries..." (qtd. in Shugerman 14 ) It had been the argument for the longest time, that the average citizen simply wasn't intelligent enough to elect judges or other positions of power and should therefore simply stay submissive in allowing more 'competent' men choose what direction the waves of power should flow. (Shugerman 14) Thomas Jefferson admitted himself doubtful that such policy was correct in the branch of justice; it allowed for
Chapter one also discusses the importance of the need to have a system of justice in America. Crime was thought to have been previously been linked with poverty, however, this is not the case. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice was a group of 19 people appointed by former president Lyndon B. Johnson in order to study the criminal justice system in America. The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society is a report that summarized objectives that shaped the criminal justice system. The chapter also focusses on the models of criminal justice. The Due Process Model, associated mainly with the Warren Court, is a model that wants citizens to have equal fairness of the law. The Crime Control Model, however, suggests that the most important function is the suppression of crime. Overall, the main purpose of chapter one is to inform readers as to why the criminal justice system was created and the need for a justice system in
Almost every day, we hear about justice being served upon criminals and we, as a society, feel a sense of relief that another threat to the public has been sentenced to a term in prison, where they will no longer pose a risk to the world at large. However, there are very rare occasions where the integrity of the justice system gets skewed and people who should not have been convicted are made to serve heavy prison sentences. When word of this judicial misstep reaches the public, there is social outcry, and we begin to question the judicial system for committing such a serious faux pas.
This paper discusses three critical issues in the criminal justice system. It touches on the general issues of punishment philosophies, sentence decision making, and prison overcrowding and focused more specifically on the negative effects of each. Highlighted in this informational paper is the interrelated nature of the issues; each issue affects and is affected by the others. Data and information has been gathered from the FBI Uniform Crime Report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Amnesty International, the NAACP Legal Defense
From Plessy v. Ferguson to Meyer v. Nebraska, to Korematsu v. United States, the criminal justice system the fight for the civil rights of minorities has improved greatly. However, when looking at the statistics and rates of sentencing and incarceration over time, the
A large reason for the writing of this book is that there is currently not much research concerning or call for a criminal justice reform. According to Alexander, the main goal of the book is to “stimulate a much-needed conversation about the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy in the United States” (2012:16). Another premise for this research is that it is no longer socially correct to use race to discriminate against people, so Alexander argues that society as a whole is now
Many people are enraged with the U.S. court system and feel that it does its job based on prejudice, unfair, and despicable standards in which it’s not held accountable for. This inserts a fear of the justice system within the people themselves with the resulting lack of trust created. There are countless cases of injustice that have made their way through the U.S. Court System such as the case of James Richardson was spent 21 years in jail for being accused for the poisoning and deaths of his 7 kids only to be let out later on after the real criminal had confessed to the crimes. Another crime that can be put on display is the case of James Bain who spent 35 years in prison (which is the longest time served by anyone who has been wrongfully convicted) for being wrongfully accused of multiple crimes including rape and was sent to prison for life only to finally be granted the use of DNA evidence review for his case which eventually was the deciding factor that gave him his freedom back. The case of Daryl Burton sickens many people to the core after he served 24 years in prison after being charged with murder. It was later found out that the police who were on Burton’s case pushed the “witnesses” to go against Burton and accuse him of the false crime. There are countless examples that can be used to show the devastating mistakes the court system has made over the years and the seemingly lack of effort to not only get it right the first time but to consider the importance of
The basis of criminal justice in the United States is one founded on both the rights of the individual and the democratic order of the people. Evinced through the myriad forms whereby liberty and equity marry into the mores of society to form the ethos of a people. However, these two systems of justice are rife with conflicts too. With the challenges of determining prevailing worth in public order and individual rights coming down to the best service of justice for society. Bearing a perpetual eye to their manifestations by the truth of how "the trade-off between freedom and security, so often proposed so seductively, very often leads to the loss of both" (Hitchens, 2003, para. 5).
Racial inequality is growing. Our criminal laws, while facially neutral, are enforced in a manner that is massively and pervasively biased. My research will examine the U.S. criminal justice policies and how it has the most adverse effect on minorities. According to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, out of a total population of 1,976,019 incarcerated in adult facilities, 1,239,946 or 63 percent are
The Judiciary system encourages systematic criminalization of Blacks and mass incarceration as they contribute to keeping them in the cycle that oppresses them. In the 2016 Prison Policy Initiative article, “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie” an attorney and advocate for social justice reform, Peter Wagner, summarizes the distribution of criminals and their convictions within federal, state, and local jails and prisons. 2.4 million people are incarcerated in the U.S., the highest amount of incarcerated people in the entire world. It is ironic given that
The increasing rate of prisoners do cost very high to the tax payers as well as other plans of government. US government spent six times more on prison inmates than the rate of increment for higher education expenditure. Another negative impact is that due to budget shortfalls faced by states, they had made a proportionate reduction in expending on education and other social requirement (Levinson 2002, p. 34). The rate of African Americans’ imprisonment is radically greater than for the total population. A shocking ratio, one out of every nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 is in jail or prison. This raises the doubt about the racial disparity in even police department. Supreme court Justice Kennedy warned that, “There is the moral blindness in our criminal justice
The Justice system seeks to prevent crimes and to capture those who have committed crimes. But what are the causes of crime, maybe poverty, or greed, or is sometimes caused by the system. Is the risk worth the reward and is reward the worth risking the punishment? Power and influence is threaded deeply into the Criminal Justice System. Are all offenders caught and processed with the same demeanor and given the same punishment? The system needs to be impartial to all offenders regardless of the offender’s social position, job or yearly income. The general punishment for most crimes is incarceration in most states with a difference in duration to adjust per each crime. This is the deterrent against crime. This is what should be keeping
Few in this country would argue with the fact that the United States criminal justice system possesses discrepancies which adversely affect Blacks in this country. Numerous studies and articles have been composed on the many facets in which discrimination, or at least disparity, is obvious. Even whites are forced to admit that statistics indicate that the Black community is disproportionately affected by the American legal system. Controversy arises when the issue of possible causes of, and also solutions to, these variations are discussed. It’s not just black versus white, it is white versus white, and white versus oriental, whatever the case may be, and it is not justice. If we see patterns then the judges should have the authority to say something. Jury nullifications cannot be overturned regardless of the cause. Exclusionary rule, according to CULS (2010) – Prevents the government from using most evidence gathered in violation of U.S. Constitution; like unreasonable search and seizure (Fourth Amendment).
The criminal justice system is a set of organizations and procedures set up by governments to control wrongdoing and force punishments on the individuals who disregard the laws. The main frameworks are state and federal. The state criminal justice systems handle wrongdoings perpetrated inside their state limits and government, the federal criminal system handles violations carried out on federal property or in more than one state. This system is supposed to be equal yet the nature of offenses, differential policing policies and practices, sentencing laws and biases are possible contributors to disparities in the system. The severity of the offense, prior record, age and education level are also taking into account when a decision is being made. Our prison system today varies immensely with ascending numbers of minority groups jailed within the system. Racial and ethnic imbalances continue in the United States and no disparity is more evident than that found in the criminal justice system. Disparity usually refers to a difference that is unfair, disparity in the criminal justice system stems from racial disparity which concludes that the proportion of a racial ethnic group within the control of the system is greater than the population of that group outside that control.
Chavis, Benjamin F., Jr. "U.S. Criminal Justice System Needs Urgent Reform." Washington Informer, Mar 2015, pp. 24-24,41, Global News stream; ProQuest Central, http://ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.gsu.edu/docview/1669733723?accountid=11226.
Within the criminal justice system, officials abuse their power. The officials of the justice system have a duty to protect and perform their duties with unbiased decision making. The abuse of power jeopardizes people’s lives who are not able to sustain oneself and their families. Some people do not understand that poorer people find themselves in jail more and once a person is released, that person is subjected to return to jail for the amount of money owed to the state. There are many obstacles for the poor, especially those of color. People of color are treated unfairly in the justice system, from the arrest, the sentencing, and the release. The criminal justice system is supposed to be just but that is not the case. The criminal justice system allows for the police, public defenders, and judges to bend the laws and not be punished for their actions or that apologizes can fix the wrong that has been done. This paper will discuss the abuse of power from the justice system and the solutions to rectify the damages.