The United States is considered as one of the most democratic country in the world. Upholding the rule of law is an imperative aspect of any human society that claims to be democratic by any standards. The criminal justice systems in America, which includes the police, the adjudication systems and the correctional facilities, are entrusted with dealing with crime in the country. The system is expected to administrator justice in the land for the satisfaction of the majority.
This is by ensuring that criminals get punished for their wrong doing while protecting the rights and freedoms of both the victim and the offender. Moreover, the systems is expected to ensure that innocent citizens are not punished for crimes they have not committed by carrying out proper and unbiased investigations, interpreting the law correctly and ensuring that systems sends back into the society better individuals after they have served their sentences.The systems should therefore be guided by the principles of justice for all and integrity. However, there have been concerns over the injustices that have permeated the American justices systems. Questions have been raised on what happened to justice in the United States due to the flaws that are very evident in institutions that are support to promote justice in the society.
There are no doubts that all aspects of the criminal justice systems from being suspected as a criminal to incarceration, malpractices have been witnessed.The issue to injustices in the society has attracted a lot of attention from policy makers as well as criminologist who are split fairly at the middle over the issue. Some research have indicated that the American justice system is flawed favoring the social elites while being unjust to the marginalized individuals based on their race or social status. This papers looks at some aspects of the criminal justice systems in America that indicates the level of injustices against the people of color and the poor in the system that is expected to administer justice. Overview of American justice systemThe criminal justice systems entail all processes and institutions that are responsible for maintaining social order, alleviating crime, deterring potential offenders, sanctioning, rehabilitating and punishing criminals.
The main role of the criminal justice system is to protect the public from deviant individuals while upholding the rights and freedoms of the offender as well as their victims. The principle goals in the American criminal justice system are inscribed in the presidential commission report on law enforcement and administration released in 1969 which give various recommendations on appropriate actions in the fight against crime.Some of the recommendations in the report have found their way into subsequent legislations aimed at preventing crime. The principle recommendation in the report was an improvement in coordination among various agencies and institutions within the criminal justice system.
These institutions and agencies include the courts, law enforcement agencies as well as the correctional facilities. The recommendations sought to create a justice system that upholds the rights and freedoms and protects individuals and the whole society (Cole & Smith, 2008).The main components of the criminal justices system include the police (law enforcement agencies), the courts and the correctional institutions. Although they are all distinct government agencies, they cooperate in the realization of rule of law in the society. The law enforcement agency, the police, is an important constitute of the criminal justice system.
They make the first contact with individuals suspected of committing an offence, investigate the allegations and arrest the offender. The law enforcers can also be warranted to use force or legally accepted coercion methods to maintain or restore social order.The law enforcement department in the United States consists of several agencies, federal, state, county and private. Their principle role is to maintain order and enforce laws within their jurisdiction (Parenti, 2000).
The courts or adjudication is an institution within the systems where disputes involving criminal acts are settled. It is also an avenue through which justice within a specific jurisdiction is administered. Important professionals in the adjudication process include the judge or magistrate, the prosecutor and the defense attorney.Being adversarial systems, the disputing parties present their arguments before the judge and the ruling are determined by the events and arguments presented by each party.
The defense attorney provides professional legal argument on strategies and possible outcomes in the case. The criminal justice systems in the United States provide a defense attorney who is paid by the government for the accused can not afford to hire a private attorney. The judge on the other hand presides over the case and provides an independent professional legal opinion leading to settlement of the despite.The role of the prosecutor in the process is the open charges against an accused person or entity in a law court.
He provides the details of the alleged crime and evidence that has been used to incriminate the offender (Cole & Smith, 2008). The correctional institutions are also an important part of the criminal justice system. Ones the accused is prosecuted to court and the judge or the jury is convince that the individual is guilty; he is handed over to the correction facilities to execute the sentence. Correctional facilities have existed in the criminal justice system as long as human societies have existed.
Historically, punishment has been that major focus of correction facilities. This was because societies in the ancient world were not civilized enough to establish appropriate correctional facilities that exist in the modern systems and they used execution or excommunication as their principle methods of punishment. Other forms of punishment included wiping and shame punishments. However, the modern societies are more civilized and guided by democratic principles where the offender does not lose his or citizenship once he or she is found guilty (Cole & Smith, 2008).In the modern American justice systems, prisons are the most visible correctional facilities.
However, there are many changes that have taken place in the correctional facilities over the years. For example, the facilities have introduced other aspects of crime control rather than punishment. In the late 20th century, the number of young people being accused of committing violent offences increased tremendously prompting a radical surgery in the criminal justice systems. This led to the introduction of the juvenile justice systems which largely affected the correctional facilities.These changes required special facilities that take care of the cognitive development of the juvenile offenders. This made rehabilitation to be a major aim in the criminal justice systems dealing with both adults and juveniles.
Other that rehabilitation, the correctional facilities and the criminal justice systems in general aims at incapacitation of the offender, deterrence by imposing punitive sentences on high profile crimes or retribution. Monetary fines, parole, probation and house arrests are also common in the modern criminal justice (Cole & Smith, 2008). Justice or InjusticeArguably, the American justice systems is harsher than any other systems in the world. Statistics indicates that the united state government sends it citizens to prisons more that any other country in the world. However, this does not indicate that the American population is more deviant that other societies in the world.
There are over two million American incarcerated in America at any time which suggest that almost one percent of the American adult population is in prison. This is without considering individual under other correctional programs such as parole and probation.Relative to the population in respective countries, the American criminal justice systems incarcerates up to twelve time compared to Japan, nine time the rate in Germany and five times when compared to United Kingdom. This has resulted into overcrowding in the justice systems a norm in United States.
The federal correctional systems are overwhelmed by the ever increasing number of inmates, currently handling up to sixty percent more than their capacity. The situation is similar in the state correctional facilities.Whether this is consistent with the principle values in a just society is a contentious issue (Cole & Smith, 2008). Criminologists generally agree with the fact that criminal justice system in the United States is flawed. This is basically because its large number of people in the system which suggests ineffectiveness, disproportionate in the incarcerated population where the less advantaged in the society is overrepresented, criminalizing acts that are not criminal at all and unpredictability.
The systems are therefore flawed from the formulation of the laws governing the system to the execution of their mandates.For example, the rapid increase in the number of Americans in correction facilities in the rate twentieth century resulted from changes in the laws that restricted the court’s discretion powers. As a result of public outcry due to increase crime in the 1970s, which more often than not prefer retribution as the only method of punishment, the policy makers obliged and removed judge or jury discretion while imposing minimum sentencing guidelines. Although common sense dictates that some criminals such as serial rapists and murderers belong behind bars, mandatory sentencing of poor petty drug dealers in the street for example does not make sense.
However, the justice systems in America has continuously incarcerated African Americans and Latinos for pretty drug offences which has increased the number of individuals incarcerated for drug related offences by up to thirteen times when compared to the statistics in 1980s (Cole & Smith, 2008). It is also important to note that the justice systems in different states as well as federal systems have increasingly imposed life sentence for life simply because of being habitual offenders. Whether this is justice or injustice is a contentious issue.In principle, life sentence is supposed to apply for violent criminals but more habitual criminals are being incarcerated for life after committing pretty offences. The application of the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ in some states have resulted into thousands of Americans who did not commit violent or serious crimes being imprisoned for life. Flawed laws as well as injustices have introduced unacceptable levels of malpractices in the American justices systems.
It is not surprising to note that a good number of innocent men are serving sentences in the American correctional facilities for crimes they never committed.Defendants have tendencies of admitting guilty to crimes that have not committed to avoid a risk of longer sentences. In many instances, prosecutors are known to threaten the young individuals that they will dye in prison if they do not cooperate in providing evidence. This is the highest form of injustice in criminal proceedings and can be compared to a defense attorney bribing a witness to testify in court that the defendant did not commit a crime (Cole & Smith, 2008). The poor against the rich in the justice systemThere is no doubt that throughout history, the criminal justice systems in America have been accused of being biased and favoring the social elites. The problem of the criminal justice systems being unjust to the poor and marginalized members of the society is not a problem in America but the whole world.
Injustices against the poor and marginalized individuals in the society exist in all aspects of the criminal justice systems. The marginalized members of the society have been subjected to injustices in the system that is expected to fight for their justice.This starts form criminal profiling, arrests, prosecution until the suspect is convicted conviction (Arrigo, 2005). There are numerous laws that have been enacted in the United States and other parts of the world that mainly target the poor. For example the anti narcotic laws have been accused of targeting the poor African Americans and the Hispanics who are marginalized in the society.
Cases of racial profiling and discriminative arrests have are evident throughout the United States.The issue of racial discrimination in sentencing in the criminal court is also evident. It is important to note that this discrimination is more rampant against the poor members of the minority race with the rich being considered to have attained the white status. Laws targeting the poor, profiling based on socioeconomic status and discriminative sentencing has resulted into a lot of disparities in the criminal justice systems. While the poor are going to prison, the rich continue acquiring more wealth using illegitimate means (Cullen & Agnew, 2002).
