Corruption In The Criminal Justice System Essay

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.

During the period of the Great Depression (1920-1939), the criminal justice system reflected the same amount of struggle as the economy. At this point in America, there were many flaws within the structure of the criminal justice system. Inequality, developing system, and harsh realities of organized crime beat down the structure and credibility within trials. The need for reformation was evident. Minorities during this time period struggled overall for the same equal rights that the white majority was granted. African Americans were most called out on due to the fact they represent a different background, culture and have a unilateral political viewpoint. Although under the influence of the law, it was no different in court, when it came

Not only does corruption occur in society, but however, it occurs at every stage of the criminal justice chain. It can be emphasized that the rule of law has essentially vanished astonishingly. The former Attorney General himself, Eric Holder, felt compelled to emphasize “As a prosecutor, a judge, an attorney in private practice, and now, as our nation’s attorney general, I’ve seen the criminal justice system firsthand, from nearly every angle. While I have the utmost faith in — and dedication to — America’s legal system, we must face the reality that, as it stands, our system is in too many respects broken.” at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association's House of Delegates. However, how is America supposed to function with a corrupted justice system? A corrupted justice system not only violates the basic rights to equality before the law, but denies procedural rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution. The justice system in America vigorously demotes justice, instead of promoting actual justice by allowing American Prosecutors within court to exercise the practice of handing out punishments and not justice. The American Justice system is corrupted because threats necessitate plea bargains, unequal incarceration rights are enforced, winning tends to trump justice, for-profit prisons are active, and public defense tends to be worthless.

When comparing The United States criminal justice system to any other nation's system of justice, it becomes abundantly clear that we have the fairest and efficient system of justice in the world. Notwithstanding, that fact, like all systems of law it has its flaws; but our system must continue to flow as smoothly as possible. Therefore, certain practices or options for prosecution were adopted. Accordingly, the practice of plea bargaining, which enables a defendant to reduce their charges down to a lesser offense, or have certain charges dropped altogether to reduce their sentence, has become standard.

These officers saw the crimes they committed as easy and they are only stealing from other criminals. Factors that contributed to the unethical crimes to be committed a weak chain of command that didn’t supervise day to day activities of the raids being completed. Having supervisors who don’t regularly check up on the patrol officer let the officer believe he can get away with certain thing while working and no one will know whether it be taking a nap in the patrol car or serious crimes such as stealing. Although, every officer is ethically bound to perform his duties in a civil and moral way. These officer were untouchable in their eyes, “who would believe the lady who had stolen property in her house”, this was the kind of mind set the officers had. It’s our word the “blue steel curtain” against a civilian. Each officer could have not committed the crimes they all did knowingly and willfully. Officer Sillings said, "It's a shame the house didn't have more swag" while conducting a raid on a home the Federal Bureau of Investigation set up to catch them in the act. He clearly wanted to see more items of value so that he could have had more things to take. Officer Sillings’ having done this so many time before was greedy and want more valuable property then what he saw and

As humans, we believe in myths that the police, or anyone working for the justice system, will say the truth. This is a given, since they work for the justice system. Nevertheless, the Serial podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig questions this criminal justice system people whole heartedly trust. Serial is about a 1999 case where a Muslim teenage boy, Adnan Syed, is convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee – 17-year-old Korean teenager. I have listened to the Serial podcast and took a significant amount of interest toward it. However, when I continued to listen to the podcast, I could clearly see that throughout Adnan’s trial and the investigation process, there were many flaws in the justice system. This has confirmed the criminal justice system to be flawed and ineffective, which is seen through the defense, investigation team, as well as the prosecution.

To what extent has the media shaped your understanding of crime and the criminal justice system?

Alexandra, I enjoyed reading about your take on this discussion question and how you added to it. I agree with you that many of the struggles African Americans face within our nation are due to the corruption of our societal system, and the difficulty they are faced with when trying to better themselves. As a white male who has grown up as a middle class citizen, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for me to be able to identify on a personal level with some of these issues. For instance, growing up, I had always been under the impression that police officers, and our criminal justice system as a whole, were only there to protect us. I couldn't possibly understand the ideas of corruption and hatred that could be perpetuated by a system

Justice System. It is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts. Our Justice System is not effectively punishing and rehabilitating criminals to the right punishment of their crimes. Our justice system have three parts to it; which are police, courts, and corrections. Ethics are the foundation of the criminal justice system: It’s what helped us develop the moral reasoning we use, how we define criminal activity, and what we as a society deem as acceptable punishment. It’s an important because our criminal justice system is most effective when it’s operating in an ethical

Ethics in the criminal justice field, especially law enforcement, must be of the utmost importance as it is closely watched by the public more than any other field. It’s like living in a fish bowl for the police officers as they are watched in every move they make, whether it’s on duty or off duty (Roufa, 2015). Society requires police officers to have values they must live by and these include: “integrity, honesty, hard work, kindness, compassion, empathy, sympathy, justice, and bravery” (Roufa, 2015, para. 13). Police officers must always be ethical, or doing the right thing, based on the above societal values to gain the trust of society (Roufa, 2015). Most police officers are very ethical, but when one does wrong or appears to do wrong, it can completely destroy any trust that the public had in the police. The recent events in Chicago are a good example. A video from 2014 reportedly shows Chicago Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting and killing 17 year old McDonald without provocation (Eversley, 2015). Because of this incident, major rioting has occurred, the police chief has been fired, and the national head of the NAACP was arrested during protests (Eversley, 2015). The few nationwide events, such as this one, are destroying any gains the police have made and the problem will

It is through the Criminal Justice System’s close collaborations with like-minded agencies such as the Police, Prison and Courts Services, that the public’s concerns and worries are resolved, in order to bring about justice in our communities (Cavadino and Dignan, 2007 as cited in Fox, 2014). With that in mind and out of the way, this essay will aim to explore some of the strengths and weaknesses, which are prominent within the Criminal Justice System. To do this successfully, the Police and the Courts Service will be the key agencies that will be explored in relation to the key Models that shape the whole Criminal Justice System. These Models were founded by Herbert L. Packer (1968) and Michael King (1981).

The excessive use of force in policing is not a new issue within the criminal justice system. Since the mid-1980 's criminal justice professionals and government leaders have been searching for solutions to the problem, exploring different causes and potential solutions. This issue has not yet been solved for many arguable reasons, but one of the most likely ones is that many police agencies have not yet begun to take accountability for their officers’ actions or revise their policies and programs to reduce the occurrences of those actions. Many criminal justice agencies have failed to properly monitor, track, and respond to incidents of excessive force. Police Chief Magazine reported that “the White House…invited U.S. law enforcement agencies to voluntarily participate in more robust data collection and reporting of use of force, but, as of April 2016, only 53 jurisdictions had signed up to participate… (Harris, n.d.).” This issue, which has become magnified, instead of resolved, will continue to plague the criminal justice system until all criminal justice agencies commit to finding a solution, committing to make the necessary changes to fix their agencies, hold each officer accountable for their use of excessive force, and hold their own agencies themselves accountable for how each situation is dealt with.

The criminal justice system has evolved on the decades. From initially being constituted by the victim to eventually becoming constituted by written laws. There have been several changes made within the justice system, so in the following I will discuss my perspectives of the researched information and the noted changes of a system that was created by the people for the people.

Some developments in American policing and the criminal justice system during the colonial period that were influenced by the English police experience were the idea of self-defense and protecting yourself (p.9). The United States had a sheriff who was important to the police force, just like the English. In the U.S the sheriffs were paid more like the thief-takers, which were paid fees for each arrest they made (p.9). During the Colonial period they used the English’s idea of constables and night watchmen, which was similar to the watch and ward (p.9). In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they had constables and watchmen just like the English at first. Then the United states took the English’s idea of creating their own police department.

The criminal justice system of the United States is based on a system fragmentation and operation. This system consists of overlapping powers between the state and federal laws that creates a conflict with regards to criminal justice. Consequently, this generates a dysfunctional and inefficient system that a times fails to produce credibility in criminal justice. The rationale behind this is that there is no clear interpretation concerning where federal law ends and where state law begins.