Criminal Justice System And The United States

The speaker argues that the criminal justice system in America treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Hawthorne, W. B., Folsom, D. P., Sommerfeld, D. H., Lanouette, N. M., Lewis, M., Aarons, G. A., Jeste, D. V. (2012). Incarceration among adults who are in the public mental health system: Rates, risk factors, and short-term outcomes. Psychiatric Services, 63(1), 26-32. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.201000505

Courts are established social, political, and judicial institutions necessary for the manifestation of justice and the maintenance of law and order. The courts are part of the judicial branch of government, as outlined in Article III of the United States Constitution. Courts are the arenas in which the law is tried and applied. Judges are the presiding officers of the court. The United States Supreme Court is the most fundamental court because has "the authority to decide the constitutionality of federal laws and resolve other disputes over them," (United States Courts, 2012). This is true even though even though the court does not expressly enforce that law; enforcement is the province of the executive branch.

The need for the Jail Diversion Program arises from the increasing number of mental health problems among the jail population in the United States. According to Bell, Decker, & Sullivan (2013), 64 percent of the adults incarcerated in the US prisons in

Mental health courts are a resource given to prisoners who would normally be put in prison if they had not decided to join this special program. Mental health court is a court run program by the district attorney’s office in some counties. This program is based off of traditional court room structure but is also paired with community services. Mental health courts solve a lot of different problems within our criminal justice system. The first problem it solves is the

Mental health courts sentence mentally ill convicted offenders to long-term treatment programs rather than incarcerating them in prisons. The programs provide mental health assessments and personalized treatment plans for offenders. (Center for Court Innovation, 2013) In 1997, the first mental health court was established. (California Courts, 2014) There are now over 300 mental health courts in the U.S (Justice Center, 2014)

I was not surprised to discover that half of all inmates had a mental illness (Hoke 3015). Hoke analyzes the social elements that make an impact on those persons with known mental illnesses in prison. Noting policy changes that have increased prison rates for mentally ill people, Hoke presents a good argument on how mentally ill inmates are treated within the criminal justice system. Her research seemed to be thorough and convincing. She maintains the idea that mentally ill inmates do need help making a successful transition upon release through steady employment and housing.

Mental health courts (MHCs) are one such diversionary mechanism that relies on community justice partnerships, involving mental health treatment and social services providers. MHCs are specialized court dockets for individuals with mental health problems. In place of traditional court processing, in which the judge reviews the culpability of a case and imposes a sentence, MHCs offer problem-solving solutions for mentally ill offenders. 5 They identify eligible participants through mental health screenings and assessments and place them in a judicially supervised treatment plan developed jointly by a team of court staff and mental health professionals (Rossman et al. 2012). When an offender successfully completes the program, MHCs may vacate an alleged charge or modify the original sentence. Community services are a key factor to helping prevent the development of the crises that lead to law enforcement involvement, to provide alternatives to incarceration when problems ascend, and to ensure support for people returning to the community from prison and jail. Scholars have proposed that if we develop community resources such as the availability and access to emergency mental health services that help to reduce the likelihood that persons with mental illnesses will

Mental health courts change the criminal justice system. In addition to probation, jail, prison, and other forms of rehabilitation, a mental health court introduces a new option as “punishment”. Psychiatric treatment. But mental health courts also change the system in other ways, by criminalizing non-criminal behaviours. But the mental health courts that exist so far, with very few exceptions, accept only people charged with nonviolent low-level offenses. While these courts help some people get services, they do nothing to help the mentally ill facing prison or lengthy jail sentences, and they do not reduce the criminalization of mental illness. If mental health courts increase the punishment of minor offenses, as some undoubtedly do, their

The prevalence of individuals with severe mental illness entering the criminal justice system creates a social injustice and substantial cost. People with mental illness cycle thorough courtrooms, jails, and prisons, generating a concern among policy-makers, criminal administrators, practitioners, families, and advocates. These facilities lack the ability to provide adequate treatment and results in a damaging cycle. In 2000, The United States Congress responded to these individuals by authorizing Policy Law 106-515 or mental health court; combining court supervision and community-based treatment services for individuals with mental illness. Policy Law 106-515 is a therapeutic court approach which seeks to provide effective treatment and eliminate

Today’s correctional facilities are taking on chronically mentally ill individuals causing them to be over-crowed with lack of resources and proper care. Prisons and jails were not built to houses the severely mentally ill, this was never the purpose of prison because they simply do not have the proper training or adequate care for such a high maintenance inmates. State prisons have become the new de facto psychiatric hospital for those who need mental health treatment. This developing problem come from the severely mentally ill being admitted into correctional facilities, which ultimately stemming from the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill from government funded mental health treatment centers. The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill took effect those who needed resources and care went without treatment, which only increases the symptoms related to their disorder causing them to engage in petty crimes sometime followed with more serious offensive landing them in jail or prison. Ultimately, mainstream prisons are not equipped to handle mentally ill inmates. Prisons need to offer some type of effective and extensive mental health services to treat those inmates who

Gregg Barak (2007) pointed how American’s failing mental health care system has attributed the overrepresentation of the mentally ill in U.S jails “Because of the large-scale denationalization of mental health facilities in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of people struggling with mental illness on their own has risen over the past three decades, and social institutions have been less than responsive to their needs.” (Barak, 2007: 587) Steven Raphael and Michael Stoll (2013) drew attention to the overrepresentation of mentally ill offenders in U.S jails and prisons. “Approximately half of state and federal prison inmates and over 60 percent of jail inmates report having mental health problems or symptoms indicative of mental illness. The

In the criminal justice system, there is a controversy in the system regarding fairness or disagreement and changes need to be done. Many people believe it needs to change to improve and others believe it is unfair or dishonest in punishing people. The criminal justice system is in charge of punishing criminals and the correctional system helps inmates from committing crimes again. The goal of rehabilitation is to reduce crime in society. The criminal justice system affects all of society because it determines the punishment people will receive after being convicted of crimes.

Since the policy was enacted in the early 1990s, three strikes laws have been one of the most controversial issues facing the American criminal justice system. In general, advocates believe that locking up criminals will protect society. Critics believe that three-strike policy can only be effective with offenders that are on their last strikes (Worrall, 2008). However, other critics explain how three-strike laws don’t significantly reduce crime because most criminals mature out of the criminal lifestyle (Worrall, 2004).

The criminal justice system is the set of agencies and processes established by governments to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate laws. The system is not one single criminal justice system in the United States but nevertheless many similar, individual systems. How every particular system works in each area depends on who is in charge of the city, county, state, or federal. Different authorities have different laws, agencies, and ways of managing criminal justice processes. There are two primary systems which are, state, criminal justice systems handle crimes committed within their state boundaries and the federal, criminal justice system handles crimes committed on federal property or in more than one state. Most criminal