Criminal Justice System Summary

In his book, Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text For The 21th Century, author Frank Schmalleger inform us that two social realities coexist in prison setting; the first, being the official structure of rules and procedures put in place by the wider society and enforced by prison staff, the second, being the more informal and intimate world of the inmate, namely the prison subculture (Schmalleger, 2001). Prison subculture, in its broad sense, refers to the customs, beliefs, attitudes, values and lifestyles of prison inmates (Dugger, 2017). Here, inmates develop their own myths, slang, customs, rewards, and sanctions; with their own values, roles, language and leadership structure (Clear, Cole, Petrosino, Reisig, 2015).

In the beginning of chapter one, the Supreme Court ruled in the case Florida v. J.L, a police officer may not search individuals based merely on an anonymous tip. The anonymous tip received was that a black man standing at a bus stop was carrying a concealed firearm. Out of the three black men at the bus stop, they searched the man wearing the plaid shirt, as described in the tip. Although public safety issues were recognized, the conviction was overturned. This unlawful search violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which states, in simpler terms, that the police cannot search an individual or take their property without probable cause.

The Criminal Justice system, created by governments in order to make sure that no laws are being violated and to penalize individuals that violate the laws. In the United States there are many criminal justice systems. Each system works based on their jurisdiction. For example; city, county, federal or state. Every jurisdiction is different. They all have different ways of regulating certain processes. They also have their own laws. In the criminal justice system there are two main systems; state and federal. These two systems consists of five parts; corrections, courts, prosecution, law enforcement, and defense attorneys. Each of these five parts hold an extremely important role. Prosecutions consist of prosecutors who are lawyers the represent

The U.S. criminal justice system is made up of different but equally important divisions to ensure proper criminal justice functions are performed. This system is broken up into three different segments: law enforcement, the courts, and corrections These segments work together to enforce justice to all when a crime has been committed (Schmalleger, 2013).

The technological advancement era that has marred the 21st century has seen heightened increased surveillance and proactive crime investigations. Such growth has seen positive legislative moves that have allowed the use of telecommunication gadgets in monitoring trends of criminal activities and criminal gangs[footnoteRef:1]. Most commonwealth nation which United Kingdom is a member have since passed and enacted laws that provide some sort of immunities and exemptions for officers that may violate laws in the process of administering their works. [1: G. Marx, Undercover—Police Surveillance in America (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1988); and C. Fijnaut and G. Marx (eds.), Undercover—Police Surveillance

Before reading the New Jim Crow Book I always thought that the criminal justice system did make decisions based on race. If you are part of the minority group then you have a smaller chance to win a case. This is based on the idea that is still drilled into some of our minds. Some people still believe that being one race is better than another.

The Unites States is the most diverse country in the world. In this very culturally diverse nation one would automatically think that equality would exist. Realistically it does not, particularly in the Criminal Justice System. Racial Inequality in the Criminal Justice System results from the disparate treatment of correspondingly situated people grounded on race. The history of racial inequality in the Criminal Justice System in the United States has been age-old. With this country 's dishonorable past of slavery, the Jim Crow laws, and plentiful other racially established injustices, it seems apparent that race plays a factor in many aspects of the criminal justice system, such as who is more probable to come in contact with it and who is more likely to be incarcerated.

African American sentences and Caucasians sentences can be exceedingly contradistinctive. According to The Editorial Board, “Decades of research have shown that the criminal courts sentence black defendants more harshly than whites” (1). The Editorial Board is saying that there is a difference between sentencing. An individual’s race could determine their length of sentencing in the court system. Criminals whom act in identical offenses, no matter of their race, should be given the same sentencing. King reports, “Black men are given prison sentences 20% longer than white men for the exact same crime” (1). King’s argument is that minorities are given longer sentences, and that there is no equality between races. The court system discriminates against minorities by giving them longer sentences from Caucasians individuals who did the same crime. In her book, Are Cops Racist, McDonald advocates that “People in prison are not black or white they’re criminals” (7). In making this avocation, McDonald urges us to understand that criminals are criminals nonetheless of their race.

You are driving down the highway, obeying the traffic laws. You look in the rear view mirror and you see flashing lights, cop lights, and a siren. You pull over and you are not too sure why. What is clear from research is that race is a consistent predictor of attitude toward the police. A study in Cincinnati found that black drivers had longer stops and higher search rates than white drivers. (www.nij.gov)There are 2.2 million people behind bars in the nation’s prisons and jails today. This is a 500% increase in the last 40 years, prisons are becoming overcrowded and it is only getting worse. Today, people of color make up 37% of the U.S population but make up 67% of the prison population. African American men are six times more likely to be incarcerated and hispanic males are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated than white males. Even white males commit the same crimes, and they still do not get the same amount of time as blacks and hispanics do. This raises questions, is our justice system fair? Is the criminal justice system operated to target people of color? The risk that African Americans are unfairly targeted should be a special concern for the U.S supreme court which it seems to not be. The color of someone 's skin should not be taken into consideration in the justice system, it is unfair to the person being charged, it is unjustifiable and it is

In the criminal justice system there is very rarely a single linchpin that can be pointed to and held responsible for the failure to convict a seemingly guilty person. This reigns true for the very public prosecutions of both Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman. In the eyes of a vast majority of the public, fueled by media spectacle and opinion, Anthony and Zimmerman were guilty even before they ever saw the inside of a courtroom. There simply could be no other answer. The public was subsequently outraged when, after what seemed to be trials of certainty, juries acquitted each. The public sought to find someone, or something to blame. The verdict could not be accepted and many turned their focus to condemn the workings of the criminal

Most Americans would like to think that our criminal justice system is working the way it was intended, but they’re not aware that our criminal justice system shows strong evidence that it is biased and discriminatory in regards to minorities, the majority are African Americans. Studies show that African Americans are more aggressively targeted and punished throughout the system, not just during sentencing. Data collected nationally shows how race is correlated to drug use, police stops, arrests, likelihood to be released on bail, jury selection, trial, sentencing, prison as well as the option of capital punishment.

A 2005 study by the Justice Department found that while Hispanic, black and white drivers were stopped by the police about as often, Hispanic drivers or their vehicles were searched 11.4 percent of the time and blacks 10.2 percent of the time, compared with 3.5 percent for white drivers (GLATER, 2007). There is an obvious connection between racial dynamics and the criminal justice system. Times have changed but many years ago courtrooms were comprised of all white lawyers, but race remains a problem in determining the outcome of any criminal case (Margaret, 2000). Racial discrimination does not happen in the way it happened many years ago down south. During this time white and black criminal cases were handled differently by law and the court system. We have come a long way to make sure each person is sentenced as fairly as possible no matter what color they are. Any type of racial judgment or racial issue is done very secretively in the justice system. This makes it very hard to prove the difference in their sentence was because of race.

Race often interferes with the justice system and their “objective” punishments for petty crimes. In the courts, most jurors are not black, as prosecutors will strike them out on the basis of a felony background (Alexander, 121). The prison system is not immune to racism and bias - prison society is often racially segregated, and it is unusual to see interracial friendships (Mooallem, 2015). In society, even mundane details such as the appearance of minorities is cause for suspicion. Officers stopped Michael Whren and James Brown, who are both black, although the police had no probable reason to stop and search other than race (Alexander, 67). While the police might pass over a white man when searching for disreputable citizens, they stop and imprison minorities. Consider these ratios from 2006: for every group of 14 black men, one is in jail, compared to the one in 106 incarceration rate of whites (Alexander, 100). Due to current mandatory minimum sentences, minority offenders are eight times more likely to be imprisoned than whites (Toussaint, 2017). Another “objective” law is the Three Strikes law, which arose from the War on Drugs era. The law raises the punishment for the third offense, often to a life sentence. In California, this law causes “thousands of people – the overwhelming majority of them poor and nonwhite – remain imprisoned for a variety of offenses so absurd … any would read like a joke” (Taibbi, 2013). Many citizens consider these strict crime

It is the police’s job in deciding whom to stop, search, and arrest, unless someone has proof of actual racial bias. Racial bias also exists in sentencing such as death penalties. Death penalties are more common for African Americans than whites who are convicted of the same crime. In the courtroom, it is so hard to achieve racial justice. There are attempts into stopping the discrimination, but it is just not something that goes away in a day. It is unconstitutional to discriminate based on race in the jury selection, but discrimination happens in the jury all the time. Prosecutors and attorneys are working on ways to select jurors who are qualified and fit to serve certain cases. In some cases, prosecutors can be unfair and discriminating as well. Alexander shows how racism permeates almost every aspect of the criminal justice system after initial arrest. There is no such thing as race neutral in todays society. Racism has been around since the 1400s, hasn’t really gone anywhere since. Although there has been a lot of change in racism over the years progressed. Alexander wants to get the point that there is crime everywhere but the people who are getting in trouble for these crimes are certain people of race. She wants to give her audience an idea of what problems really needs to be approached. Action can be taken to reduce the amount of racism in today’s society, but overall it doesn’t just go away over night. It takes a lot of time and commitment to reduce racism in today’s

Components of the criminal justice system include the police, the court system and correctional agencies. The definition, the function and examples of each component of the American criminal justice system will be described. The criminal procedure and the processing of offenders will also be described in details.