In the United States, the criminal justice system is a combination of laws and institutions. Laws are to be enforced in order for society to work appropriately as a whole. The many institutions of the criminal justice system include law enforcement, juvenile and adult courts, and correctional facilities. It is a unique system that has developed a specific process to serve justice. It is however, a process that is not without its faults. In order to protect and serve the many different faces of society, the process is structured to ensure the justice system continues to flow in the proper direction. Throughout this paper, I will summarize all the steps between arrest, pre-trial, trial, and appeals. I will explain the contingencies for each stage
Gonnerman appeals to the logic of the reader by following Browder’s anecdotes with supportive statistics and investigative findings from reputable sources. She uses the citation of evidence to give weight and help expand on the context of Browder’s experiences. This includes the excerpts of statistical information from studies, such as “in 2011 seventy-four percent of felony cases in the Bronx were older than six months”, which reinforces Browder’s personal experience with the Bronx court system and also clearly indicates that Browder’s circumstance is not an uncommon one. This also includes the citation of the court index card’s text, reading the list of the preposterous amount of delays requested by the prosecutor, which provides tangible and explicit evidence to the reader of the dysfunctionality of the Bronx’s court system, and also helps the reader empathize with Browder’s frustration.
The juvenile justice system is a foundation in society that is granted certain powers and responsibilities. It faces several different tasks, among the most important is maintaining order and preserving constitutional rights. When a juvenile is arrested and charged with committing a crime there are many different factors that will come in to play during the course of his arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing, and rehabilitation process. This paper examines the Juvenile Justice System’s court process in the State of New Jersey and the State of California.
Forcelli explains his displeasure of our broken criminal justice system when he states, “The sad part is that getting an innocent man out of jail is way, way, way harder than putting a guilty man in jail.” When detectives are constantly pressured to close cases and produce high conviction rates it can cause in accuracies in convictions. Garry’s case is a perfect example of how a case with minimal evidence can result in an innocent getting placed in prison. Garry has sat in prison for over 20 years waiting to appeal his case and plead his innocence. The ease of convicting an innocent man should be consistent with difficulty of exonerating an innocent man. In Garry’s case he awaits a decision from a judge where the judge has three options, to exonerate him, grant a retrial, or
One of the causes of prison overcrowding comes about because of the expansion rate of arrest and more noteworthy utilization of detainment. The criminal justice system is detaining more individuals to prison for a more drawn out period than the prison limit permits. The prison populace relies on upon the quantity of admissions and the quantity of release in a watched period. As indicated by admission and release information, drifts in the length of sentencing can be watched. Therefore, the reason behind the expansion in prison populace can be distinguished by breaking down each of the three patterns, the quantity of admissions, the quantity of releases, and the length of prison sentences (Novak, 2009). A large proportion of the prison populace is comprised of past convicts with new wrongdoing after they are discharged just to end up detained again. The offenders also may have committed a new crime that was recently established by the penal code while serving on parole. The expansion of criminal offenses to the penal code implies that offenders can
people in there are people waiting for their trial. The average delay between arrest and
For the past 50 years, America’s criminal justice system has encountered several significant changes dealing with courts and policing. According to Marion and Oliver (2006), the historical Supreme Court rulings like Mapp v. Ohio and Miranda v. Arizona mold the way courts and law enforcement handle individuals charged with committing crimes. This paper will discuss the evolution of courts and law enforcement reflects the diverse and changing need for today’s population which is first importance, the urgency for cooperation and communication among criminal justice agencies and law enforcement within the country. Individuals must
“Did the entire Brooklyn got arrested today?” said Pinto in his article titled, “The Bail Trap” (page 6). Why do we arrest so many people daily? 365,000 people got arrested in New York City in 2013. The overburdened justice system cannot handle the large number of people that gets arrested daily. However, plea bargain is the way that the system deals with this issue of arresting over a thousand people daily for low offense charges. Ninety-seven percent of the people that are arrested plead guilty. The U.S. is at the highest incarceration rate in the world, therefore, we need a reform to get rid of bail and to prevent police officers from arresting so many people.
Corrections are an important part of the criminal justice system and they work in concert with law enforcement and the courts. Citizens in the United States expect criminals to be monitored, with some in secured facilities, so they will not fear of becoming continual victim of crime. To illustrate this expectation further, there are 2.5 million individuals on probation or parole and 1 million individuals in jails or prisons (Morris & Tonry, 2013, p. 370). However, does every individual confined in jails and prisons still need to be there or is there a better way to deal with certain special prison populations? Due to the large number of prisoners within the correctional system, certain special populations of inmates do not receive the rehabilitation or care needed to successfully reintegrate back into society. Additionally, these special populations create an undue burden on the correctional system in terms of financial costs associated with their confinement. There are changes that can be made to the criminal justice system to accommodate special populations of inmates. This paper will explore the alternative
Several states across the Country have enacted or attempted to enact legislation which can enable detention of a prisoner past his/her release date. This type of legislation’s general purpose is to provide a mechanism whereby prisoners who, if released pose an unacceptable risk of
The federal prison system has become an increasingly populated place. With an approximate 91% conviction rate in the federal criminal system,1 with 97% of all cases entering a plea of guilty prior to trial,2 and over 90% of those convictions resulting in a sentence of incarceration,3 imprisonments are a nearly unavoidable part of a criminal defendant ‘s experience in the federal system. According to statistics by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the law enforcement agency responsible
Mandatory sentencing has been a big driver in the large population of incarcerated individuals in the United States. District attorneys are more aggressive in how they file charges against the arrestee. While the country has seen a decline in crime, new
The thought that the mood of the bail commissioner determines whether a person’s bail is set high or low is mind boggling, as well as reflects the lack of proper education in professionalism and ethics. Bail commissioners should understand that the pretrial detention has a negative impact not only on the defendants, but as well as their families. Additionally, high bails for low income defendants drain the system by using tax payer dollars, as well as overcrowding jails.
Jail in the United States descended from the 12th – century England with reeves and shires which is another word for sheriffs long. Jail is the entrance to the system. Next is Pretrial Detention which may consist of being questioned, finger printed, mug shots and long waits. Once detained for an extended period of time, the detainee may begin to face problems such as mental health, substance dependency, medical needs, and legal problems. After being detained for an extended length of time exerts pressure on the detainee to waive their rights and plead guilty. There are alternatives aside from remaining in jail such as, post the full amount to the courts, pay a set fee to a bondsman or release on
The juvenile justice system is a foundation in society that is granted certain powers and responsibilities. It faces several different tasks, among the most important is maintaining order and preserving constitutional rights. When a juvenile is arrested and charged with committing a crime there are many different factors that will come in to play during the course of his arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing, and rehabilitation process. This paper examines the Juvenile Justice System’s court process in the State of New Jersey and the State of California.