Flaws In The Criminal Justice System Essay

There are three significant issues concerning law enforcement, namely enacting the law, police discretion, and assessment of criminal behavior. Different entities create and enact laws that are specific for the societies those laws represent.

Hillary Clinton said, "We can do better. We cannot ignore the inequalities that persist in our justice system that undermine our most deeply held values of fairness and equality." She was correct in her statement, we need to reform our criminal justice system due to it highly lacking in fairness and equality. 2.38 million Americans are in prison, with another five million on probation or parole. 1 in 31 adults in the United States are in jail, prison, or on probation or parole. (Ferner) The populations of our prison are increasing, while trust in law enforcers is declining, and if we want to solve the inequalities we must reform parts of our criminal justice system. We should reform our criminal justice system to fix the inequalities of mandatory sentences, bail, and we should create reentry programs to assist released inmates stay crime free.

The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as “an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine.

The criminal justice system used today is to follow principles that protect and establish equality for all and while the United States criminal justice system may strive to follow these right of the people, but unfortunately, this is where the system falls short of fundamental American principles. Repeatedly the criminal justice system does the adverse of what it’s supposed to do. It does not protect the many liberties the people should have. Some may argue that the criminal justice system is indeed fair for

Hillary Clinton said, "We can do better. We can not ignore the inequalities that persist in our justice system that undermine our most deeply held values of fairness and equality." She was correct in her statement, we need to reform our criminal justice system because it is highly lacking in fairness and equality. 2.38 million Americans are in prison, with another five million on probation or parole. 1 in 31 adults in the United States are in jail, prison, or on probation or parole. (Ferner) The populations of our prison are increasing, while trust in law enforcers is declining, and if we want to solve the inequalities we must reform parts of our criminal justice system. We should reform our criminal justice system to fix the inequalities of mandatory sentences, bail, and we should create reentry programs to help released inmates stay crime free.

This paper outlines the studies, incidents, facts and statistics that have found evidence of racial profiling which causes distrust in the law enforcements (police, government etc0. Studies of racial profiling shows that blacks, Hispanics, Middle Eastern and other racial minorities are more likely to be stopped than those who are white. They are more likely to be stopped and searches, traffic stops, license and registration checks. In addition they are more likely to be ticketed or arrested after being stopped and search. Some scholars and studies believes that minorities being that are frequently stopped and searched has nothing to do with them being racially profiled. According to Roh and Robinson,” studies raise the possibility that minorities may be more involved in criminality (Gaines, 2006), some drug crimes (Lichtenberg, 2006), and speeding offenses (Lange, Johnson, & Voas, 2005), thereby justifying higher stop and arrest rates by police of some groups.” (Roh, S., & Robinson, M.)

Racial disparity in the Criminal Justice system has been a issue of discussion in our law enforcement for years. Statistics say the likelihood of imprisonment in a lifetime is 1 in 3 black men, 1 in 6 Latino men and 1 in 17 white men. (Bonczar2003) The search and seizure 4th amendment was passed in 1789 which was supposed to protect all persons of unreasonable searches, etc. In 1944 Gunner Myrdal wrote “it’s part of a policeman’s philosophy that Negro criminals or suspects that show any sign of insubordination should be punished bodily, to keep the negro in his place.” In the late 1960’s early 70’s there were many riot commissions that recommended changes in police practices, especially aggressive stop-and-risk procedures.(Skolnick1969) Racial disparities have been an issue for years, especially in traffic stops. There are a couple different approaches to help reduce or end racial profiling. The ACLU’s 5 part battle plan to end racial profiling (Harris2003), and The Racial Justice Improvement project (ABA2010). Racial profiling is an issue in many aspects of the Criminal Justice system. This paper will mainly be based on traffic stops and in sentencing.

Racial profiling is a controversial topic in today’s society. Many minorities feel targeted by governmental officials such as police officers and U.S. courts. “Statistics have shown that blacks in the U.S. are arrested and imprisoned for committing crimes at higher proportions than any other racial group” (“Crime and Race”). Do African Americans in fact commit more crimes than whites? Or is there racism within the U.S. justice system? Even though minorities feel targeted by governmental officials and have higher crime rates than whites, racial profiling is just an alleged practice.

Racial inequality is growing. Our criminal laws, while facially neutral, are enforced in a manner that is massively and pervasively biased. My research will examine the U.S. criminal justice policies and how it has the most adverse effect on minorities. According to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, out of a total population of 1,976,019 incarcerated in adult facilities, 1,239,946 or 63 percent are

The criminal justice system of America is deeply scarred with racial bias. Crimes are being committed and, in turn, are resulting with innocent people doing hard-time. Thankfully, newfound methods of appealing court rulings are finding justice for these minorities; however, the results are as shocking as the crimes being committed. When it was found that the majority of successful appeals were of minorities, the true defects of the system was apparent. The minority community is being critically judged for things they’re not doing.

In order to keep a safe society, it is important to establish a nation with

Racial equality is an illusion. In the criminal justice system, African Americans and other minorities are targeted by police officers because of the color of their skin. Minorities face many obstacles to reach their freedom, even though laws states everyone should be treated equal. Minorities are more likely to be stopped at traffic stops, due to the color of their skin. In “Racial Profiling”, Jost states that minorities, including President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, feel profiled and judged based on the color of their skin while at traffic stops (1). All races have the right to be protected by officers, however African Americans and other minorities are more likely to be arrested because of their race. Police officers show no

However, the events of the last few weeks paint a different story. In our society, it is common practice to profile, stop and frisk drivers and randomly (Epp & Maynard-Moody, 2013). For the good of the country, there is a greater opportunity to find guns, stolen merchandise, drugs, etc. when these stops occur. This appears to be great because everyone wants to themselves and their loved ones to be safe. Consequently, in the wage against drugs, racial minorities are stopped all over the country more than whites. For investigatory stops, people are normally stopped because of how they drive and if they are black. A “black man, who is age twenty-five or younger, has a 28 percent chance of being stopped for an investigatory reason over the course of a year; a similar young white man has a 12.5 percent chance, and a similar young white woman has only a 7 percent chance” (Epp and Maynard-Moody, 2013). The focus is on younger African-American males; because they are three to five times more subject to investigatory

or she did not nee to record it. If the Government do succeed in the

Prison is a place that houses vile and deplorable individuals that have disturbed the public’s peace, a place where justice is served… Or at least that is how it is portrayed. It is easy to forget that these individuals are also human, just like everyone else that might have made a mistake that led them to be in a particular situation. Some may be in this predicament due to their background, others may be due to some kind of illness. The criminal justice system is in no way perfect, which is why it has great difficulties in trying to find a right balance of how to deal with the numerous different individuals that have particular needs. In this paper, I will address the implications brought upon by mentally ill and aboriginal offenders in prison. Mentally ill and aboriginal prisoners pose different and unique challenges to the criminal justice system, such as in relation to correctional personnel, the inmate population, and the community.