Public Defender Research Paper

This first week the assignment was to Define crime, its relationship to the law, and the two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal, Describe the government structure as it applies to the criminal justice system, Identify choice theories and the their assumptions in regards to crime, Describe the components of the criminal justice system and the criminal justice process, Identify the goals of the criminal justice system.

In our country, hundreds of people are apprehended every day for misdemeanors crimes. Our local justice system will then charge these individuals with fines that can be as much as $2,000 or more. Failure to pay this said fine can immediately result in potential jail time. Yet, if you can pay your bail, you will spend no more than 24 hours in a local facility. Many of these people are poor, while the remainder of these people tends to be middle to upper-class citizens.

Jimmy Santiago Baca is a winner of the International Prize for his work in, A Place to Stand. The making of a poet. He writes, “I had no money. There is no way I’m going to make bail” (Baca, 187). In some cases, prisoners are only locked up because they had to get appointed a defense attorney who convinced them to plead to the charges so they would not have to go to trial and risk getting an extended amount of time. District attorneys are elected by the citizens and those people want someone who is tough on crime. If the district attorney is not tough on crime, the people will not reelect him. This can lead to many innocent lives being wasted; For instance, some criminals will sit in a cell for decades for the smallest offense. However, if a prisoner attempts to plead not guilty and the case goes to a trial by jury and they do find him or her guilty, they will be sentenced to an even longer term. It is obvious that our justice system is unfair and against human morals and ethics. They are somehow “innocent until proven guilty” yet they cannot afford to prove themselves innocent. Not only is poverty a reason for the rising increase in the population of inmates, many lack the education needed to understand the law or what they are being accused of.

Fred is drunk and driving his dad’s car. Fred is a 21 year old student at Columbia College. Fred rams into a parked car at 10th and Rogers. Thinking no one saw him; Fred moves his car and parks it on an adjacent lot. He sprints to his dorm room in Miller Hall. A neighbor saw the wreck and Fred running to the dorm. Police are called and they arrive ten minutes after the wreck. The officers see several empty beer cans and a bottle of tequila (half full) in the front seat. The tags are traced to Fred’s dad, who is called by police. Dad says that Fred is a student at Columbia College. Police run Fred's record and determine that he has two prior DWIs within the past five years. The third DWI in 10 years is a felony. Police contact

In her informative essay, “Assisting the Poor to Make Bail Helps Everyone”, Tina Rosenberg states the Bronx Freedom Fund is one of the four community organizations in the city that aims to directly help the innocent people accused and wrongfully given dangerous jail time. The author recognizes how the court system makes it almost impossible to make bail when they take your phone, the defendant cannot pay their own bail, and you must pay in cash. These, as well as a few other limitations make it very difficult for the defendant. The process of the court system, in fact, is not keeping the streets any safer, “a drug dealer is more likely to make bail than a shoplifter”(Rosenberg). Ritchin, head of the Bronx Freedom Fund, offers those who are not fortunate enough to make bail a third option, one that is much more helpful and safe.

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.

In the United States, the adversarial system of justice relies on ensuring a criminal defendant receives a fair trial. The sixth amendment gives defendants the right to legal representation in criminal trials even if they cannot afford one themselves. Each city and county in the United States ensures a defendant the right to counsel. There are different ways cities and counties across the United States provide representation for indigent defendants. One such approach to indigent defense is public defender programs and is a popular system used by many states today. Public defender programs have been around since the 1900’s but gained popularity throughout the years due to the many indigent defense cases.

Bail is set to ensure the appearance in court of the defendant. A person’s income and circumstances should influence the amount of bail. A person who is wealthy can afford a higher bond to ensure their appearance in court. A person of lower income, which are more likely to be a member of a minority group, should have bail set based on their circumstance and their income. The bail should be high enough to ensure their appearance in court, but not so high as to ensure they remain imprisoned until their court date for charges that a White American would not be held. Driving offenses and minor misdemeanor probation violations account for a large portion f the local county jail. Often probationers are picked up and held in jail for failure to pay their court ordered fees. It is incredulous to me that a person can be held in jail over owing the court less than $100. The cost of housing an inmate for 3 days outweighs the cost of his confinement. These and similar non-violent crimes such as driving violations seem to affect minorities and those living in poverty than the average White American and shows the institutional discrimination against minorities and the

In the first scenario, the first action that was illegally taken by the officer was approaching the suspect on the front porch. The officer could not legally approach the suspect as the front porch is considered an area of curtilage because this is an area that one feels that they have the right of privacy. The case that supports my decision is United States v. Dunn where police received a tip that Dunn’s barn contained alleged equipment to manufacture drugs. The barn was away from Dunns home which allowed for them to search the barn after not receiving a warrant. This case established four factors that determine curtilage. Those factors are the proximity of the area to the home, whether the area is in an enclosure surrounding the home, the

In 1999, Maria Avila was hired as a housekeeper by Saratoga Hostel; she was 42 years old. Her duties included: cleaning twelve rooms a day, doing some laundry, and cleaning the hallways as well. Due to the economic crisis of 2009, Saratoga Hostel hired a new business consultant to find ways to reduce costs and personnel. The housekeeping department let go 3 of their 10 employees. The manager then decided to train all employees to clean 14 rooms per day instead of 12. When the training was over, 3 employees could not handle the pressure of the new routine, Avila was of them. These three employees were given another week of training. After that week, when

Correspondingly, the bail system in the American courts is discrimination. A sum of cash decides your fate in courts. Stuntz (2016) exemplifies that “The discriminatory bail system survives even though defendants who cannot make bail are more likely to be convicted at trial than defendants who can” (p.211). Most people that are discriminated against are people of

In the New York Times article, “A Mockery of Justice for the Poor,” the author discusses how the poor are cheated in the criminal justice system. By law, it is mandatory that the government provides an attorney to any defendant facing possible prison time, even if he or she cannot afford one. However, there are underlying fees that must be paid despite these people being poor. John Pfaff mentions how 43 states are now requiring indigent defendants to pay at least a portion of their lawyers’ fees, even though they had to be appointed one in the first place. Those who do qualify as indignant may be able to be acquitted, however, they could be convicted for failing to pay for the legal services the Constitution requires the states to provide for the defendants. Not to mention, spending money on attorneys for the poor amounts to only $2.3 billion – barely even 1% of the $200 billion the government spends annually on the criminal justice system (Pfaff 2016). Not surprisingly, public defenders who are appointed to these cases are often stripped of resources while tackling multiple other assignments at the same time.

With more and more judges across the United States demanding bail for poor people who committed a minor offense, it is becoming increasingly important to find a bondsman that caters to the poor. Often times judges demand less than $2,500 from defendants, yet those who live in poverty must remain in jail because that figure is impossible to meet.

Imagine a day that you are feeling comfy in your pajamas so you start walking outside to the store and a police stopped you. How would you react when you realized the police suspected you to be poor and homeless? Well, this happens to several people in the United States especially those who are low income and struggle financially. It doesn’t end with a stop and frisk, but spending a day or more in jail, which can have the person be in debt to the state.

Someone can easily be thrown back in jail if they simply get behind on those payments, fail a drug test, miss a parole appointment, or fail to maintain employment. Two thirds of parolees in the year 2000 were sent back to prison from those types of technical violations, rather from actual crimes. In addition, 87% of people in 2008 who were facing non-felony charges with bail set at $1,000 or less were incarcerated because they were unable to pay. In fact, public defenders routinely aren’t present at initial bail and release