The Criminal Justice System

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.

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 a gratifying, yet often unfair ruling process. Having said that, a first-rate example of a disapproving situation is when a person(s) of African American decent receives severe punishment for a particular offense, as opposed to what a person of Caucasian decent might acquire for the same offense. My topic of choice is from the ACLU's web page via an article entitled "Race and Criminal Justice", certainly peaked my curiosity. Being a young man with a group of friends consisting predominantly of minorities, this article stuck to my brain by bringing back tons of déjà vu. An acquaintance of mine left for court, accused stealing headphones at a local Walmart with a friend. One of the court hearings was for stolen

For the next 550 years law was influenced by guilt. Later on, in English Common law, this theory became “ Actus Reas” which is a guilty act and “Mens Rea” which is a guilty mind. Sir William Blackstone was a legal scholar back in those days who would become the guidance to English and American law. Blackstone guided English and American Law for around 300 years. Many legal principles such as the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution were bounded to Blackstone's Biblical principles. Some of these principles of criminal justice include, justice is compensatory, the judgment under the law is declaratory, and a burden of proof and citizens cannot be treated like criminals unless they have been tried and convicted as criminals. The English Common Law System established a set of rules to solve issues that arose within society. This led to the first big distinction between two types of crimes, felonies, and misdemeanors. For more serious crimes a grand jury composed of members of the community decided if there was enough evidence to prosecute, but, no attorneys or public prosecutors

The U.S. criminal justice system is responsible for those who violate the law and to be punished according to the crime committed. The controversial issue between the extreme cases and justice served is whether or not capital punishment violates the 8th amendment. For the extreme cases that result in the death penalty punishment is brought upon by a 3 drug protocol also known as, lethal injection. Until 2009, majority of the states used a 3 drug protocol, including sodium thiopental used for anesthetic, pancuronium bromide for a paralytic agent, and potassium chloride to stop the heart (DPIC, 2016). The combination of the lethal drugs varies state by state, however the doses administrated depend on the person and in which takes an expert

The American Criminal Justice system is arguably one of the most fair systems in the world. However, like anything it has its flaws. There are many flaws but the largest three, in my opinion, would be the fact that we have the highest incarceration rate of any other country, the high penalties for drug users, as well as the jury system. The high incarceration rates and the penalties for drug users affect each other but they are still issues on their own. In fact, many of issues within our system coincide within each other.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Many failed policies have led us to the issues we have today. Policies such as America’s “get tough on crime” failed us and put us into a bigger hole than we already were in. Our criminal justice system needs to be evaluated and failed policies and procedures must be thrown out. It is a time for a reform for our criminal justice system. However, we must first address these policies and procedures that led us to where we are today. By learning of our mistakes it will hopefully allow us to move forward and have a successful criminal justice system.

The judicial processes that have been adopted by the current criminal justice system of the United States of America include mandatory minimums that diminish the importance of certain factors in a case such as the context of the situation and the power of judges to decide on an appropriate sentence; furthermore, they result in more serious, yet overlooked, implications of racial bias and unfair plea bargaining. Mandatory minimums are strict sentences that a judge must abide by when determining how much prison time the accused is to receive as punishment. Although the majority of offenses to which mandatory minimums apply to are drug offenses, there are a variety of offenses including immigration, firearms, and fraud that are linked to a minimum sentence. The concept of enacting mandatory minimum sentences to particular offenses has such a great influence on court verdicts that in the fiscal year of 2010 alone, “27.2% of cases involved a conviction of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum [and] 53.4%...remained subject to the mandatory minimum penalty at sentencing” (USSC, 121). When the government first instituted mandatory minimums for drug offenses with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, it was meant to resolve the problems of drug distribution and abuse, but these sentences bring about more problems than resolutions. As the time approaches to impose a sentence for a case involving a mandatory minimum, the judge has no choice but to assign the accused at least that amount

There are victims who never receive justice because of the expenses of it or they are wrongfully accused of a crime. Some people who commit non-violent crimes and are thrown into jail or prison endure abuse or rape. Non-violent and violent offenders need to be separated for their own safety. There must be a change in the United States Criminal Justice

The criminal justice system has been around for thousands of years. It has not always been as formal and structured as it is today, but has been a constant part of society nonetheless. As nations and societies have changed, so has the criminal justice system present within each nation or society. Customs and laws have affected the punishments and procedures observed in criminal justice systems all over the world as certain punishments or laws set in one society may not apply to another society.

Across the world there are many different types of criminal justice systems to keep and maintain order and peace or the social code of conduct, otherwise known as the law of the land. The criminal justice system tries to deter individuals from disrupting the peace and order of society by educating their citizens on the consequences and punishments for failing to abide by the law. The criminal justice system can be categorized in three main parts; policing where the investigation is held, the courts where judgment is made, and corrections where the type of punishment is served.

The right to a trial is one of the intrinsic elements of the American criminal justice system for more than two centuries. In its mandate to regulate government power to judge people accused of transgressing against the laws of the society, the mechanism of the jury allows the citizens themselves to determine the guilt or innocence of the person. Though juries have generally served a vital function in the criminal justice system, the reputation of the jury system has come under fire over the past several years.

The point of the paper is to inform the reader that the criminal justice system in the United States is far from perfect because we are convicting innocent men and women for crimes they did not commit. One of these many people are Rubin Carter, who was wrongfully convicted of murdering three people at a bar named, The Lafayette Bar and Grill the morning of June 16, 1966. Carter along with a man named John Artis both ended up being sent to prison, not once but twice for killing of those people that night at the bar. Only after appealing several times for many years, they finally were able to resolve the issue, they were cleared of the charges and Carter was released from prison. By the time they were cleared, Artis was already paroled and

Many believe that the criminal justice system of our nation was created with the intentions of keeping our neighborhoods safe, by maintaining law and order within our communities. Has our criminal justice system failed in fulfilling its purpose? Has the system been redesigned with the intentions of unfairly targeting minority men? It seems clear that many agencies have been structured to unfairly target men of color, through many controversial tactics. It is also quite evident that the contentious policing tactics that have been deployed in many minority communities have severed policing relations in these neighborhoods. These unfair tactics have led to the unnecessary death of many minority men. Many believe that there are areas of needed