The Flaws Of The Justice System In The Kalief Browder

This paper discusses three critical issues in the criminal justice system. It touches on the general issues of punishment philosophies, sentence decision making, and prison overcrowding and focused more specifically on the negative effects of each. Highlighted in this informational paper is the interrelated nature of the issues; each issue affects and is affected by the others. Data and information has been gathered from the FBI Uniform Crime Report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Amnesty International, the NAACP Legal Defense

The American Criminal Justice System are sets of agencies and process made by the government to control crime and to penalize those who commit it. The justice system is different based one’s jurisdiction, meaning city, state, federal or tribal government or military installation. The Criminal System is divided into two main parts, the state and the federal. The state portion handles crimes within its state boundaries. The federal portion handles crime committed on Federal property or in two or more states (“Criminal Justice” 1). The American Criminal Justice System needs reform because of its emphasizes on incarceration punishment rather than Rehabilitation. Our justice system especially enforces punishment on blacks and Latinos resulting of overpopulation of prisons like Rikers Island for petty crimes. Also, another reform needed the juvenile cases. For example, juveniles who commit petty crimes shouldn’t be sent to adult prison and shouldn’t be near more dangerous and serious inmates.

In “Before The Law”, an article written by Jennifer Gonnerman published in The New Yorker, the dispiriting true story of a teen from the Bronx is used as a precedent to highlight the glaring problems with New York City’s criminal justice system. In May of 2010, sixteen year-old Kalief Browder and his friends were arrested on robbery charges after returning home from a party in the Bronx. The ensuing events led him in and out of holding cells, granted him a bail of three thousand dollars (which his family was unable to afford), and eventually led to him being transferred to the infamous Rikers Island; Where, despite never being convicted of any crime (let alone receiving a fair trial), he was imprisoned for nearly four years. Gonnerman

In, “The Caging of America”, by Adam Gopnik explains the problems in the in the American criminal justice system focusing more on the prison system. Some of the struggles that Gopnik states in his article are mass incarceration, crime rate, and judges giving long inappropriate sentencings to those with minor crimes. He demonstrates that inmates are getting treated poorly than helping them learn from their actions. Using facts and statistics, Gopnik makes his audience realize that there is an urgent need of change in the American prison system. The main idea of Gopnik’s article is that the prison system needs to improve its sentencing laws because prisons are getting over crowed. Gopnik’s argument is valid because there is a problem in the sentencing laws that has caused a malfunction in the prison system as a whole.

When we think about prisons, jails, and courthouses, our minds are meant to draw a connection to cold, hard, justice and fair punishments for guilty and deserving parties. Yet, in our judicial and prison systems around the world, this idea is nowhere close to reality. From inhumane punishments, to mass incarceration, and “trapping” people in the system based on race or financial status, justice is far from being served.

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

The criminal justice system in America is a system designed to work in three distinct steps. The first being to fairly identify those breaking the law, second, create a process through which to both punish and rehabilitate criminals, and lastly integrate them back into society. The current system typically goes unquestioned, as those in the system seem to be deserving of what ever happens while they are in it, even once they have served their prison sentence. It is only upon deeper inspection that we begin to realize the discrimination and unfair tactics used to introduce certain groups of society into the criminal justice system and proceed to trap them there. This is the issue addressed in Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, and it is through arrests, sentencing and further upon release from jail that this oppressive system is created and maintained.

The United States is regarded as a country of innovation and progress. However, the prison and disciplinary systems in the U.S. fall short in several aspects. With the highest incarceration rate in the world, one might expect American prisons to be prepared for providing quality care and rehabilitation for inmates. Unfortunately, this is not the reality - with a growing number of privatized prisons, the quality of life for inmates and their families is dissipating. The U.S. prison system is in desperate need of reform; closing down private prisons will help in alleviating monetary pressure, reducing abuse reports, and lowering the rate of reincarceration in individuals. Prison reform should be seen as a priority, as nonviolent offenders are suffering far more than they should, and are purposely conditioned to be reincarcerated after their release. Private prisons are rapidly growing in the U.S. to keep up with a growing number of inmates. With the rising number of prisoners, prisoner abuse levels are also rising exponentially. This is due to the fact that private prisons are a booming industry that exploits prisoners for profits. Private prisons may seem beneficial at a glance; however, they enforce lax regulations and are notorious for overcrowding and “barbaric” conditions. Prisons should rehabilitate nonviolent offenders in

Even when people do terrible things, such as Carter, who received the death penalty because he was accused of rape, I still feel that our prison system does nothing to help these people become better citizens, but rather only pushes them towards more corruption. In prison, the atmosphere does very little to promote rehabilitation, which I believe is something that all prisons should focus on the most. If the people in prison are not taught how to return to society as improved citizens, but are rather sent to a place where their personalities become more corrupted, the system will continue to be stalled. This is where Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative can help because they are fighting against mass incarceration, which tries to prevent unreliable convictions and excessive

The criminal justice system focuses more on criminalization and incarceration than it does on rehabilitation. The United States of America wins the award for the highest incarceration rate in the world with over 2.3 million people in correctional facilities. America itself contains only about five percent of the world population, but accounts for twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners (American Civil Liberties Union). With a longstanding history of mass incarceration and

Almost every day, we hear about justice being served upon criminals and we, as a society, feel a sense of relief that another threat to the public has been sentenced to a term in prison, where they will no longer pose a risk to the world at large. However, there are very rare occasions where the integrity of the justice system gets skewed and people who should not have been convicted are made to serve heavy prison sentences. When word of this judicial misstep reaches the public, there is social outcry, and we begin to question the judicial system for committing such a serious faux pas.

American prison systems encompass all three spheres of criminal justice: law enforcement, judiciary, corrections. Within this system, a massive problem exists. America is known as the “mass incarceration nation” (Hamilton, 2014, p. 1271). Comparatively, the United States encompasses the majority of global prisoners, yet the population is nowhere near that proportion. Just how “free and equal” is this system? Since Gideon v. Wainwright, the racial divide in the criminal justice system has grown, which is contradictory to its intentions. The American criminal justice system has failed to provide the justice and protections it promises. There are many injustices caused by the mass incarceration of American citizens, especially those of minority descent. More harm is done by incarceration to the individual, their community, and the nation, than if other forms of justice were used. The criminal justice system is divided, with racial and income disparities defining the nation in way never intended.

The justice system was designed to put away criminals, while maintaining the security and wellbeing of society. A process is followed by trained and well educated people, yet this doesn’t go without mishaps and wrong doings. The justice system is looked upon as part of societies safety net, yet can be demonized when it falters. The case of the West Memphis 3 is a case of injustice, while showing how easily the justice system can fail us, yet how important it is to our society to get it right. Between the detectives, the prosecution, and the public, three teenagers, Michael Wayne (Damien) Echols, Charles Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Loyd Misskelley Jr., were wrongly convicted and as of today the real killers are still out there. Twenty-three years

Only five percent of the world’s population live in The United States of America, but twenty-five percent of the incarcerated people live here. Our country has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and not because we are criminals, but because prisons operate under a corrupt system.“We only kill black people.’ Police Officer Says During Traffic Stop”. Yes, unfortunately, this is a legitimate news article published by Christine Hauser and Jacey Fortin on August 31, 2017. We are currently living in a society where wealth and race dominate exterminating any sense of justice and kindness remaining in our society. Bryan Stevenson’s book Just Mercy is a memoir about how our justice system is shaped in a way in which according to Bryan Stevenson, “treats you much better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent ”(Stevenson, Bryan. "We need to talk about an injustice." TED. Feb. 2012. Lecture.). In addition to this, it also treats you better if you’re white. This memoir also tells us how the system treats the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned many people based on their race and socioeconomic status. In other words, the system is shaped in a way that the broken get punished because the system wants them to remain broken. In Just Mercy, Stevenson successfully uses ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade his audience to see a different perspective of our justice system which I believe is the reality of our justice system.

In many cases we are forced to believe that the prison system is fair and equal to all, although that may not be the case. The prison system at first glance seems fair and equal but after looking closer you will find many times it’s not fair at all. For example, “an African American male could spend more time in jail for possession of crack than a white man with the same amount of powder cocaine” (Harmon 372). This is just one example of how society has been taken advantage of in the prison system. Some people are subject to years in prison although they should not be while others enjoy life even though they should be in prison. The injustice in the sentencing of prisoners is an ongoing problem in society, as some criminals get of easy for horrible crimes others criminals suffer unfairly all because of color of their skin.