The focus of my civic issue blog will center around flaws in the criminal justice system and potential options for reform. People often aren’t aware how bad our criminal justice system has gotten, prosecuting citizens to the fullest extent of the law for minor infractions, while allowing real criminals to operate out of sight, completely undisrupted. The intent for this first blog is to lay out the framework, and the facts, surrounding the issues that plague the American criminal justice system, specifically how it adversely affects certain communities, and how it doesn’t perform the function of reducing crime.
For starters, the lack of funding and structure provided to our criminal justice system should be addressed. The fundamental tenant upon which the American criminal justice system is based is that people are innocent until proven guilty. That being said, potential criminals cannot just be released until they are either acquitted or convicted. If a suspected criminal is not able to post bail, they are effectively imprisoned until they are afforded their day in court. The lack of funding and resources within our courts and jails, however, means that people can spend months, if not years, in prison when they might not have even committed a crime. Clearly, this presents inequity in our nation, specifically in lower-income communities, especially because bond is usually set at the discretion of the judge. This allows people who are financially able to evade consequences while people who cant afford it have no choice but to serve time.
Another glaring issue within our criminal justice system is mandatory minimum sentencing. Each crime has a minimum sentence associated with its severity. On the surface, it seems like the problem would arise due to unfair minimum sentences for certain crimes, but this is actually not the case. The standards for minimum sentences are widely agreed upon, and are fair nearly all of the time; this, however, is not to suggest that minimum sentences aren’t flawed, but these issues are of less consequence than others. The problem actually arises when the court needs to determine what the defendant will be prosecuted for. It turns the courtroom into a game of strategy, rather than a place to pursue the truth. The group who determines the charges in federal cases is actually the prosecution and not an unbiased third party like the judge or the jury. Prosecutors will regularly threaten to pursue more severe charges due to their minimum sentence, so that defendants who cannot afford the legal battle must settle for a plea deal. Essentially, defendants who at the point of trial are considered legally innocent, must make the choice between incurring tens of thousands of dollars of debt, or spend a couple years in jail, irrespective of whether or not they actually commit the crime. This devious method to pursue incarceration of defendants has led to much inequity within our current system, again targeted towards members of American society who happen to be less fortunate than others.
One more issue that must be addressed is the handling of drug related charges within our criminal justice system. Due to past political endeavors to curb drug use, which is now known as the war on drugs, higher and higher rates of Americans are being incarcerated and severely punished for non-violent, drug related offenses. The pursuit of a drug free America is a noble cause, but it has been implemented extremely carelessly. Certain drugs such as marijuana – which research has shown to have various medical benefits and comparatively minimal risks – is listed as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. Certain high-risk, low benefit drugs, including narcotics, are not even classified as schedule one drugs. Some examples of these supposedly ‘less dangerous’ drugs include cocaine, Oxycodone, fentanyl, Vicodin, and and methamphetamine. Rather than target drug kingpins and malicious pharmaceutical companies who have destroyed the lives of millions of Americans, prosecutors find it easier to pursue the crimes of everyday citizens, no matter how small the charge. This has become so bad that almost half of federal inmates are incarcerated on drug-related charges, and the amount of people imprisoned for drug related charges is 8 times greater than in 1980 according to the Sentencing Project, which is a nonprofit organization that seeks justice and consistency within the American criminal justice system. While alarming, these statistics segue perfectly into perhaps the most alarming issue regarding our criminal justice system: mass incarceration.
Most would agree that there are two main goals of the criminal justice system: to reduce crime, and to reduce recidivism as much as possible. To put it frankly, neither of these goals are being accomplished, all while the United States imprisons people at rates significantly higher than other developed, and underdeveloped nations. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the United States incarcerates approximately 664 people per 100,000 citizens. Some states, however, such as Louisiana, incarcerate 1094 people per 100,000 citizens. Neither of these figures seem too alarming on the surface, but when compared to other developed nations, a clear picture is painted of the issues facing our criminal justice system. Poland, for example, only incarcerates 188 people per 100,000 citizens, and Canada only incarcerates 104. Even Cuba, a nation with one of the highest incarceration rates relative to the rest of the world only incarcerates a little over 500 people per 100,000 citizens. There are a couple reasons for the disparity present within the American criminal justice system, but the largest one is the privatization of jails in America. Rather than rely on government-funded jails and institutions, private companies are instead relied upon to operate our nation’s jails. Because there is a profit incentive to house inmates, jails are of course reluctant to take measures to reduce recidivism, as it means less profit. They also lobby politicians and game the system in order to produce higher rates of incarceration. Additionally, jails that are considered government operated often have far less resources than others, and are unable to provide the necessary support in order to reduce recidivism rates within their prisons.
While there are many issues surrounding the American criminal justice system, the negative ramifications for minorities and underserved communities cannot be understated, and the focus of the next two posts will be identifying specific policies that negatively affect these communities and identifying reform measures that can be taken to ameliorate some of these issues.
Naveen, the points you make about the war on drugs as well as how socioeconomic factors play into one’s sentencing really stood out to me. I feel like most sentencing in this nation is directly correlated to one’s income. For one, if you notice, celebrity crimes tend to have shorter sentences than if the same crime was committed by a normal person; however, I am looking forward to reading the in-depth details in the next blogs.