There are many, many solutions that could help to eliminate the inequity and discrimination perpetuated by our criminal justice system.  The following approaches are a combination of my own opinions, as well as the solutions posed by the Sentencing Project’s report to the United Nations.

To start, more funding should be provided to all institutions within our criminal justice system.  This includes police, courts, jails, parole agencies etc.  Procedural inefficiency is a huge issue, and leads to delayed sentencing and more jail time, both of which unfairly affect American citizens who are suspected of committing a crime.  Providing more funding to the police would also allow them to have more resources and training in order to combat instances of police brutality and implicit bias.  The current bail system should also be overhauled.  We have already mentioned how a cash bail system disadvantages Americans who happen to be of lower economic status, so unless there is a communicable reason that a person must be held – such as flight risk – people should not be held for bail pre-trial.

There are also many aspects of the war on drugs that should be addressed.  First, drugs such as marijuana should be reclassified in order to accurately represent the risks posed by these substances within our communities.  Drug use charges should also not have associated jail sentences, and more funding should be diverted towards rehabilitation.  Drug users will continue to use regardless of whether or not there are criminal consequences, so the criminal justice system should focus more on helping these individuals, as it is senseless to derail the lives of people already struggling with addiction.  The war on drugs is responsible for much of the discriminatory incarceration that is evident within our criminal justice system, so ending the fervent pursuit of drug related charges is a great first step.

America should also transition away from the use of private jails.  This cannot be completely eliminated, which is understandable.  It is simply too hard to provide publicly funded jails everywhere across the nation.  That being said, the evidence shows that conditions within private jails increase recidivism both intentionally and unintentionally.  Any private prison that is found to lobby politicians in order to increase the criminal population should be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law, as no American should ever be imprisoned for profit.

Additionally, mandatory minimum sentencing needs to be overhauled.  It’s existence is not necessarily the issue, but if prosecutors are allowed to threaten defendants with the prospect of harsher consequences, then our justice system is anything but just.  I would recommend eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent offenses, and disallowing the prosecution from determining which charges are going to be pursued.  The easiest solution for this is to allow the judge to determine the charges, and go from there.

Another step that can be taken towards fixing our criminal justice system are funding and addressing issues within underserved communities, in order to decrease mass incarceration.  We have established that inhabitants of urban and lower income communities are often subject to over-policing.  Therefore, regulations should be made to ensure that no state or local government is targeting specific areas with the intent of arresting more people.  People in these areas are being treated unfairly, and it is the duty of the federal government to ensure that regardless of what state or region someone lives in, that they are treated equally under the law.  Funding should also be provided to these areas specifically to supplement food banks, medical centers, community centers, and infrastructure so that individuals in such areas are not forced to resort to crime to meet their basic needs.  No matter the city or country, urban areas always have higher rates of crime due to environmental pressures.  Alleviating these types of economic and regional stressors would reduce crime far more than prosecuting every single instance of crime.  Sure, locking up some criminals solves the issue in the short term, but there will always be scarcity in urban areas.  Crime can be discouraged in other ways than by arresting people.

Lastly, the entire criminal justice system as a whole must be more transparent in order to be effective.  If people are allowed to operate in the dark, it invites a notion that citizens can be prosecuted for anything, regardless of their innocence, and there will be no consequences for that.  There are a couple ways to go about achieving more transparency, but a great place to start would be to draft legislation that makes the majority of relevant records public information.  People should also be allowed to record in courtrooms unless there are extenuating circumstances, and above all, police who disable body cameras should be held criminally accountable.  With so much technology available to us, it is really a shame that we are not better using it to combat inequality.  Cameras and recording devices are already used as a deterrent for crimes such as theft and burglary, so why should it not also deter corruption within our own criminal justice system?

With so much inequity existing within our criminal justice system, its hard to even imagine what a fair one looks like.  Still, we as Americans should strive to ensure that each and every person is treated fairly and equally, regardless of who they may be.  Each person, criminal or not, deserves to be treated with dignity, and at this point in time millions of Americans are not being afforded the dignity they deserve.  Hopefully our generation will be able to achieve some of the goals listed here, and create a more fair criminal justice system in the process.

Report to the United Nations on Racial Disparities in the U.S. Criminal Justice System