Reform In The Criminal Justice System Essay Samples

It is the society places enormous responsibilities on the justice system to provide protection, safety, order and administer justice among the people. The expectations of the society to the law enforcers are very high, and they include; following the law, allowing the separation of the innocent from the guilty, and administering appropriate punishments and rehabilitation programs for the persons who serve sentences in the correctional facilities. There are different kinds of criticism about punishments that correlate to particular crimes have surfaced, and the argument is that some sentences far outweigh the crime. In addition, the offenders find the reentry being hard, and they struggle to become productive individuals. According to the law, every crime has its punishment that is determined depending on its severity and its type. Punishments vary from rehabilitation, probation, fines to imprisonment. Among the crimes that have attracted heated debates are the ones that are associated with illegal drugs. Consumers, traffickers, manufacturers and the dealers of the hard drugs always receive sentences that are unreasonably lengthy sentences. While the drug crimes are not necessarily violent, their punishments place the offenders with the offenders of violent crimes. Ultimately the policies that inform such sentences place a heavy burden to the prison system such as overcrowding. Majority of the criminal drug offenders are inexperienced sellers who are more passive than active (Williams, 2004). There is a need to recognize the difference between the offenses and identify significant offences that require long sentences. Reforming the laws and policies will help to establish the right individual where they belong. It is evident that reforms that would reshape laws and policies will be valuable to the society as well as easing the burden on the prison system. Monies that are spent in housing passive offenders as inmates may be used to fund rehabilitation programs that would offer guidance in becoming productive person within the communities of the offenders. Such uses of taxes would be extra productive since they can be targeted at the weak areas of the community. In effecting the reforms in the justice system, there are steps that should be considered in the process of making policy. These steps are; identifying the problem, setting the agenda, formulating the policy, implementing the policy and evaluating the system. Over the years, the majority of crimes in U.S are linked to the illegal drugs and, as a result, the rate of incarceration at federal, locals and state levels is very high. The criminal justice resources are being overstretched by the volumes of criminals that are being housed in the rehabilitation facilities. Some states are charging the drug related crimes with the sentences as the offenders of murder crime. Such unbalanced mode of justice is causing overcrowding in all the prisons across the United States, and it is not sustainable in the long-term (Walklate, 2014). While such harsh sentences appear to provide an instant solution of extracting criminals from the streets, it does not seem to deter other offenders from committing the same acts. The formulation of a sound strategy is an essential step that creates the guidelines and establishes the framework of the justice system with some of the states overstretching their prisons capacity with the majority of the offenders being of the drug related cases instead of violent crime offenders. Although statistics is apparent on the status of the justice system, it is upon the legislatures of the state, national or local level to decide on the areas that would require restructuring. Majority of the law enforcement officers would agree that the direction of the funds should be channeled to support policies that establish rehabilitation programs for drug offenders. Some ethnic groups are more targeted for crimes than others. Law enforcers usually have powers in deciding where to station their patrols and whom to target for particular types of crimes. Some areas get more attention from the law enforcement officers as compared to others through demographic profiling. Some suspects are handled with the premise of being guilty until proven innocent hence the reason law enforcement officers have an advantage before the law. Law enforcement agencies of today includes men and women as officers whose job is to enforce laws that are set by the constitution and enhanced by the state and federal governments. Society holds a positive opinion for these protectors and genuinely trusts officers although it has not always been like that. To some extent the minorities do not recognize the officers entirely, and there is tension between the police and civilians of different races. As part of the needed reforms, the criminal justice system needs not only educated, but also intelligent officers who are able to solve issues while accepting cultural and racial diversity. In the real sense, the law enforcement forces are going for smarter over the tougher persons. These firms are moving away from the big and tough cops in favor of candidates who have qualities that mirror fundamentals of the community oriented policing and problem oriented philosophies. In addition to that, many communities want service oriented people who have interpersonal skills to be their guardian of justice. While many law enforcement chiefs would want to increase sworn women as officers in their departments, there are very few women applicants. That scenario is not surprising since the law enforcement profession remains to be male dominated, and most women do not think of law enforcement as their viable career choice because there is hardly any female role model in their communities that they can emulate. The greatest challenge that is facing the law agencies today is the successful enlistment and retention of the highly skilled workers (Cole, Smith, & DeJong, 2012). The justice systems may be compromised when substantial experience and training are lost through workforce turnover and vacancy. It is thus imperative to enlist and retain personnel who can bring talent and commitment to the community as well as to the enforcement agency. In the near future, a third of the American children will be Asian, black or Hispanic. The Caucasian, who is the majority today, might soon be a minority within U.S in less than fifty years, and that change will have a tremendous impact on the enrolment process in the coming days. In the tough battleground over employment, promotion to higher positions, access to a college education, issues of racial and quota preferences may come into dominance. They may also supersede the national agenda to realize equity in the workplace and the learning institutions. Society is becoming more diverse by the day and soon there will be no single ethnic or racial group that will constitute the majority. The demographers are saying that, in the near future, all ethnic groups in America will be a minority. In such a case, law enforcement managers and executives will be required to understand the demographics of their community clearly and that of their workforce to be able to enlist and retain staff that is representative and to provide adequate services to the communities. The recruitment of qualified personnel like women, Asians, Hispanics, black and other minority groups is a concern and has been given priority by the law enforcement agencies nationwide. Law enforcement bureaus are finding it hard to get competent applicants, and that is resulting into the enlistment crisis and this seems to be the case irrespective of the financial condition of the local or state government (Alpert & Lum, 2014). Recruiting officers who reflect the societal diversity in ethnic, gender, racial, and the sexual orientation demographics of the community is an essential challenge of law enforcement agencies. Promotion and retention are also important aspects of maintaining a robust workforce in the company. Retention of officers is usually the results of their excellent performance on the side of the employee and a conducive environment where all employees get accorded respect and dignity. Law enforcement agencies operate under the pretense that all their officers comprise of one race and that their work or uniform makes them brothers and sisters. That is not the case always, as some of the officers from the various racial and ethnic groups do not always agree that they are accorded the same treatment with that of their Caucasian colleagues. They believe that there is institutional racism in the justice system or law enforcement.
ReferencesAlpert, G. P., & Lum, C. (2014). The Future of Police Pursuits Research and Policy. In Police Pursuit Driving (pp. 53-60). Springer, New York.
Cole, G., Smith, C., & DeJong, C. (2012). The American system of criminal justice. New York: Cengage Learning.Walklate, S. (2014). Victimization, Gender, and the Criminal Justice System. In Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice (pp. 5442-5451). Springer, New York.Williams, L. V. M. Q. (2004). Women, Crime and the Criminal Justice System. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York.