For the past three decades the criminal justice system of the United States has been in a constant state of deterioration. According the McGuigan and Rader, “The ordinary citizen is disgusted with America’s ‘criminal justice system’” (McGuigan and Rader 236). Despite the fact that the crime rate has declined by nearly fifty percent over the last twenty-five years, the quality of our justice system has become disappointing. By definition, criminal justice is society’s response to crime (Klutz). Part of this response originates from the three main branches of the justice system, including law enforcement (at the federal, state, and local levels), the court systems (municipal and federal), and community corrections (parole, probation, and prisons).
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The breakdown of law enforcement – specifically since the September 11th disasters – has led to an increase in violent crime. Due to this breakdown, the United States has experienced a “militarization of law enforcement” (Brown and Scott 3) with a zero tolerance policy towards the public. For example, police parliamentary units have grown by one hundred percent over the last decade alone, an unsettling fact that instills fear into the American citizenry (Brown and Scott 4). A clear example of this statistic can be represented by the unfortunate deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, LA. To make matter worse, nearly ninety-nine percent of all police brutality cases are never investigated by a higher branch of law enforcement. This increase in police brutality has in turn led to an increase in violent crimes, with more homicide, riots, and assaults occurring now more than ever. The bad news for the society is that the American citizenry has fully embraced law enforcement’s so called policy “to protect and serve” (Brown and Scott 5) and are putty in the hands of officers who think they stand above the law. In my opinion, in order to fix this problem, law enforcement must transform community policing back into a model that reflects the broken window theory This theory focuses on smaller problems such as poverty, homelessness, and drug abuse in …show more content…
. . confinement will be used for specific reasons only, and then used only when absolutely necessary”, and that “pre-release programs are utilized as much as possible in an attempt to minimize the removal from the community and to maximize the ‘bridge back’ into the community” (Hahn 138). The main concern for everyone involved with the re-integration model should be to make the offender’s program a success; there has to be effort from both the community and the offender. By implementing this policy, the corrections system will run much smoother and the recidivism rate should decline. However, this model won’t work for all criminals. According to my criminal justice professor Douglas Klutz, there must also be a strong deterrent effect. If there is no threat of retribution for criminals, then there is nothing to prevent them from committing the crime (Klutz). There must be a balance between the
The breakdown of law enforcement – specifically since the September 11th disasters – has led to an increase in violent crime. Due to this breakdown, the United States has experienced a “militarization of law enforcement” (Brown and Scott 3) with a zero tolerance policy towards the public. For example, police parliamentary units have grown by one hundred percent over the last decade alone, an unsettling fact that instills fear into the American citizenry (Brown and Scott 4). A clear example of this statistic can be represented by the unfortunate deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, LA. To make matter worse, nearly ninety-nine percent of all police brutality cases are never investigated by a higher branch of law enforcement. This increase in police brutality has in turn led to an increase in violent crimes, with more homicide, riots, and assaults occurring now more than ever. The bad news for the society is that the American citizenry has fully embraced law enforcement’s so called policy “to protect and serve” (Brown and Scott 5) and are putty in the hands of officers who think they stand above the law. In my opinion, in order to fix this problem, law enforcement must transform community policing back into a model that reflects the broken window theory This theory focuses on smaller problems such as poverty, homelessness, and drug abuse in …show more content…
. . confinement will be used for specific reasons only, and then used only when absolutely necessary”, and that “pre-release programs are utilized as much as possible in an attempt to minimize the removal from the community and to maximize the ‘bridge back’ into the community” (Hahn 138). The main concern for everyone involved with the re-integration model should be to make the offender’s program a success; there has to be effort from both the community and the offender. By implementing this policy, the corrections system will run much smoother and the recidivism rate should decline. However, this model won’t work for all criminals. According to my criminal justice professor Douglas Klutz, there must also be a strong deterrent effect. If there is no threat of retribution for criminals, then there is nothing to prevent them from committing the crime (Klutz). There must be a balance between the