Ethics In The Criminal Justice System

Ethics is often a difficult subject to get a clear understanding of. In order to begin to understand Ethics, one must understand that their isn’t just one concept of what is ethical for everyone in the world, which is the critical aspect of Ethics. Different culture, beliefs, and societies define what Ethics is to them. My personal understanding of Ethics was always fairly basic. It was very plainly “what ever the right thing to do” is. Although I had taken an Ethics class in high school, it wasn’t clear then, and I still have struggled to determine what is ethical. In my journal, I found that we often only discuss an ethical issue when there is enough controversy to get known. Issues such as discrimination, abortion, and worker rights have …show more content…
One thing that ethics teaches us is that everyone has the same amount of human dignity in them that no one can take away from them, then why do we? Our justice system was founded on the belief of rehabilitation for those who have difficulties complying to the law. Our prison systems are often referred to as “corrections” or “penitentiary”, so I would assume that is where people can learn that what they’ve done to get there is wrong but there they can get the help they need. I am ethically challenged by the idea of stripping another person, metaphorically and literally, of their dignity. Although I have never been in a prison or jail, I understand that there are communal showers, random room searches, poor food quality, and little to no therapeutic help. People in the criminal justice system understand that there is a lessened expectancy of privacy but if society would allow rehabilitation to prisoners, wouldn’t that solve this inhumane treatment? Society often gets whirled up if one person gets a different sentence than another although they both committed the same crime. (Note: I am not talking about the current rape case debacle. I am not informed on the case nor the precedent cases to this event.) Courts are allowed the discretion to have varying sentences due to the prevalent circumstance of different cases. Prosecutors also have the discretion of whether to charge a juvenile as an adult or not. A TedTalk from Prosecutor Adam Foss reminds us that prosecutors have too much authority. Foss has chosen time and time again to, rather than charge a juvenile, put them in programs that will make up for their crime, hold them accountable, but also give them a chance at a real life, one where crime isn’t a