Today, it is commonly understood that justice is blind, and we the American people have historically accepted that as fact. However, it could be reasonably argued that the judicial system in America is a failure that should be changed immediately to a more standardized system that encourages reform over punishment. There is a critical need for reform in the United States justice system, and clear evidence of that need are the high rates of recidivism, the inequality of sentencing based on race or socioeconomic class, and the inconsistencies in sentencing, which in many cases leads to longer prison terms for lesser crimes.
Evolved from English common law, the United States judiciary system is an intricate series of complex judgments, decisions, …show more content…
This standard, however, is not the case in today’s judicial system. Justice is not blind, as our forefathers had intended it to be. According to Christopher Hartney and Linh Vuong (2009) with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, on the racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system, African Americans are incarcerated in state prison at six times the rate of Caucasian Americans and are sentenced to death at five times the rate of their Caucasian counterparts. (p.3) Furthermore, African Americans have an average sentence length of 40 months, compared to Caucasians average sentence duration of 37 months. Concerning state prison terms for violent crimes, the difference becomes more pronounced with African Americans sentenced to an average of 108 months and Caucasian Americans sentenced to 95 months. (Hartney/Vuong, 2009, p. 14) As socioeconomic classes enter into the equation, those figures begin to widen exponentially. As Angela J. Davis (2007), Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and former Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia stated: “Few prosecutors consciously favor criminal defendants or victims based on race or class. Most prosecutors are motivated by a desire to enforce the law in ways that will produce justice for everyone in the communities they serve. However, all too often, prosecutors’ well-intentioned charging and plea bargaining decisions result in dissimilar treatment of similarly situated victims and defendants, sometimes along race and class lines.” (p. 203). The judiciary system has become a game of wins and losses, where those with the financial means to hire the best lawyers are often granted their freedom while often overworked and occasionally underqualified lawyers are tasked with defending the less fortunate. Often, lawyers
Evolved from English common law, the United States judiciary system is an intricate series of complex judgments, decisions, …show more content…
This standard, however, is not the case in today’s judicial system. Justice is not blind, as our forefathers had intended it to be. According to Christopher Hartney and Linh Vuong (2009) with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, on the racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system, African Americans are incarcerated in state prison at six times the rate of Caucasian Americans and are sentenced to death at five times the rate of their Caucasian counterparts. (p.3) Furthermore, African Americans have an average sentence length of 40 months, compared to Caucasians average sentence duration of 37 months. Concerning state prison terms for violent crimes, the difference becomes more pronounced with African Americans sentenced to an average of 108 months and Caucasian Americans sentenced to 95 months. (Hartney/Vuong, 2009, p. 14) As socioeconomic classes enter into the equation, those figures begin to widen exponentially. As Angela J. Davis (2007), Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and former Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia stated: “Few prosecutors consciously favor criminal defendants or victims based on race or class. Most prosecutors are motivated by a desire to enforce the law in ways that will produce justice for everyone in the communities they serve. However, all too often, prosecutors’ well-intentioned charging and plea bargaining decisions result in dissimilar treatment of similarly situated victims and defendants, sometimes along race and class lines.” (p. 203). The judiciary system has become a game of wins and losses, where those with the financial means to hire the best lawyers are often granted their freedom while often overworked and occasionally underqualified lawyers are tasked with defending the less fortunate. Often, lawyers