The justice system claims that its way is best to prosecute felons, but I've seen numerous cases, on the news and online, of ways the Justice system didn't do its job. Its job is to “protect the innocent, convict criminals, and provide a fair justice process to help keep order across the country”. This four-stage process has ruined so many lives, not only of the convicts but the family and friends of those people.
Law enforcement, The Courts and Corrections all play a major part when it comes to charging the right people. But the question is, have they always charged the right people? We’ve all heard or even seen times where the justice system did not protect, did not charge, and did not pull through for the people who needed it the most.
Everywhere we look, we can find different cases where bias or unjustified outcomes have appeared. Examples where we’ve seen it are in Roe v. Wade and the George Floyd cases. A lot has gone down in the history of the justice system. In the Steven Truscott case, he served 48 years before being released. The Central Park 5 is another great example when it comes to racial bias.
Now yes, there are thousands of examples when the system did not serve justice, but the system has passed some very important cases that played out in the people's favor. Brown v. Board of Education was a supreme court decision, on May 17th, 1954, that finally ended the segregation of public school. After 105 years of separating students based on their skin color, it was finally abolished.
Geduldig v. Aiello was a case that protected maternity leave, if an employer doesn’t protect the right to maternity leave, it’s to be classified as sexual discrimination. Which is a crime, and if committed, can cause the accused to serve up to 1 year in county jail.
The Justice system has also placed a “Mandatory Minimum Sentencing''. By all means, based on the crime that you're convicted of, it’s how long you have to serve in either county jail, prison, or even community service hours. I believe that the amount of time for each crime needs to be decided based on the circumstances. And of course, that proposes some problems tying in racial discrimination. By placing flexible sentencing in, many improvements are bound to show. Prison and Jail numbers would be down, along with courts looking more carefully at cases.
The people have the power to show that they want change. Protesting about the cases we have problems with has shown great change in the past. Having an open mind and following the rules when it comes to prosecuting is the most essential.
Fixing the Justice system would not only help solve many problems when it comes to imprisonment, but it would also solve a multitude of problems when it comes to the family and friends of those convicted.