Crime is a very serious issue in today’s society that is
talked about through many different methods, media, television
programs, etc.. Clarence Darrow’s speech, “Address to the
Prisoners in the Cook County Jail” displays a very strong feeling
on whether or not “criminals” in jail our really at fault for
their crimes or if it’s the fault of those people on the
“outside”, those not in jail. Once being a lawyer himself and
defending criminals like Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, both
notorious murders, Darrow has a strong insight on hard core
criminals and the legal system. He utilizes his experience and
knowledge along with the appeals of pathos, logos and ethos, to
gain the respect and opinions of his audience.
Darrow’s main purpose in this speech is to state his
feelings of disregard for the justice system. He feels as though
jails do not serve a true purpose and that people are not in jail
because they deserve to be but rather because of unavoidable
circumstance. Those who obtain money hold the power and those who
are poverty stricken will be punished, no matter who was at fault
or who did the crime.
This piece was a speech to prisoners in a Chicago jail and
therefore, it seems as if his targeted audience must have been
the criminals themselves. However, he must have also been
targeting the politician’s and legal personnel for the tone of
his sentences and the beliefs he stated would do no justice for
those already in prison and must have been intended to influence
those people on the “outside”.
Darrow strikes the pathetic or the emotional appeal
instantly in his first paragraph: “ I do not believe that people
are in jail because they deserve to be. They are in jail simply
because they cannot avoi...
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the readers heart and mind.
The ethos of Darrow is quite a touchy subject. Although he
was a lawyer for several years he obtains no solid evidence, only
well worded statements and descriptions that place thoughts and
visions into ones head. His words possess great power and one
could be easily influenced by them. It is now in the readers hand
to formulate their own opinion and decide whether or not their is
truth in Darrow’s accusations. The reader must rely solely on the
fact that Darrow is in the legal profession and has inside
information on what truly transpires.
Darrow’s theories can be summed up almost as easily as they
were first introduced. He feels that the only way to get rid of
crimes and criminals is to abandon it all. The only way that this
world will rid of the misdeed that goes on is to create a pure
world with absolute equality.
In July of 2008, one of the biggest crime cases devastated the United States nation-wide. The death of Caylee Anthony, a two year old baby, became the most popular topic in a brief amount of time. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony, became the main suspect after the child supposedly was kidnapped and went missing. To this day, the Casey Anthony case shocks me because justice, in my opinion, wasn’t served. I feel as if the criminal conviction system became somewhat corrupted in this case. The entire nation, including the court system, knew that Casey Anthony was behind this criminal act, but yet she escaped all charges. I chose this case not only because it’s debatable, but also to help state the obvious, this case was handled the wrong way. Clearly the legal system was biased, which worked in Casey Anthony’s favor, freeing a murderer.
Jacoby uses many claims about how crime in the United States has grown and the how faulty America’s justice system currently is. One claim said that citizens pay around “$30,000 per inmate each year” (Jacoby 197). This grasps the reader’s attention by connecting their life to the problem; it is their money, a lot of their money, being used to imprison these criminals. The rates have increased on inmates since the 1980s by over 250% (Jacoby 197). Jacoby declares that the prison system is terrible; he uses accurate and persuading evidence.
Jacoby can be easily perceived as an upset and alarmed individual who blames the rise of criminal activity in the United States on the failure of the criminal justice system. He cares about people and believes that the safety of individuals is decreasing because criminals are not punished effectively by imprisonment and that some even receive a “sign of manhood” from going to prison (197). Additionally, he is upset that the ineffective system is so expensive. His concern for his audience’s safety and his carefully argued grounds, which he uses to support his claim, create a persona of an intelligent person of
The 6th amendement of the U.S. Constituion gurantees the acussed the right to a speedy trial. In New York more specifically, the prosecution must be ready for trial on all felonies except murder within six months, or the charges aginst a defendant can be dissmissed. However, an article written in The New Yorker by Jennifer Gonnerman about a young man named Kalief Browder, sheds light on a situation that is should have been handled more differently. Kalief browder spend three years on Rikers Island in what could only be described as horrible conditions, and suffered appalling violence, without ever being convicted of a crime. The failure of our Criminal Justice System not only deprived Kalief Browder the right to a speedy trial, but also robbed such a young man of an education, and most importantly his freedom. - Thesis Statement .
The judicial system is established to ensure that justice is served but in Browder’s case that never happened. In the three years that Browder was in jail, he waited for one trial after another and “stood before eight different judges,” people in power whose job is to convict the the guilty and protect the innocent (12). It took years to acquire a trial and with this wasted time, Browder
With matted hair and a battered body, the creature looked at the heartless man outside the cage. Through the dark shadows you could only see a pair of eyes, but those eyes said it all. The stream of tears being fought off, the glazed look of sheer suffering and despair screamed from the center of her soul, but no one cared. In this day in age I am ashamed to think that this is someone's reality, that this is an accurate description of a human being inside a Canadian women's prison . Exposing the truth behind these walls reveals a chauvinistic, corrupt process that serves no greater purpose. The most detrimental aspect of all is society's refusal to admit the seriousness of the situation and take responsibility for what has happened.
Mass incarceration has caused the prison’s populations to increase dramatically. The reason for this increase in population is because of the sentencing policies that put a lot of men and women in prison for an unjust amount of time. The prison population has be caused by periods of high crime rates, by the medias assembly line approach to the production of news stories that bend the truth of the crimes, and by political figures preying on citizens fear. For example, this fear can be seen in “Richard Nixon’s famous campaign call for “law and order” spoke to those fears, hostilities, and racist underpinnings” (Mauer pg. 52). This causes law enforcement to focus on crimes that involve violent crimes/offenders. Such as, gang members, drive by shootings, drug dealers, and serial killers. Instead of our law agencies focusing their attention on the fundamental causes of crime. Such as, why these crimes are committed, the family, and preventive services. These agencies choose to fight crime by establishing a “War On Drugs” and with “Get Tough” sentencing policies. These policies include “three strikes laws, mandatory minimum sentences, and juvenile waives laws which allows kids to be trialed as adults.
Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2011). America’s courts and the criminal justice system (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
She shows little to no sympathy for this prisoners, focusing on the reasons why these inmates are inmates. She believes prison is a place for punishment, not rehabilitation. With rather strong feelings towards these prisoners, she goes on to compare these inmates’ free education to college students who have to pay for their education. She feels that it’s unfair that a criminal can get a free education while a hard working citizen with a clean slate has to pay thousands of dollars to get their education. I plan on using this for my research in the opposing side of my argument as she gives many reasons as to why inmate education isn’t
The old adage of “eye for an eye” has defined the way societies across the world approach crime and punishment ever since the age of Hammurabi. Prisons in particular are designed to punish people who disobey laws, and return them to society as upstanding citizens. However, 75% of people released from prisons in the United States are re-arrested within five years of release (Goldstein, 2014). The fundamental problem with prisons is that they fail to address the economic and social circumstances that make crime the choice of highest utility, emotionally rehabilitate the criminals or dissuade people from committing crime; in fact, they return convicts to those exact circumstances or worse, in the same psychological circumstances or worse.
Piper Kerman once stated, “Our current criminal justice system has no provision for restorative justice, in which an offender confronts the damage they have done and tries to make it right for the people they have harmed. Instead our system of “corrections” is about arm’s-length revenge and retribution, all day and all night.” The 2016 presidential election and its candidates delved into this theory of the current criminal justice system and the way in which it polices. It has recently gained notoriety due to massive media coverage of police brutality, the privatization of prisons, and the growth of the prison population. This quote epitomizes the idea of polarization of the two parties. In this election Donald Trump advocates for the implementation
The judicial system was designed to assure citizens the right to have their legal conflicts listened to and settled by a judge or jury. Some results of these cases aren’t always the same or done fairly. There are many ways that the judicial system shows corruption and everyone might not realize that. There are many people who believe that the judicial system has no flaws and gives everyone their fair treatment. This research paper will focus on how corrupt the system is and why it’s failing.
Humans are very perplexing creatures, they can be the nicest beings in the world but then change to abominations. The world is not perfect, far from it, it will kick you when it is down and leave you there to rot but the worse part of it all is the justice system that does not serve its purpose, serve justice. There are too many nefarious people that are still alive in this world and the rate of crime is still rising at an incredible rate.
When citizens envision prison, they envision solitude, protection, and safety; but, beyond these protective walls, criminals and society are subjected to unlawful constraints implemented by the dictatorial Justice System- this is suppression of freewill. The Justice System is influenced and mostly dominated by moguls and corrupt politicians, the development of power between these two institutions is established through money and robust relationships. In return for money, government officials will collude and implement constraints placed on society and against heinous criminals, while they are held in captivity. Samuel McCracken, acclaimed writer and researcher asserts, "free choice is diminished...
The present system of justice in this country is too slow and far too lenient. Too often the punishment given to criminal offenders does not fit the crime committed. It is time to stop dragging out justice and sentencing and dragging our feet in dispensing quick and just due. All punishment should be administered in public. It is time to revert back to the "court square hanging" style of justice. This justice would lessen crime because it would prove to criminals that harsh justice would be administered.