Criminal Justice Speech

A prosecutor, Adam Foss, delivers an informative speech to a large audience about using the powers of his position to provide opportunity to young offenders rather than charging them with the full extent of the law. The very beginning of his speech was well planned out and served a purpose to what would be part of his conclusion. He asked members in the audience to raise their hands if they had ever committed one or more of several crimes as a youth (Foss, 2016). Practically everyone raised his or her hands. Then, he asked how many had ever spent a day in jail for the offense they committed. You can probably guess, practically no one raised his or her hands.

Adam Foss recognized that our criminal justice system was in desperate need

Adam showed that the way our criminal justice system is working must change. By providing opportunities for young offenders versus a criminal record and incarceration can actually make our communities more positive and safer while also saving a substantial cost to tax dollars. I believe it will be a very lethargic process to make the necessary changes to our criminal justice system. The reason for this is the simple fact that it is a “system” already in motion and changes are never easy. However, Adam made a point to stress being more involved during election time to get the right District Attorney into office. Specifically, he said to ask three questions, and if any of those could not be answered, then that prosecutor should not be doing the job (Foss, 2016). Those questions are:
1. What are you doing to make my neighborhood and me safer (Foss, 2016)?
2. What data are you collecting and what are you training your prosecutors to ensure its working (Foss, 2016)?
3. If it’s not working for everybody, what are you doing to fix it (Foss, 2016)?
I’m completely onboard with society to start making complaints about prosecutors across the county. They truly are the most powerful player in the criminal justice system and should be held more accountable for our overcrowded jails and prisons. This would put a big relief on law enforcement that is taking such a public lashing for the system by redirecting it more appropriately to the