Failures of the American Criminal Justice System

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Lady Justice has long been an icon of the American criminal justice system. Her blindfold shows that justice should apply equally to everyone regardless of appearance, race, age, or gender. Her sword encourages the execution of justice while the scales she holds represent the idea that both sides (plaintiff and defendant) are clearly heard before a decision is made. However, Lady Justice often fails to get her job done. To better achieve the goals of Lady Justice, people should begin to focus more on the ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who envisioned that all Americans must be offered the prospect of justice. However, fifty years after his speeches and letters, King’s vision has yet to become a reality. Too many people continue to find themselves failed and cheated by the American criminal justice system. Criminal offenders find that their punishments do not fit their crime, while law abiding citizens find their taxpayer dollars being drained on an ineffective prison system. The segregation and injustice occurring in American prisons needs to come to a halt. In order to pursue the goals of Lady Justice and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., less criminal offenders need to be imprisoned while more need to be placed in programs that will help them get on the right track.
Many prisoners are in jail for minor and harmless offenses which are often performed in times of struggle and desperation. As opposed to a few decades ago, data from table 1 shows how the criminal justice system has begun to deal more and more with incarcerating suspects who have committed petty, small offenses as opposed to major, more serious crimes. Over 85 percent of state and federal prisoners were incarcerated for violent and property offenses in ...

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James, D. J., & Glaze, L. E. (2006, September). Mental health problems of prison (Rep.). Retrieved November 26, 2013, from Bureau of Justice Statistics website: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mhppji.pdf
King, M. L., Jr. (n.d.). Letter from a Birmingham jail [Letter written April 16, 1963 to My dear fellow clergymen]. Retrieved November 26, 2013, from http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
ProCon. (2013, February 21). Incarcerated felon population by type of crime committed, 1974-2010. Felon Voting. Retrieved November 26, 2013, from felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004339&print=true
Torrey, E., M.D., Kennard, A. D., M.P.A., Eslinger, D., Lamb, R., M.D., & Pavle, J. (2010, May). More mentally ill persons are in jails and prisons than hospitals: A survey of the states. Retrieved November 26, 2013.

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