Flaws of the Criminal Justice System 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. Imagine Kirsty and Marc, a young couple who resort to robbing a house in a desperate attempt to make money. They are caught, charged with the same crime and given the same sentence, except for one thing: the male dominant world we live in does not stop at the courtroom door. Marc is sent to a medium security prison one hour from his family with every opportunity to earn his way into a minimum-security facility. He spends his days learning to cook in the kitchenette and has access to basic necessities like aftershave or hairspray. Meanwhile, Kirsty walks into her frigid six-by-ten foot cell with bars for a door, a toilet in plain view and not a trace of sunlight. She is twelve hours from home with no hope of changing location since there is nowhere else to go. The stories of rapes, beatings and riots told by her new neighbours are endless. Kirsty realizes that the only way for her to survive this place is to oppose nature and forget what it is to feel. This is discrimination against women as they are penalized more severely than men for committing less crime. How can women strive for equality when they cannot attain justice in the justice system itself? The controversy over the gender bias goes beyond the "too-few-to-count" syndrome as Sally Armstrong calls it, it is a question of women's constitutional right to be treated equally. Looking beyond women's issues and questioning basic humanity, we find a deceptive, unstable yet somehow egotistical governmental department. With an organization like this in control, there is no hope of rehabilitation for the prisoners as was discovered throughout the inquiry performed on Correctional Services Canada.
A women doing life is a book that talks openly about women in prison. The author of the book who is also an inmate is known as Erin George. She explains vividly about women life in prison and what she was going through as an inmate. The book also gives other stories about other female inmates. The book presents a realistic of what women goes through on daily basis in prison. The issues addressed are both physical and psychological challenges. She talks on behalf of those women facing challenges on daily basis in prison. The books explain life events that tragic and heartbreaking those changes later to be uplifting and humorous. She gives a story of how she is able to cope and manage in hard situations. The women’s humanity inside the prison is well shown in this book as they try to make ends meet in their daily life. This book is vivid and very compelling for women. It is one of the best contributions of the author in literature. The book has a virtually flawless pedagogical approach. The author’s writing is to a great extent excellent and it has helped in creating awareness in literature about the historical context of women in prison. It explains beyond the little information presented in the media about women life in prison and the challenges they face as inmates.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2008) Handbook for Prison Managers and Policymakers on Women and Imprisonment. United Nations Publications.
The study continues on to explain further ramifications, such as, physical effects. This shows some of the devastating effects the practice of administrative segregation has on inmates’ mental and physical well-being. Often, it is the mentally ill that are unfairly subject to this practice. “Mentally ill inmates may find themselves inappropriately placed in administrative segregation because of a lack of other suitable placements, protective custody reasons, or disruptive behavior related to their mental illness.” (O 'Keefe 125). Instead of providing safety to inmates and staff as the prison system claims administrative segregation is for, its main objective is social isolation. Which is one of the harmful elements of AS that makes it torture. Additionally, an annual report from the Canadian Government’s Office of the Correctional Investigator’s states, “close to one-third of reported self-injury incidents occurred in (federal prisons) segregation units”. Therefore, one can infer that the negative effects of AS are contradictory to providing safety to inmates. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendéz proposed administrative segregation should be banned as the “isolation of inmates amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment or – in more severe cases – to torture.” The ramifications of administrative segregation amount to what is defined as torture by lawyer and human rights Juan Mendéz. Administrative segregation is an unconstitutional treatment of inmates and does not constitute the values of our society, or the dignity and humanity of all people. Which is contradictory to rehabilitating a person to be physically, socially and mentally restored for reintroduction into society. Its use in Canada’s prison system is unjustified, unethical, and ultimately,
Throughout Canada’s journalism industry, there have been many criticisms in regards to Canada’s Criminal Justice System and its Prisons. One of these criticisms is whether or not there is secret racial discrimination behind the imprisonment of minorities in Canada. In a National Post article by Jessica Barrett: “Covert Racism behind Increased numbers of Aboriginals and other visible minorities in Prisons, watchdog says”, she incessantly quotes Canada’s former correctional investigator, Howard Sapers (The Watchdog) and his belief on the secret racial prejudices within the Criminal Justice System. Usually this type of claim would typically be agreed with; however, this piece lacks solid facts and other people’s point of views which essentially
The American people rely on the justice system set up by our founding fathers to uphold certain standards of fairness and equality. Society is brainwashed into believing that the justice system is to flaw and bad people are supposed to go to jail. However, this has not been the case for many years due to corruption in the Supreme Court followed by the Federal Courts and other inferior state courts. The American justice system has taken on a life of its own, following theories of fairness that are no longer connected to the needs of a free society. Instead of a justice system that weeds out the good from the evil, power has been given to the prosecutors, finding a good lawyer is harder than it seems, and rules have become unconstitutional.
For a long time traditional liberal legal theory has struggled to win gender equality through the courts, but has not made the necessary gains. This theory advises women to change their relationship to the male power structure, and offers two ways in which women can do this to attain equity: the “sameness” approach and the “difference” approach. The first approach, “sameness,” suggests that women should stress male-female similarities. Traditional theory justifies this approach by saying, “to the extent that women are no different from men they deserve what (men) have” (33). Traditional theory advises women who feel different to from men use the second approach, and stress t...
Some of the more positive features of the criminal justice systems throughout the world are that of the following: In Canada the accused person must be brought before a judge within 24 hours of their arrest, or as soon as possible. In Canada and the United States of America you are considered to be innocent until proven guilty. In Canada and the US you have the right to appeal the verdict of the hearing. In Canada all judges must have at least ten years of experience at any position within the Canadian Bar and the judges in Canada are appointed to their positions (U.S. Relations with Canada, 2015). In Germany judges must explain their decisions fully and explain their reasoning for resolving the disputed issues as they did (Maxeiner, 2012).
The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as “an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine.
The state of women in the United States criminal justice system, an apparently fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but. While the policies imposed in the criminal justice system have an effect on all Americans, they affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. By looking at the United States' history of females in the criminal justice system, the social manipulation of these females and the everlasting affects that incarceration have on all women, both in and out of prison, this essay will explore the use of the criminal justice system as simply another form of control from which there is no hope of escape. This system of control then leads to the examination of the everlasting, yet never successful, female struggle to balance the private sphere of domesticity with the public sphere of society and the criminal justice system's attempt to keep women within the boundaries of the private.
The criminal justice system views any crime as a crime committed against the state and places much emphasis on retribution and paying back to the community, through time, fines or community work. Historically punishment has been a very public affair, which was once a key aspect of the punishment process, through the use of the stocks, dunking chair, pillory, and hangman’s noose, although in today’s society punishment has become a lot more private (Newburn, 2007). However it has been argued that although the debt against the state has been paid, the victim of the crime has been left with no legal input to seek adequate retribution from the offender, leaving the victim perhaps feeling unsatisfied with the criminal justice process.
After reading the articles and consulting Reiman’s book, all of the authors discuss the importance of altering our criminal justice system to enhance the morally functioning aspects and to abolish the qualities of the system that are the problem.
(Brosnahan 2013) The spending cost for prisons have been discussed, the following was said “The federal government has undertaken a plan to spend $600 million on 2,700 new cells in prisons across Canada, but that will take several years. At the same time, the government has announced cuts to the budget of the correctional service” (Brosnahan 2013). Consequently, because the correctional budgets are cut, construction for expansion of prisons is the temporary solution. Similarly, due to the decrease in budget it requires more correctional staff to overlook those inmates. The corrections system is not able to hire more staff because of the lower budget, making it more dangerous inside penitentiaries to stay under control. With this increase in prisoners, penitentiaries have a risk of constant increase in violence among inmates and even staff. (Brosnahan 2013) As stated above the environment within the penitentiary is critical as well as the security of correctional staff and offenders. Due to the simple fact of having overpopulated prisons, everyone’s safety is at risk. Also making it difficult for frontline staff to keep order, security and healthy environment while still trying to keep the rights of prisoners in mind at all times.
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.
The criminal justice system is about how a society deals with people who violate criminal law. The criminal justice system has a lot to do with politics. Politics expresses what is and is not criminal, and what the consequences are. The community plays two important roles in criminal justice system. The community is responsible for reporting crimes they witness happening. Police depend on the community for this information as they can't always be there to witness a crime. Lastly, the community makes up the members of the jury who convict or acquit criminals.
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.