Weakness and Prejudgment of American Criminal Justice System

A “justice” system that doesn’t offer the victims of crimes and criminal justice is certainly a broken system. The prison system absolutely does not and has not made any meaningful effort in rehabilitation. There are fifty states in this union, each one with differing laws and perspectives on crimes and punishment. The rich and not colored have it easier than others in then system. The government needs to do a better job of identifying those which need to go to prison, mostly if not entirely for the rest of their lives-because they’re irresponsible; and then doing better with the rest.

Rich and powerful people are able to, and have always been able to influence the law in their favor using their money and power, while poor people are forced to tolerate strict consequences. For example, the financial crisis of 2008 revealed corruption, greed, and immense levels of criminal activity in Wall Street, yet not a single banker has spent a day in jail for it, in fact, they got handed extra money like some kind of reward. Meanwhile, an ordinary person can still receive a prison sentence for mere possession of marijuana. The justice system is broken, and poor people are paying the price. “The US bail system punishes the poor and rewards the rich” states, “This system unfairly punishes people who are too poor to buy their freedom.” This shows that the rich can pay for their bail even if they’re guilty, but the poor cannot get out of the situation because they’re either too poor to pay for bail or looked down upon compared to the rich. The rich get richer and the poor get prison may be a true statement.

Also, the criminal justice system is racially biased. In addition, “A critical moment for our nation” states, “Obama spoke of a severely broken system that disproportionately impacts young men of color and has been costly to families, communities and taxpayers. Black teens are sentenced to life without parole at a…rate 10 times that of white youth.” Proving that colored races are obviously not equal to each other. One race will always be superior to the other no matter what anyone else says. For instance, “America’s criminal justice system is broken” states, “…juveniles' interactions with the judicial system shouldn't be just about punishment, but instead must also focus on understanding the impacts of what they have done and why it was wrong.” This is relevant because if minors go to jail, they won’t learn and understand what they did wrong. They’ll become worse than they were because a portion of their life is in jail, learning from inmates and trapped in a horrible environment.

In order to fix the justice system, the government should support the passage of laws that reduce overly harsh sentences. For example, Huffpost states, “People are serving life sentences for non-violent drug offenses or for certain felonies under usual criminal laws.” These sentences are unnecessary and are overly strict. They often fall on the backs of the poor and people of color and cost a fortune. So if we change this, our criminal system will be a little fairer and won’t be economically biased. They could also stop the use of solitary confinement in prisons, particularly for juveniles in detention facilities. For example, Huffpost states, “Solitary confinement has become a widespread prison management tool where people are held, in extreme isolation, sometimes for years or decades. But it does more harm than good.” People locked up in solitary often come out more psychologically and physically damaged than when they went in. Solitary confinement is fundamentally inhumane, extremely costly, contrary to the public good, and often unnecessary.

To conclude, the criminal justice system is weak based on racial bias, economic bias, the fairness in every trial is not the same because of other cases, and there’s no choice of rehabilitation, just jail. Rich criminals often get away with breaking the law, while a poor individual is much more likely to feel the full force of the criminal justice system for a crime with less overall impact on society. Teens don’t get to learn from their mistakes because they have to go to jail, they’ll grow up in jail, they wont get the chance to change in rehab, which would be the humane way to learn a mistake. And it’s not a choice to be born in a poor or colored family, but the criminal justice system doesn’t think of it that way.