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The criminal justice system is any organization that touches upon the question of law and order in society. As an individual, you can come in contact with the system in a number of ways. If you come in contact with a cop out on the street, you come in contact with the system. If you are called to jury duty, you’ve come in contact with the system. Our prison system, courts, and law enforcement are part of the criminal justice system.
When you vote on laws and legislation, you’re voting to influence the system. Those laws impact individuals in terms of delineating what society will and will not accept. These laws also then dictate how police officers are going to conduct business; they determine sentencing guidelines and who’s going to be kept in custody. When people get out on probation, that’s part of the system. Once you’ve been released from custody, that doesn’t mean you’ve been released from the system. If you’re on parole or probation, you’re still very much connected with the system. The system ripples through society from top to bottom because when you incarcerate somebody, you’re not just affecting them. This criminal justice system is so much bigger than the average citizen realizes and so much more interconnected.
So the criminal justice system is a huge part of our society and a huge amount of your tax dollars are going to support this criminal justice system. Yet most people are really only aware of bits and pieces of it.
Kevin Rector and the Los Angeles Times analyzed crime data of L.A. homicides concluding that in the 18-month period from January 2020 through this June, there were 266 Latino victims killed in L.A., compared with 182 Latino victims in the prior 18-month period — a 46.2% increase. There were 192...
75% of voters believe more police are needed on the street as crime is on the rise across the country, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey. Just 25 percent of respondents in the poll said they do not need more policing. Brittany Bernstein of National Review gives us the...
Aaron Morrison, writing for the Associated Press, reminds us of who the drug war’s losers are: Fifty years ago this summer, President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs. Today, with the U.S. mired in a deadly opioid epidemic that did not abate during the coronavirus pandemic’s worst days, it...
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Thursday continued castration a landmark voting rights law in a decision likely to help Republican states fight challenges to voting restrictions they’ve put in place following last year’s elections. In a case from Arizona, the justices upheld two state voting restrictions that limited who...
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction opening the way for his immediate release from prison. Cosby, 83, has served nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence after being found guilty of drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his...
GSG, a national Democratic polling and corporate consulting firm, surveyed 400 likely general election voters on Sept. 4-6. The poll had a 4.9-point margin of error. Josh Kurtz at Maryland Matters has written about the Brandon Scott campaign and the decision to release the poll. What was revealed indicates citizens...
Rochin v. California (1952) is the 97th landmark Supreme Court case, twelfth in the Criminal Rights module, featured in the KTB Prep American Government and Civics series designed to acquaint users with the origins, concepts, organizations, and policies of the United States government and political system. The goal is greater...
Jencks v. United States (1957) is the 107th landmark Supreme Court case, fourteenth in the Criminal Rights module, featured in the KTB Prep American Government and Civics series designed to acquaint users with the origins, concepts, organizations, and policies of the United States government and political system. The goal is...
U.S. v. Kahriger (1953) is the 98th landmark Supreme Court case, thirteenth in the Criminal Rights module, featured in the KTB Prep American Government and Civics series designed to acquaint users with the origins, concepts, organizations, and policies of the United States government and political system. The goal is greater...
Wolf v. Colorado (1949) is the 93rd landmark Supreme Court case, eleventh in the Criminal Rights module, featured in the KTB Prep American Government and Civics series designed to acquaint users with the origins, concepts, organizations, and policies of the United States government and political system. The goal is greater...