The purpose of this paper is to conduct a practitioner interview as a way of trying to get a clear understanding of the criminal justice system in the country. The interviewee, who works as a federal prosecutor, has an in-depth knowledge of how the criminal justice system in the country operates. The interviewee has been worked as a prosecutor for the last 15 years, during which time he had been engaged in a wide array of cases on behalf of the attorney general. Consequently, this interviewee was an essential step towards learning more about how the criminal justice system in the United States is structured and whether it is working based on its objectives. Additionally, the interview also helped in shedding light on some of the critical challenges that the system is currently experiencing, which creates a much better understanding of the issues that the federal government is seeking to resolve. One of the critical questions asked in trying to get his personal view of the criminal justice system was whether he believed that the criminal justice system in the United States was working. In his response, he indicated that although he believes that the system is working, several critical flaws exist, which have become a significant impediment to ensuring that its benefits society. He indicated that every department of the system, which includes the police officers, prosecutors, judges, and correction officers, has a pivotal role to play towards determining the success of the system. He pointed out that each of these departments has worked from a general point of view but may need several improvements to maximize their capacities to deliver on specific objectives. Regarding the area where the system has failed, he indicated that the current system pays more attention to locking up offenders in prison facilities while ignoring the basic expectation of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation should focus more on ensuring that offenders change their behaviours before they are released back into society to avoid the possibility of their reengagement in criminal activities (Lofstrom & Raphael, 2016). From the interview, it was clear that the criminal justice system has failed in promoting rehabilitation, as 95% of the time, offenders are released back into society without rehabilitation. The outcome that this is having is that it is creating a high possibility of reoffending, resulting in cases where more than half of the released prisoners are incarcerated within six months of their release. The interviewee indicated that the system is failing to account for rehabilitation, as it concentrates more on ensuring that the offenders are locked up in prisons. On the other hand, the interviewee indicated that the criminal justice system has failed, as it disproportionately discriminates against vulnerable communities in the countries, which include Hispanics and African Americans. More than 60% of prisoners within the criminal justice system are Hispanic and African American, with only a minimal portion consisting of white Americans (Kurlychek & Johnson, 2019). The interviewee indicated that he has strived to ensure that he maintains the highest standards and integrity in his actions. However, that cannot be the same for all officers within the criminal justice system, some of who use this as a tool to bring out racial and ethnic discrimination. The impact that this is having on society is that it is creating a racial disparity in the sentencing of minorities in the United States. The interviewee gave a scenario where an African American and a white American were all arrested distributing illegal drugs, such as opioids. During the sentencing, the African American is much more likely to receive a sentence that is twice that of the white American, which shows the extent of racial disparity in the criminal justice system. From his view, this is becoming an issue of concern, especially for members of the minority communities working within the criminal justice system. However, he indicated that recent policy recommendations are likely to help eliminate some of these challenges occurring within the system. The recommendations are expected to introduce a raft of measures to curb uneven sentencing guidelines that are favouring white Americans at the expense of the minority communities in the country. Speaking to the individual, in the interview, I have learned several critical aspects associated with the criminal justice system in the United States. Firstly, I learned that the justice system has been somewhat effective in seeking to ensure that every individual involved in any form of criminal activities is brought to account. Coordination efforts by the different departments in the system, which include the police and prosecution, have helped in ensuring that the system achieves some form of success in delivery of its objectives. The interview provided me with insight on how the system works from when a case is presented to the police, to the investigation processes to aid in evidence collection, and the presentation of the situation in a court of law. Secondly, I learned that judges and magistrates, who are vital officers in the criminal justice system, have a crucial role in using the sentencing guidelines within their respective states during the sentencing of convicted offenders. These are just guidelines that judicial officers are expected to consider in the process of sentencing offenders. Sentencing guidelines refer to non-binding guidelines that are used during the process of sentencing offenders depending on the nature of their crimes (Bosworth, Parmar, & Vázquez, 2018). From the interview, I was able to build a somewhat adequate understanding of how judges and magistrates are expected to make use of these guidelines. For example, I learned that a judge or magistrate should always consider an offender’s criminal history to serve as a determinant of the sentence given. The interviewee provided me with insight on how the guidelines work and some of the factors that the judges and magistrates consider when making sentencing decisions. Lastly, I also learned that although the criminal justice system can be considered as effective in its mandate towards deterring crime, it has failed in preventing reoffending, as the prison system does not offer rehabilitation to the offenders. From the interview, it was clear that the interviewee believed that the prison system in the country is only designed to hold offenders while failing in its mandate to promoting rehabilitation of the offenders. I took note of this as one of the critical issues that need improvement in seeking to define the future of the justice system in the country. I hold the view that the federal government has a pivotal role to play in introducing different rehabilitation programs that would minimize the risk of reoffending to reduce the number of offenders that go back to prison for engaging in similar types of crimes after their release. A comparison of what the expert practitioner had to say about the justice system with instructional materials from the course shows notable similarities that can be supported using appropriate equipment. The critical similarity to note is on the fact that the functionality of the criminal justice system is defined by the coordination of all departments that make up the system. Hetey & Eberhardt (2018) support this position indicating that lack of coordination in the departments results in instances where criminal cases are dismissed due to lack of proper evidence or presentation. That is a view that the interviewee held throughout the interviewee, where he indicated that each department has a pivotal role to play in ensuring that the justice system actualizes on its goals and objectives in preventing crime.
On the other hand, the interviewee also built his responses around the fact that the criminal justice systems are biased, which has impacted the minority communities in the country. From the instructional material in this course, one of the critical areas of consideration is on the racial composition of prisons in the country where it has been noted that a significant number of prisons are African Americans. Feeley (2017) supports this position indicating that bias is one of the most significant issues affecting the criminal justice system in the United States, as it has become extremely challenging to differentiate justice and discrimination. From this point of view, it is clear that there is a similarity in views suggesting that indeed the opinions by the interviewee may have been accurate in his description of the justice system.
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References
Bosworth, M., Parmar, A., & Vázquez, Y. (Eds.). (2018). Race, criminal justice, and migration control: Enforcing the boundaries of belonging . Oxford University Press.
Feeley, M. (2017). Two models of the criminal justice system: An organizational perspective. In Crime, Law and Society (pp. 119-137). Routledge.
Hetey, R. C., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2018). The numbers don’t speak for themselves: racial disparities and the persistence of inequality in the criminal justice system. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27 (3), 183-187.
Kurlychek, M. C., & Johnson, B. D. (2019). The cumulative disadvantage in the American criminal justice system. Annual Review of Criminology, 2 , 291-319.
Lofstrom, M., & Raphael, S. (2016). Crime, the criminal justice system, and socioeconomic inequality. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30 (2), 103-26.
