As explained, the criminal justice system is separated into three branches: law enforcement, courts, and corrections. What is each branch responsible for?
The law enforcement is the branch of the justice system that handles the entry of the case. This is the initial stage where a crime is reported by the public to the police or the police detect the crime themselves. They then make arrests or search for the criminals and hold them as they wait to make a prosecution. At the prosecution stage, this is where the suspects are officially charged with committing a given crime and they become the defendants (Fagin, 2017). At this point, various outcomes may prevail among them release without prosecution or proceed to the next stage of prosecution.
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The courts are another essential branch in the criminal justice system. This is the branch that receives the cases from the police on prosecution and make decisions on the innocence of the crime suspect. They carefully listen to the prosecutors and defendants and make decisions based on the law. They guide the trial, plea bargaining or the dismissal of charges on the defendant. The judgement is guided by the limits of the law and both the defendant and the prosecutor have a right to appeal this judgement in a higher authority court or the court of appeal.
The corrections is the final branch in the criminal justice system where the passed judgement of fulfilled. Convicted persons are transferred to these facilities in order to serve their sentences as sanctioned. Various fundamental rights are limited in this facilities and the process of rehabilitation is carried out here. Once the convicts serve their sentence in totality, or are granted parole or are pardoned, they exit the criminal justice system.
How do they interact with one another?
The performance and relevance of the system is dependent on the collaboration of the three entities in deliberating each of their duties accordingly. The law enforcement delivers suspects and persons of interest to the courts and present the available evidence for their conviction (Cole et al., 2016). The courts rely on the law enforcement officers to bring in people suspected to committing crimes. The courts then pass judgement on the people and send them to the corrections branch so that they can serve their sentences. The corrections are dependent on the courts to send those people who have been convicted of various crimes and also involve them in decisions of parole and pardoning processes.
Explain how each of these pieces of the system work to complement the others. What would happen if one branch of the system were broken?
The law enforcement have to be careful in presenting suspects and the evidence in order to help the courts make their decisions. They very much rely on data offered by the law enforcement in decision making. The courts also need information from the corrections to pass decisions on parole and pardoning of convicted persons who have not served their sentence to entirety (Winfree and Mays, 2019). If the law enforcement was eliminated, the courts would not have suspects to deliberate judgement on, and therefore the corrections would have no convicts. If the courts were eliminated, the system would tumble as it is the link between law enforcement and the corrections. If the corrections were removed, it would leave a gap on where the convicted persons would serve their sentences.
Describe how the malfunction of one criminal justice system branch would affect the operation of the other two branches.
A malfunction of the law enforcement would lead to a conviction of the wrong persons and if they convince the court of his or her guilt, it would mean the wrong person would be sent to the corrections. It would be unethical, and would lead to denial of justice to the people who the crime was done to and the person convicted of the crime while in the reality they are innocent. A misdoing in the courts usually is catastrophic where either a criminal is sent back to the society or an innocent person is sent to the corrections which is denial of justice, which negates the main and only purpose of the courts. A fault in the corrections would also mean the convicts do not serve the sentence as intended by the system.
References
Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2016). Criminal justice in America. Nelson Education.
Fagin, J. A. (2017). CJ2017. Pearson.
Winfree, L. T., & Mays, G. L. (2019). Introduction to Criminal Justice: The Essentials . Aspen Publishers.
