Correctional Systems, Research Paper Example

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of three major issues that are facing the criminal justice system, in context with that of correctional systems.  The paper examines: (1) The overcrowding situation in the prisons (2)  Dealing with the increased rise of juvenile delinquency and (3) The strain imposed upon the system by increased drug trafficking. The paper defines the impact each of these have on the Criminal Justice system together with the response and considered effectiveness of the solutions proposed.

The Overcrowding Situation in Prisons

California is a prime example where the US is suffering from a severe overcrowding problem in prisons.  With 1:100 Americans being sent to prison this has created a tremendous strain on the system.  It is the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that assumes the responsibility for all of the California State Corrections i.e. corrections, rehabilitation, parole, probation etc. for both adults and juveniles. This is the second biggest law enforcement agency in the USA.  Only the New York police department is larger than the CDCR.  The CDCR is the largest state run prison institution in the USA. It has 37 correctional institutes, 18 community correction facilities and 8 juvenile facilities housing more than 165,000 adults and over 3,200 juveniles.

The CDCR is also responsible for overseeing the rights of the inmates whilst in prison. This has been a tremendous challenge owing to the significant overcrowding in the California prisons. The Governor of the state (Arnold Schwarzenegger) introduced a $7.4 billion prison reform bill in 2007.  This bill provided for an additional 40,000 prison beds.  The state also faces numerous legal challenges over its provision for adequate medical care in the prison system. Certain prisons have been singled out for having the most appalling conditions and contravening human rights.

The CDCR has been acutely aware that it needs to make changes to improve prisoner conditions and this started in 2008 with the introduction of the Victims Bill of Rights Act   The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) began this week implementing newly enacted provisions of the Victims’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008 that expand crime victims rights.   CDCR do state that they have an open access policy in visiting inmates and listening to their concerns. Prison and correctional Officers face a number of challenges today. Amongst the most significant of these is that they have no control over the number or kind of people that are sent to prison or the length of their sentence. A lot of the Officers are unprepared for the type of prisoner that they will supervise and historically have been under funded for this type of work. The strain of overcrowding in the prisons has resulted in the Federal Government moving more towards a system of outsourcing this to private sector business operations with specialist expertise in this area.  The private sector officers have more of a zero tolerance factor to anti-social or bad behaviour and can impose additional 30 day sentences for infraction of prison rules.  This has moved the prisons more distant from rehabilitation programmes and more to a commercial basis of incarceration.

The prison officers also have the difficulty of protecting vulnerable inmates and any minority group are always considered to be vulnerable in this regard. In addition, the challenges appropriate to gender and sex orientation pose new challenges when determining the accommodation arrangements of the prisoners. There is also the challenge of allowing the inmates to move freely around the complex without compromising their safety from the more violent offenders. It only takes on single predatory inmate to make all of the other inmates feel unsafe.  When this happens the prison management lose their sense of legitimacy and there often becomes the need to place these offenders into an isolated environment.

Other challenges include to the amount of inmates that are suffering from mental illness or substance abuse. Hence these people are being based in prisons as opposed to that of special care facilities. The prison officers do not receive the appropriate medical training in order to deal with this group of people.  There are also increasing number of juveniles being processed through the adult prison system and some of these with no possibility of parole.

Privatised prisons and subcontracting services to the private sector will be the only solution for the foreseeable future.  This will create its own unique set of challenges for the Federal Government, particularly retention of accountability and responsibility.

Dealing With the Increased Rise of Juvenile Delinquency

In more recent years researchers have been studying the construct of psychopathic behaviour in juveniles and young adults. This research is likely to have a significant input into how the legal jurisdiction will impact the treatment of juvenile crime. It has been proven that there are a number of juveniles with serious persistent criminal records that display psychopathic tendencies.  Questions have been raised as to whether the root cause is that of criminal behaviour or sociological considerations i.e. driven from poverty, drug dependencies and poor social living environments.

Since the 19990’s the public outcry about juvenile crime has seen more punitive measures taken against offenders and they are now facing stiffer penalties from Juvenile Courts. At the extreme level Texas still imposers the death penalty for juvenile homicide convictions. Juvenile Crime and gang convictions are on the increase in the USA.  Police arrests and subsequent convictions show gang members being related to location, grouping, type of crime committed, conviction type, date convicted, number of previous offences etc.  These provide more logical grouping of data.  It must be recognised that the largest percentile groups, that of street gangs and juvenile gangs, are not a police problem but a social problem.

This has not been properly recognized in the USA and as such there are not any significant banks of social statistics to call upon.  It has been estimated that there are in excess of 840,000 different types of gangs in the USA and a large number associated with juvenile crime in the large urban Cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Most of juveniles arrested are repeat offenders and as such have a record of violence and petty crime.  The system does not provide adequate social welfare for these offenders and as such crimes often escalate into cases of homicide and serious assault.  As such police have the right of detention until the person arrested cab be formally charged and duly processed through the court systems.

This is again linked to the overcrowded prisons, a strained judicial system that has neither the capacity nor resources to deal with the problem and the fact that many are simply released to continue the cycle of events. The one exception being that this often leads to an escalating pattern of criminal behaviour.  Most of juveniles arrested are repeat offenders and as such have a record of violence and petty crime.  The system does not provide adequate social welfare for these offenders and as such crimes often escalate into cases of homicide and serious assault.  As such police have the right of detention until the person arrested cab be formally charged and duly processed through the court systems.

Most of the current research effort in psychopathic behaviour is aimed towards forecasting why this type of behaviour pattern occurs. i.e. the utility of measures. There have been some interesting debates taking place on precisely what constitutes psychopathic behaviour.

The National Institute of Justice (NLJ) in 1996 predicted that the total cost of crime in the USA was estimated at around $447 billion. In 2010 it has been reported that the figure is now closer to $675 billion per annum. The situation and trend continues to deteriorate: one murder every 22 minutes, one rape every 5 minutes, one robbery every 49 seconds, and one burglary every 10 seconds.  Current trends show that violent crime is on the increase in America particularly in the area of personal robberies and drive by shootings.  In particular teenage crime has significantly increased and there has been a 92% increase in teenage homicide cases since 1985.  This obviously points to the need for a new approach around the rehabilitation model.  Although this method has its difficulties there is a need to change the behavioural modifications of prisoners and get them back to society as trusted and valued citizens.  Much of this needs to be focused on drug rehabilitation and treatment of mental illness.  There is a differentiation in the treatment between what prisons can do and that of hospitals for those with psychological problems.  The current prison situation remains alarming when factoring in the trend and rise of juvenile crime. It has been questioned as to whether this is more a sociological problem than that of legal jurisdiction.

The Increased Rise of Drug Trafficking

Narcotics are a major criminal problem in the USA today. Amongst the worst of these addictions is that of heroin use and smuggling.  It is without a doubt that heroin is one of the most addictive of all the drugs being used today Heroin is considered to be one of the most dangerous drugs in the world.  Few drugs carry with them so many potential hazards for the user – psychological, physical and social in equal measure.  Heroin addiction does not discriminate amongst the addicts, despite age, gender or socio-economic status. In the USA there is a very diverse range of addicts who have become dependent upon the drug. In addition to the immediate health hazards like liver failure and the lethal risk of overdose.  Those that share needles also place themselves at serious risk of contracting other serious diseases like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. Trying to overcome heroin addiction on your own is virtually impossible. The best course of action is to get help from a prescribed treatment centre.

It is interesting to note that approximately half a million heroin addicts land up in jail each year. A majority of those in jail do not receive medical treatment for their addiction. The World Health Authority issued guidelines that stated the prisons should offer appropriate medical treatment to addicts. It is clear that most prisons are not abiding by these guidelines. The addicts also eventually get released from jail without any referral to medication or health support.  This sees them back on the streets and resorting to criminal activities in order to feed the habit. Subsequently these people find themselves back in jail and so the vicious cycle continues

Owing to potential tampering and unreliability of Forensic evidence the Courts often seek to examine the Chain of Custody.  This being where evidence that will be presented at trial is not unique. For example the seizure of illegal narcotics. The chain of custody must follow three basic rules:

1. A testimony to the evidence in question i.e. substance report, a blood sample
2. The testimony of continuous possession i.e. who has held the evidence and a statement that this has not been tampered with or altered from the point of origin to that of presentation of evidence at court
3. Testimonies from all persons that had possession of the evidence from point of origin to exhibition in court as evidence.

This testimony (chain of custody) must be presented in court as part of the evidence procedure to secure a conviction for the alleged crime. It is also subject to cross-examination by the defence.

The control of organized crime and drug trafficking falls under the control of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  The FBI defines organized crime as any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities.  The laws that regulate organized crime include that of the RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) providing the framework for the FBI to tackle criminal activities in this area. The laws came  into effect from January 1996 and are extremely comprehensive in scope and nature.  These are in addition to the myriad of laws that cover Federal offences and the penalties for same.  The FBI has realized that global organized crime has become a serious international problem and they co-operate with other agencies like INTERPOL in Europe.

The ‘Fighting Back Program’ is an excellent example of a community program designed to combat the sale and use of drugs in a community.  This has been designed for adoption in medium sized Cities and eligible for grant awards up to $3 million. Grants for up to $3 million are available for approved development proposals.  The program is Administered by a special advisory committee chaired by the President of New York University. The program is a part of the Robert Wood Johnson foundation philanthropy devoted exclusively to health care in the United States.  The RWJ Foundation has made available some $26.4 million in eligible grants to help support community initiatives in the elimination of drug and alcohol abuse. 15 communities across the USA have already committed to the program.

The table to the right illustrates the demographics of violent crime in the USA and clearly illustrates the four largest crime areas i.e. California, Florida, Texas, New York.  California has two very large Cities in Los Angeles and San Francisco and both have serious juvenile crime and poverty issues.  Florida has a large Hispanic community and equally has large cities and areas of poverty / social unrest and drug trafficking problems.

Conclusions

The criminal justice system in the USA is an essential part of the legal apparatus for maintaining law and order in society.  It is necessary to have a set of legal standards and regulations to protect the majority of citizens from the minority that seek to disrupt and displaying violent and criminal behaviour to other members of society.  In addition, it also provides a means of transforming such criminal elements into law-abiding citizens and prevents the moral decline of society into a state of anarchy, where only the strong survive.

People react differently to crime incidents. This is an important part of behavioural research and an important source of data for developing public policy in response to criminal behaviour.  Many states have not been able to provide adequate security for its citizens and this has created different reactions to crimes including the formation of vigilante groups and vendettas for homicide cases.

The research helps Governments to understand where policies are not working and the trends / correlations between different areas. This can lead to new policies, amendments to existing policies or formation of new laws. The Police are using Incidence Forms as an important means of gathering data on crime. The police use research into predicting hotspots in prisons.  Research into historical incidents can be examined across the prisons systems for causation and impact. Trends and correlations can be drawn and this provides information where future incident spots occur.  Universities complete incident forms for the police in certain legal mandated areas.  Primarily, sexual assault, racial abuse, theft and weapons.  Incident forms are normally the first part of a criminal investigation.  The forms are an important means of collecting base information but are not exhaustive in terms of completing the investigation.