CRIME AND JUSTICE

Crime and Justice

Crime and Justice

In April of 1994, Tanya Watson who was convicted of minor drug charges gave birth while shackled to a prison bed and surrounded by policemen. They refused to let her hold her baby after birth. Millions of women in the American prison system are beaten and raped each day. Thousands of juveniles are forced to labor and are separated from their families. Countless racial minorities convicted of crimes are sentenced to death and suffer injustice and ignorance of their natural born American human rights. Cruel, degrading, and life threatening methods of restraint have indeed been a ritual of the U.S. criminal justice system. On the contrary, one of thirty murderers spends less than seven days in prison. Many are immediately set free under the law to roam the streets and continue their rituals of inhumane behavior.

Hundreds of murders who have taken the right of life from others continue to live at no cost, unpunished in society setting an example that murder in America is inconsequential. Are these opposing factual realities, as the government claims them to be, sufficient and integral criminal justice? In 1787, American leaders wrote the United States Constitution, which states the rights off all Americans; however these rights do not necessarily apply to those who have impaired the rights of other Americans. Human rights abuses of the criminally accused have been permeated throughout American history dating back to the times of smugglers, slavery, prohibition, the mafia, and the beginning of street crime. The government and Supreme Court have reformed and brought about laws concerning the rights of the accused numerous times both for and against protection of criminals. The history of Criminal Justice in the U.S. is long and extremely complicated but was essential in all time periods of U.S. History.

Historical statistics and court ruling reveal the complex subject has always been a significant factor affecting American criminal behavior rates and the degree of severity of the crimes themselves. History also notes that the issue of rights protection for those accused of crimes has always been a debatable subject in American government politics and the American citizens themselves. As the United States justice system evolved, the rights of criminals became a paramount concern in government and Supreme Court because the Ten Amendments were interpreted differently. The American government has been passing laws in favor, and against the protection of convicted criminals since the founding of our nation. Many Supreme Court rulings throughout history have also enhanced and restricted the rights of the accused.

However, the argument relents whether the U.S. system is too domineering or too soft in upholding the rights of criminals. Many believe the government has gone too far in protecting criminals and many believe the government has not gone far enough.

American legal history actually begins in the early seventeenth century when the first settlers set foot on what we know today as America. With their European language and culture they also brought with them pre-conceived notions of ...