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Chapter 13

The Criminal Justice System

Brown/Langenegger/Garcia/Biles/Rynbrandt/Reyna/Huerta, Practicing Texas Politics, 17th Edition. © 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

The Criminal Justice System

Broad purposes of the Texas criminal justice system:

Promoting public safety; punishing criminal activity; recompensing victims; deterring crimes; rehabilitating criminals

Elements of the system include:

the courts

policies enacted by the legislature

correctional facilities and programs

Criminal Law versus Civil Law Review

Criminal law defines both the violation and the penalty in cases that involve the penal code (crimes against society)

Civil law has to do with private relationships, rather than the penal code, and involve the idea of responsibility, not guilt

Elements of the Criminal Justice System (1 of 3)

Criminal justice system: The system involves prosecution, defense, sentencing, and punishment of those suspected or convicted of committing a crime.

Criminal Justice Law

Texas Penal Code

Graded penalties

Three classes of misdemeanors

Enhanced punishment

Capital felony – death or life imprisonment

Elements of the Criminal Justice System (2 of 3)

Criminal Justice Policy

Drug crimes

Most arrests: possession of controlled substance

Response: incarceration

Counties with 550,000 must establish drug courts

Hate crimes

James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act (2001)

Does not protect against offenses based on the victim’s sexual identity or expression

District attorneys decide whether to charge hate crime

Plea bargain

The Death Penalty (1 of 4)

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions

Furman v. Georgia (1972)– death penalty outlawed because it was unfairly applied and lacked safeguards

Gregg v. Georgia (1976) - established guidelines under which a state could reinstate the death penalty

Since 1976, most executions have taken place in southern states

Consistent with traditionalistic culture of the South

Texas is currently the leading state in number of death sentences handed out and number of prisoners executed

37% of the nation’s executions; 8.1% of the nation’s population

The Death Penalty (2 of 4)

The imposition of the death penalty has declined in TX in recent years

Concerns about possible executions of innocent people

Death penalty abolished by U.S. Supreme Court for a convicted person who is mentally ill or under 18 when crime was committed

The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly stopped executions in TX based on TX not adhering to the exemption for individuals with intellectual disability

TX lacks sound medical-based procedures to determine intellectual disability.

Texas rejects idea of moratorium on death penalty; other states have enacted one

The Death Penalty (3 of 4)

Proponents of the death penalty argue it

deters crime

restores justice

provides retribution

costs less than imprisonment for life

Opponents argue it

does little to deter crime

is “cruel and unusual punishment”

governments have no moral right to deprive life

the cases cost more to prosecute

innocent people may be put to death

The Death Penalty (4 of 4)

Factors contributing to the large number of death sentences in TX:

Uncomplicated statutes

Appeals courts rarely reverse a death sentence

TX Board of Pardons and Paroles, last recourse for failed appeals, makes even less changes

Governor approval is unlikely

Cost of prosecuting death penalty cases is high

Large counties like Harris County, have more financial resources than small counties

Headlines

After viewing each video, write a headline for the topic or issue that summarizes and captures a key aspect that you feel is significant and important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDtwxZUlVIo&feature=youtu.be

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/09/20/texas-lawmakers-hope-prevent-wrongful-convictions/

Correction and Rehabilitation (1 of 6)

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Providing Public Safety

Increased use of probation and job training

Imprisonment rates have declined

Problem maintaining workforce

Lack of air conditioning in facilities

Administrative segregation (solitary confinement)

Prison Incarceration Rates: Number of Prisoners per 100,000 Adult State Residents, December 2016

Most Populous U.S. States	Number of Prisoners per 100,000 Residents	U.S. States Bordering Texas	Number of Prisoners per 100,000 Residents
California	456	Arkansas	763
Florida	601	Louisiana	997
New York	325	New Mexico	438
Texas	761	Oklahoma	937

This chart includes both federal and state prisoners.

Source: E. Ann Carson, Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin: Prisoners in 2014, (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, September 2015), http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p14.pdf.

Correction and Rehabilitation (2 of 6)

Recidivism: Criminal behavior that results in reincarceration after a person has been released from confinement for a prior offense.

Promoting Positive Behavioral Changes

Combat recidivism

Every prisoner must be given a job

Education

More than half enrolled in vocational and academic classes (Windham School District)

Some Characteristics of Texas’s Prison Population (2017)

Characteristic	Measurement (Percent)
Gender
Male	92
Female	8
Race
African American	33
Anglo	33
Hispanic	34
Type of Offense
Violent	56
Property	13
Drugs	16
Average IQ	90.5 points

Correction and Rehabilitation (4 of 6)

Reintegrating Offenders

Reentry and Integration Division

Community Justice Assistance Division

Parole Division

Successful reintegration is complicated by barriers to entry

Lifetime impediments to employment, housing, and student loans

Correction and Rehabilitation (5 of 6)

Local Government Jails

In all but 19 counties

Largest facility in Harris County (9,000 inmates)

70% have not been convicted of a crime

Disproportionately poor or minorities

Private Prisons and Jails

More than any other state

Substance abuse programs/halfway houses

Correction and Rehabilitation (6 of 6)

Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice (continued)

Assisting Victims

Victim Services Division

Victim impact statements

Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund

Up to $50,000 to victims and their families

Juvenile Justice (1 of 2)

State and Local Agencies

“Delinquent children”: Texas youth between ages 10 and 17

“Status offenders” - commit noncriminal acts, such as running away from home, failing to attend school, or violating a curfew established by a city or county.

Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) has responsibility for overseeing those juveniles who must be committed to one of its secure facilities

Sex abuse scandals in one TJJD facility require implementation of reforms

Juvenile Justice (2 of 2)

Procedures

Detained in separate facilities

Counseling and probation for most offenders

Residential treatment and commitment for a small minority of juvenile offenders

Adjudication hearings for juveniles

Considering raising age of adulthood from 17 to 18 years of age for criminal matters

Group Discussion – Juvenile Justice

Currently, the state of Texas considers a person an adult in criminal and civil proceedings at the age of 17.

At what age do you think the state should require individuals to take personal responsibility? Why?

Ethnic minorities represented 82% of the juveniles placed in the custody of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department in 2013.

What factors do you think account for this?

What can be done to improve the situation?

Problems and Reforms: Implications for Public Policy (1 of 6)

Overcrowding and Mental Illness in Prison

Increase in inmate violence

Many have mental illness

State Commission on Jail Standards established screening procedures to determine whether someone in custody has mental health issues.

LO 13.5 Evaluate the fairness of Texas’s justice system.

Problems and Reforms: Implications for Public Policy (2 of 6)

Technology

The Prison Show heard online and downloaded as podcast

Facebook and online blogs

DNA database maintained by the state

Both TDCJ and TJJD collect DNA samples from all inmates convicted of felony-level offenses

Problems and Reforms: Implications for Public Policy (3 of 6)

Exoneration: The state’s official declaration of the innocence of someone who has been convicted of a crime.

Exoneration Issues

Texas compensates wrongfully incarcerated

$80,000 for each year wrongly imprisoned

Tuition for college or training

Lifetime annuity

Assistance in accessing social services

Problems and Reforms: Implications for Public Policy (4 of 6)

Racial Bias in the Criminal Justice System

Questions about targeting

Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education

Annual racial profiling reports

Latinos moving toward becoming majority of population

Problems and Reforms: Implications for Public Policy (5 of 6)

Misconduct by District Attorneys and Prosecutors

91 criminal cases 2004–2012 where misconduct by DAs and prosecutors occurred

Code of Criminal Procedure

Focus on justice not convictions

District attorney is powerful figure