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POS 2112 State and Local Government

Criminal Justice Worksheet

Prof. Douglas W. Baker

This assignment will ask you to research the criminal justice system in this country. Answer each question as thoroughly as you can and make sure you meet the word count. Everything you write needs to be in your own words.

1. What is the total number of people incarcerated in this country at the federal, state, and local level?

2. How does this compare to other countries around the world? (100 + words)

3. In your opinion, what do you think about the death penalty? (100+ words)

4. List the counties in this world that have the death penalty?

5. How does America fit in this list? (150+ words)

6. In your opinion, how successful is the “War of Drugs”? (150 + words)

7. What are the positives of the “War on Drugs”? (150 + words)

8. What are the negatives of the “War on Drugs”? (150 + words)

9. In your opinion, has putting drug users in jail helped stop or lessen the use of drugs in this country? (150 + words)

Chapter141.pptx

Crime and Punishment

Chapter 14

August 2014 in Ferguson Missouri, police received a call about a convenience store robbery. Many of the facts are up for debates but some are undisputed.

Michael Brown and a friend was stopped for jaywalking. During this time, Mr Brown and the police officer had a struggle.

During the confrontation, shots were fired and Michael Brown died from 6 gunshot wounds

During the investigation, Michaels body remained on the ground for over four hours while onlookers began to build in numbers.

Rumors began to spread that he had been shot it the back.

The Police Commissioner had a news conference where he said Brown had attacked the officer and during the struggle, he reached for the officers gun, and was shot multiple times.

The Brown family and supporters setup a candlelight vigil. While most of it was peaceful, violence did erupt.

The police response to the violence was to bring in heavily armed officers in body armor.

Many observers noticed that the police in this country was becoming more militarized. This is especially true due to all the leftover military equipment available after the Iraq war.

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Many people had an issue with this and questioned the relationship between the police and the black community.

Of course this is not an isolated incident. While it is hard to find exact numbers, estimates are the police kill around 400 people per year.

Why would this info be hard to find?

This number is very high for a developed country.

England had 0 people killed by police.

Japan had 2 police killings in 6 years.

Brown was the 2nd person killed by Ferguson police that month.

There is some good news, over the course of the last 30+ years violent crimes rates have been decreasing.

Violents crimes rates have decreased by 50% since the early 1990’s.

Since the 1990’s, NY and LA homicide rates have decreased by 80%! In the early 1990’s NY had 2000 homicides a year, as of 2012 it was 414.

While blacks make up 12% of the population, they make up 50% of the homicide victims.

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Things that have been given credit for the decrease in homicides are:

High incarceration rates (except NY actually had a decrease in incarceration while their homicide rate fell)

Changing nature of drug market

Aging US population

Improved procedures in emergency rooms

Legalized abortions

Phasing out of leaded gasoline

One might think that with such dramatic decreases in crimes rates, people would start to view police more favorably. That is not the case

2014 study showed that only 10% of blacks believe the police did a excellent or good job of treating blacks and whites equally. This is compared to whites, who came back at 38%.

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Since most of the benefits or the decreasing crimes rates happened in the black community, why is the perception of police so low?

Many say it has to do with the way the police behave. One of the accepted tactics is the stop and frisk.

Analysts have said the an African-American male between 18-19 YOA in NY had a 80% chance to get stopped by the police.

Latinos had a 40% chance.

Whites males were between 1-13%

This of course this leads to claims of racial profiling

This country has a very high rate of incarceration for uneducated black men. Sociologists have pointed out that going to prison is a normal life event, similar to getting married and having children for others groups.

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Private Wrongs, Public Justice

Americans are fascinated by crime and punishment.

You can see this in the shows and movies we watch and the books and magazines we read.

While the police can arrest people for breaking the law, they can not punish people. That is done by the state. The State Attorney decides who is prosecuted and whether to go to trial or take a plea bargain.

In the US criminal justice system, the state initiates and dispense punishment for homicide, assault, robbery, burglary, etc.

To most Americans, this seems very normal. Crime is not just an offence against an individual, it is against society.

For much of the world's history, the government just set the rules but they did not do the punishing.

Today we have public prosecutors so privates citizens are no longer allowed the punish others.

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Liberty and Justice for All? Systemwide Racial Inequalities

Many have concluded that the US Criminal Justice system is racist.

In 2006, 5% of all black males were in prison or jail. That is in contrast to 1% of whites males.

Another statistic is 33% of all black males between the age of 20-29 were either in jail or on supervision.

Another finding in 1997 is that 32% of black males would go to prison at some point in their lives.

In contrast , 17% of latinos and 6% for white males go to prison.

One of the primary causes of these numbers is the War on Drugs.

Nearly 500,000 of the 2.5 million people are in jail for drug offences.

The claims of racism stem from the fact that the War on Drugs was primarily carried out on the black community. Police would rarely do militarized raids in white neighborhoods where ecstasy parties were not uncommon and on college campuses where drug use was prevalent.

Others disagreed due to the fact that ecstasy and marijuana does not have the same effect as something like crack cocaine, which was the main drug found in the black community. Police had to focus on that but even they conceded that “We are destroying the village in order to save it”

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Principle Versus Practice in Common Law

Americans are governed both both formal and case law. Formal laws are established in statutes where case law, also known as common law, is established by the courts.

The law enforcement model we use in this country comes from England. The term Sheriff is based on the Shire Reeve.

The county sheriff does that vast majority of law enforcement in this country.

In 1829, England established the metropolitan police, that was the first modern police force, with uniforms, a chain of command, and a philosophy of interacting with citizens.

Cities like NY, Boston and Philadelphia quickly followed suit

What is Federalism?

What happens when states like Colorado and Washington legalized the recreational use of marijuana while it remains a federal crime?

Colorado is collecting taxes on highly regulated pot farmers but the DEA can still go in and arrest them.

The next part of the criminal justice system is the jury. All people must be registered to participate in jury duty. In most states, ignoring a jury summons is a crime.

The jury's job is to judge the facts of the case and to issue a verdict of guilt or innocence.

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Prison Nation

One of the most striking parts of the criminal justice system is the number of people we incarcerate.

In 2012, that number was 2.2 million. By far the largest number in the world. This is 5x the average of developed countries. While the US has 5% of the world's population, we have 25% of the prisoners.

The US system is arguably cruel. Only China, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia executes more people.

Is this a good list to be on?

We have 41,000 people serving life sentences. In England, that number is 41

Of course, the prison system is expensive. As of 2010, this country spent $80 billion on jails.

As mentioned before, the second most significant characteristic of the US system is how disproportionately black males are prosecuted and sentenced. On average, black male receive sentences that are 20% longer then white males for the same offense.

One of the other big issues is not just how we punish offenders but how we profit off them.

Orange County California has a privatized their community control programs while some municipalities in Missouri get as much as 40% of their budget from court fees.

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The Crime Explosion and the War on Drugs

Things changed in the 1960’s. The murder rate started to climb along with other violent crimes.

A popular theory was crime was rising because the fear of punishment was falling.

In 1974, the average punishment for burglary was 4 days in jail. Aggravated assault was 8 days and robbery was 28 days.

The answer was jail more people for longer. This policy resonated with voters.

Also all states implemented minimum sentencing laws and many established the 3 strikes rule.

Between 1985 and 2008 the prison population tripled. Corrections spending rose by 600%

Nixon said “If we can not destroy the drug menace in America, it will surely destroy us”

This was the beginning of the War on Drugs….the war did not go well.

New York State was one of the first states to issue harsh punishments for drug dealing and possession.

A person could get 15 year mandatory sentence for the possess of 4 oz or heroin or cocaine. They could get a similar sentence for selling 2 oz of those drugs.

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This is called deterrence theory. The believe that if punishment is severe enough, it will keep people from commiting crimes.

Unfortunately the tough new laws on drugs had little effect on drug use but it did succeed in putting many more people in jail.

To make things worse, by the mid 1980’s, crack came on to the scene. It was cheap and highly addictive. People would do horrible things to get their next fix. Women would become prostitutes and men would commit robbery. People would abandon their children to get more of the drug.

Because dealing drugs was so profitable, street drug dealers would get robbed regularly so they started carrying weapons. Neighborhood fistfights and gang braws turned into running gun battles.

Homicide rates skyrocketed. A 1987 study showed the ⅓ of murders and ⅔ of robberies and burglaries were drug related.

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Getting Tough on Crime Through Sentencing

S&L established stricter punishments for crack possession. Many states started minimum sentencing which took the judges decisions out of it. Many states implemented the 3 strikes rule where a person convicted of 3 felonies goes to jail for 25 year to life even if the felonies were non violent and minor.

Due to this, jail construction boomed. Between 1983 - 1990, California added 21,000 prison beds at a cost of $3.2 billion.

In 1978, state spending on jails was $5 billion. By 2007, it was $44 billion. $1 out of every $14 was spent on jail.

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Problems of a Prison Nation

The three strikes rule was put in place in California after the tragic murder of Polly Klaas by convicted felon with a long criminal history.

If a person was convicted of 3 serious crimes, which included drug possession and burglary, they would get 25 years to life. There is a man from California that was given 25 years for stealing a piece of pizza!

Needless to say, incarceration rose dramatically in the following years. The state auditor estimated that this rule cost an extra $19 billion. 45% of people receiving this sentence were African American.

By the early 21st century, California was spending $8 billion a year on jails to house 173,000 inmates. State facilities were so over crowded that lawsuits began to be filed. By one estimate, an investigation found that an average of 1 inmate a week was dying of malnutrition or neglect. And of course, many inmates were mentally ill.

California is seen as an example of dysfunction within the criminal justice system.

Coming in a close second is the state of Texas. Texas incarcerates 1000 for every 100,000 residents. Texas has more people in jail then Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands combined.

They have also executed more people than any other state since the Supreme Court reinstated it.

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The Bipartisan Search for Solutions

In 2007, it was expected that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was going to ask for an additional $523 million for jails. But something unexpected happened, the legislative leaders in Texas argued for $241 million in funding for treatment, mental health, and rehabilitation instead.

These programs were set to help convicted felons from re-entering the prison system after them were released. It established drug treatment and job training.

3 years after these were put in place, Texas had 15,000 less people in prison (that number had actually been expected to rise)

Many states followed suite and it made criminal justice reform a bipartisan issue. Many of the most conservative states have implemented the the most aggressive programs. They are expected to to reduce the prison population by 11% over the next 5 years saving billions of dollars.

Progress is not universal, Most of this can be attributed to the culture of the states.

Research has proven that states with the most African Americans, have the harshest sentences.

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States in the southern part of the country, which has the highest rate of black residents, tend to incarcerate people at a much higher rate than other parts of the country.

People have questioned how a supposedly colorblind criminal justice system largely administered by whites, systematic disadvantages blacks.

States have also started to implement drug courts.These courts offer non violent offences the chance to reduce their sentence in exchange for compliance and undergoing treatment and or other rehabilitation.

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Issues to Watch

The End of the War on Drugs

The War on Drugs not only encompassed going after the supply side but also going after the demand side. This seems to have failed. Many states and even the federal government has moved away from to punishment to treatment programs.

Obama's Drug Czar established a clear pivot on treating drugs as a health issue and not a “war”

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Legalization of Marijuana

In 1990, less than 20% of people supported legalizing marijuana. As of today over 50% of people do.

Since 2007, marijuana arrests have fallen sharply, by nearly 40%. It has also been noted that the # of people smoking marijuana has gone up by 20%.

Most pot consumption is done by a few people. Heavy uses tend to be less educated and poor. The occasional users is not an issue but the daily users are.

Something that can be put in place to discourage daily use are higher taxes, caps on THC contact, limits on advertising, and points of sale in vulnerable communities.

Of course the business owners of pot farms would like to see the opposite and they would put a lot of money in to lobbying for such.

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Policing Race Problem

As mentioned before, police use a tactic known as stop and frisk. This is used disproportionately in high crimes minorities communities.

The Supreme Court upheld this engagement with citizens due to the officer safety issues. Officers are only allowed to frisk for weapons, not other illegal items.

One other issue with policing in minority communities is the use of patrol cars. Once that was used as the main mode of getting around a zone, then daily personal contact with the residents went away and the only time a person interacted with police was during a negative event.

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The New Criminal Frontier

Many Law Enforcement agencies are starting to use crime analytics to predict where crime may happen. That allows officers to be more proactive in patrols areas where crime is expected, which will lessen the opportunities for these crimes to be committed.

Time will tell how effective these tactic will be but results have been positive so far.