Essay about The Criminal Justice System

Equality is a way of creating good health in society, every individual must hold the same share of value as anyone else. In the United States, the Criminal Justice System is an organization that ensures public safety and every citizen's rights and wrongs. America’s protection of its people has improved over time and people’s rights are being protected, but the policies don't provide equal protection for everyone. Many people believe that the policies don’t go deep and go far in the equality and fairness being received in society. The Criminal Justice System has three important roles, law enforcement, courts, and correction. The real question is, to what extent do these policies protect all people equally? The Criminal Justice System protects the innocent and helps the guilty people to not repeat their crimes by punishing them, but sometimes do they want to punish people because they deserve it or they are being assumed and without no evidence, they’re being held guilty probably because the person’s color or race, this is called police brutality against people of color. To continue, the system’s treatment and injustice have gotten worse day by day, because of the racist law enforcement organization.

The distance American policies are willing to go to protect the people with equality doesn’t go very far, despite the laws and acts passed on, America’s Criminal Justice System doesn’t give the same treatment for everyone. It’s been said that “although black people make up 13.4 percent of the population, 47 percent of wrongful conviction exonerations. African Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at five times the rate of whites” (Inman). As you can see the treatment is worse for black men than it is for white men, it’s no surprise that the percentage for wrongful convictions is so high, innocent black people are being held at fault without true reasoning, this shows that the Criminal Justice System is giving different equality treatment to African Americans then they do to the White Americans. I can understand why some people might argue saying that maybe a high percentage of those were right, and they did commit a crime and that there is nothing wrong with the Criminal Justice System, but in my defense, the Law Enforcement sometimes does things out of their limits, they’re basically abusing their power and no one says anything or punish them, and people would believe the police more than a regular person.

The Criminal Justice System has racial disparities in its system, the system and its people are blinded by skin color. It’s been stated that  “The disproportionate racial impact of certain laws and policies, as well as biased decision making by justice system actors, leads to higher rates of arrest and incarceration in low-income communities of color” (Hinton, Henderson, Reed). This shows that when the system makes a biased decision, the number of arrests increases and more people of African Americans are more likely to be imprisoned, all because of biased decision making. Some people might argue against this by saying that, the Law Enforcement or people of the Criminal Justice System probably had a bad memory and first impression with an African American or that they were taught like this, and probably heard rumors or false information about African Americans. I can understand why some people might feel like that, but people shouldn’t be quick to assume something about someone or they should know that everybody should be treated the way they want to be treated, and everybody is not the same person, people are different.  To continue, the Law Enforcement would be more likely to check on a black person than they would on a white person, it was said that “ Police officers are more likely to stop black and Hispanic drivers for investigative reasons. Once pulled over, people of color are more likely than whites to be searched, and blacks are more likely than whites to be arrested” (Ghandnoosh). Biased decisions are being made and it's causing more and more people to be like this, and without the suspicious activity being done, no one should be pulled over and be searched, and to add on these actions caused more traffic and it has been revealed because of police stops. I can understand why some people might say that Police and Law Enforcement have the rights to search and pull you over, and that their job is to make a safe and secure environment for everyone to enjoy, meaning that they probably are suspicious of some people, and it can’t be just about who is driving the car, it can be about an earlier incident and the police officers don’t want the same thing to happen. Yes, I can relate to some of these things, people might say, but what right do they have to be suspicious about a usual black person driving, if he wasn’t doing a suspicious activity, speeding, etc, they should let that person in peace and move on with their day, and also a study in 2019 reveals that “A 2019 study of police stops in Cincinnati found that black motorists were 30 percent more likely to be pulled over than white motorists. Black motorists also comprised 76 percent of arrests following a traffic stop despite making up 43 percent of the city’s population. It’s worth noting, again, that multiple studies have shown that searches of white motorists are slightly more likely to turn up contraband than searches of black motorists” (Balko) 

The difference between the treatment and punishment for the black people and the white people is different, it's harsher for the black people, they are more likely to be punished with a higher consequence than a white person. It’s said that “African Americans comprised 39% of arrests for violent crimes (49% for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter) and 29% of arrests for property crimes. Information gathered from victimization surveys and self-reports of criminal offending suggest that especially for certain violent crimes and to a lesser extent for property crimes” (Ghandnoosh). This reveals that a high percentage of crimes being committed are from African Americans, or are innocent African Americans being held guilty for something they didn’t commit, now I'm not saying that No African American did any of those violent crimes, I'm saying that not every one of those statements is true, I highly doubt it because the police who arrested the Black People might have put them on fault without knowing the truth and I say this because it was said that police officer are three times more likely to use physical and it's threatening on Black People than they would on White People. It was stated that “The nature of police encounters also differs substantially for people of color compared to whites. Several surveys conducted between 2002 and 2008 have shown that Hispanics were up to twice as likely and blacks were up to three times as likely as whites to experience physical force or its threat during their most recent contact with the police” (Ghandnoosh). This reveals that the police encounter with white people is different than with black people, police officers might be too brutal and punish them with higher and harder consequences and they won’t give the same respect. Most people would argue with me about this, explaining to me that police officers or the people of the Criminal Justice System are not at fault and that this can be true because no officer would lie about something they didn't do, but remember some people want their job to be easier and won’t give the same type of fairness or treatment they would to Black People, and it's either because they are biased or racist.

Society wants the same rights and equality everyone else deserves, but America’s policies don’t go very far to protect all people equally. The Criminal Justice System has racial disparities that focus on a person’s skin and color rather than the actions that person is committing. Many people are not receiving the same protection and it’s not right to feel discriminated against, all the time because you have different skin color from someone else. To help stop this from happening, you should spread awareness about this issue, point out every inequality movement you see happening, and stop it from occurring somewhere else. You can tell someone about this that works in the Criminal Justice System. By doing these actions, you could create a more peaceful and secure environment for all, a society where no one feels separated from the rest of society.