USA: +1(669)289-8683 
Sign in
Criminal Justice Process
Throughout this course you have examined the process of a criminal case and learned about constitutional protections for individuals. This final paper will require you to comprehensively explain all that you have learned thus far. Write a paper that details the entire criminal justice process for a felony criminal charge.
- Summarize all of the steps between arrest, pre-trial, trial, and appeals (both state and federal appeal possibilities).
- Explain the contingencies for each stage of the proceedings and address all possible outcomes.
- Analyze how constitutional protections for the defendant work at each stage of the proceeding.
- Evaluate whether the system effectively deals with criminal prosecutions, or whether changes or improvements are required.
- Provide recommendations to make the system more fair and ethical for all those involved.
For help completing this assignment, please reference the
Sample Paper
- The Criminal Justice Process Final Paper
- Must be eight to ten double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
- Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted - Must use at least three scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
- The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
- Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
- Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
RunningHeader: CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 1
Critical Issues To Correctional Institutions in the U.S.
Name
CRJ 465
Instructor’s Name
Date
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 2
There are many contemporary issues that are found within the American penal system.
Perhaps we are not fully aware of these issues and just how much they affect the American penal
system. Though we are aware that there are issues, we may not be completely aware of just how
much they affect the everyday functioning of the correctional systems. We are not fully aware of
the funding problems, or the overcrowding problems, or just how much violence takes place in
prisons. These three issues seem to be the worst of all the issues that these facilities face.
Funding
Correctional facilities, just like any other business, do not operate for free. Total state
expenditures on prisons and related activities were about $9.6 billion in the mid-1980’s, where
about 40 percent of all state prison construction was financed by a pay-as-you-go method, and 50
percent was paid by general obligation bonds, and the remaining 10 percent was financed using
lease revenue bonds and other revenue streams. By 1996, total state expenditures for prisons
were estimated to be $22 billion, and more than half of all the debt issued to finance prisons was
carried out through a specific variant of lease-revenue bonds which were called certificates of
participation (Public Bonds, 2004). According to the staff at Vera’s Center on Sentencing and
Corrections and Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit, after surveying 40 states in an effort to calculate the
taxpayer’s cost of prisons, the cost of prisons was $39 billion in 2010, which was $5.4 billion
more than what their corrections budgets reflected (VERA Institute of Justice, 2013). Over the
past 40 years, the U.S. has seen a dramatic increase in prison population, and as a result, the
country’s state prison population has grown by more than 700 percent since the 1970’s. This has
come at great cost to taxpayers (VERA Institute of Justice, 2013). At the end of 2012, the United
States prison population was 1,571,013, which is actually a decline for the third straight
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 3
consecutive year. More plans are under way in an effort to lower the number of people who are
incarcerated in the U.S., which will help lower the cost of running these facilities as well.
America exceeds every other country in prison inmate population. Attorney General Eric Holder
announced sweeping plans that will be designed to address the issue through drug sentencing
reform and this means that low level drug offenders could be subjected to some type of treatment
or community service programs rather than prison time. There are also plans of implementing
and expanding prison programs that would allow for the release of some of the elderly, non-
violent offenders (Huffington Post, 2013).
These numbers and statistics are very alarming, yet it is widely understood that in some
cases, expenditures at corrections facilities account only for a portion of the financial costs a
state commits to when an individual is sentenced to prison. Other costs include, but are not
limited to, employee health insurance, pension contributions, and inmate medical care (Vera
Institute of Justice, 2013). Medical coverage for inmates is mandatory, and at no cost to them,
when thousands of hard working Americans cannot afford medical coverage and do without the
medicines and treatment that they need, yet they are the ones who help fund an offender’s stay in
prison. With the number of incarcerated people, these costs ultimately add up to astounding
amounts.
Overcrowding
Although the number of U.S. prison inmates has seen a decline for the third consecutive
year, the numbers are still high, in fact, higher than any other country in the world. United
States’ prisons are overcrowded. Efforts are underway to help solve the problem of
overcrowding. Attorney General Eric Holder stated that incarceration needs to be used as
punishment, as a means to deter and rehabilitate, and not to convict, warehouse and forget. He
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 4
also stated that widespread incarceration at the federal, state and local levels is both ineffective
and unsustainable and imposes a significant economic burden which totaled $80 billion in 2010
alone (Huffington Post, 2013).
Among the first buildings to be built in the New World were prisons. Boston felt a need
for detention houses due to the crimes that were taking place, but in early America, prisons were
not seen as a place for punishment. With the turn of the 18
th
century came the uprising of prison
facilities and their function, and among the most common of prisoners were political prisoners
and high ranking prisoners of war, where few common criminals were locked up unless they
were awaiting trial, and once a verdict was found, they were either punished on the spot or
released (Lynch, 2013). The only offense which led to a long term sentence back then was debt.
This punishment was used as a way to persuade the wealthy who refused to pay their debts to
pay them or be locked up. Misdemeanors, much like today, were punished by fines, public
shame, physical chastisement, or death (Lynch, 2013). Today, as we all know, anything that is
considered to be a felony will land a person jail time. Things were a lot different in the beginning
of the New World compared to what they are today.
Today, overcrowding in U.S. federal prisons is so severe that the problem will not easily
be solved. A report from the nonprofit Urban Institute said that lawmakers have many options
available to start making dents in a prison population. In 2011, America incarcerated 2.2 million
people in state and federal institutions (Ingram, 2013). A large part of the overcrowding is due to
mandatory prison terms which were enacted in the 1980’s and 1990’s when crime was on the
rise, but those policies are not as favorable as once before due to the expense and the social
effects of locking up people who are disproportionately members of racial minorities (Ingram,
2013). Lawmakers and conservatives are pushing legislation to reduce federal prison terms or
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 5
give judges more flexibility when sentencing offenders (Ingram, 2013). According to the Urban
Institute, a research group with roots in President Johnson’s Great Society anti-poverty program,
the task of reducing prison population is going to be no easy task. Their findings show that even
if mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes were cut in half, federal prisons would still be
20 percent over capacity after ten years (Ingram, 2013). The truth is that there are many
alternatives that can be used in place of incarceration. While not all offenders will be entitled to
these alternatives, a lot of them who commit lesser crimes should be rather than using mandatory
sentencing which is only aiding in the overcrowding problem within the prisons. Alternatives
such as electronic monitoring, community service, and drug courts could be used in place of
incarceration. Drug courts are a program that helps drug abusers get clean or face more severe
penalties. A lot of people become violators of the law due to drug abuse and this is well worth
sentencing many drug offenders to. Not only can one alternative be used, but they can be
grouped together or used in sequence which means that the punishment that offenders receive is
more severe than what it would be with only one alternative sentence used, but less severe than
incarceration.
Violent offenders such as murderers, rapists, or big time drug dealers will not be allowed
these alternative sentences due to public safety. Incarceration should be used to protect society,
and not just as punishment. Punishment can come in different forms. Alternative sentences are
also a form of punishment, because it does take away from the freedom that one once had before
they committed their crime. If used right, these alternative sentences can deter criminals just as
good as incarceration. As stated before if they are used in sequence or coupled together then they
come as a more severe form of punishment, and it will deter future criminals.
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 6
Overcrowding of prisons not only leads to more financial needs, but it also leads to more
health risks, and violence. According to a report from the Department of Justice, offenders
entering prisons bring with them infectious diseases from impoverished home environments that
are breeding grounds for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis, which are the three most
prevalent communicable diseases found in America’s prisons today (Zulficar, 2005). When
living in crowded conditions, prisoners can pass on their infections to other inmates, staff, or
people who may come to visit them. If inmates contract diseases while inside correctional
facilities, they risk spreading these diseases even further into the communities in which they
came from upon release from incarceration. Statistics show that in the year of 2000, the U.S.
incarcerated a staggering number of people totaling 2,071,686 individuals. Eighty four percent of
these new prison admissions were for nonviolent crimes such as drug abuse. According to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1996, approximately 24,000 inmates world-wide were infected
with HIV, but more recent studies show that the numbers are continuously increasing. Statistics
also show that 1 in 4 inmates are affected with tuberculosis, and that hepatitis C infects more
than 41% of California inmates alone (Zulficar, 2005). These diseases pose serious public health
problems. Several factors such as overcrowded conditions, poor health education in prisons, and
weak community based public health programs for infected people help exacerbate the problem
(Zulficar, 2005). Other contributing factors to the spread of these diseases among prisons are the
fact that items such as condoms and bleach are not allowed in prisons. Victims of rape, or those
who engage in consensual sex in prison, are at risk for spreading these diseases throughout
communities upon release. Tuberculosis is an airborne disease, which means that it thrives
within people who live in close quarters with poor ventilation (Zulficar, 2005). Other than
diseases, inmates face a variety of risks that come from violence within prisons.
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 7
Prison Violence
There is so much violence within prisons that just the thought of going alone should be
enough to keep people from committing criminal acts, yet it is not. Despite what we think, not all
inmates are violent offenders, but sometimes they enter prison as nonviolent offenders, and learn
violence as a way of life in prison, which further endangers the public upon release (Zulficar,
2005). Many different types of violent acts occur in prison which include, but are by no means
limited to, murder, rape, gang activities, and cultural diversity. Gangs are common within prison
systems, and as on the streets, they tend to take care of one another by any means necessary.
Even people who are released from prison still stay loyal to their prison gangs. Gang members
often have unique markings on their bodies in order to help identify each other or to show
loyalty, and they also tend to stay within their own race within a gang, meaning that whites
usually stay with whites, blacks with blacks, etc. Gang affiliation and the violence that comes
along with it can be a major safety issue in prisons. The most common reasons for the evolving
of gangs are protection and control.
The goal of prisons is to identify gang affiliated offenders, track them, monitor their
conduct, take interdiction action, and apply sanctions when they are found to be involved in
illicit or unlawful gang activities. Though there is no one known strategy that has been proven to
be effective at managing every gang found within prisons, some strategies do work in one
jurisdiction, whereas they may not be effective in another jurisdiction. Reports show that over
three quarters of prisons has established gang management strategies that include monitoring
inmate communication, collecting and compiling information from searches and in most cases
sharing this information with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies (Ruddell, 2010).
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 8
Cultural diversity within prisons can be a result of differences among groups of people
and individuals based on ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, exceptionalities,
language, religion, sexual orientation, or geographical area. This not only affects the inmates, but
the staff as well. Diversity towards staff members can come from inmates or co-workers as well.
Women and minorities were previously viewed as threats to the cohesiveness of the correctional
workforce, and those officers were often victims of discrimination or abuse. It was reported by
many staff members, including African American, Hispanic, and women, that Caucasian, male
coworkers were slow to accept the idea of them working alongside them, but the fact is that
minorities and women are an integral part of the correction process (Carlson, & Simon, 2008).
People of all different races and backgrounds are within prison facilities, and cultural diversity
will always be a problem due to the fact that so many people are reluctant to accept others for
who they are even though they are different. We cannot control how someone feels about others
who are of a different race, yet we can teach them, and hope for a good outcome by helping them
learn about people who are different from them and how they live, they may, in turn, be able to
accept and respect, or at least keep the peace with others who are different than what they are,
but this is probably a long shot. Staff members who use diversity will be punished in the proper
manner, whether it be suspensions, or termination of their job. Due to the nature of their jobs,
and the fact that they come into contact with so many people of different cultures and such,
training is provided for some officers on how to avoid cultural diversity.
There are so many different issues that correctional facilities face in this modern day. Not
all of these problems will be fixed within a small amount of time, but they are something that
need to be looked into in order to keep the correctional facilities up and running and in order to
maintain a safe environment for our families to live in. The need for funding is extreme, but
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 9
there seem to be no ways of coming up with additional funding in order to maintain a safe
environment within these facilities, so the only other option is to stop incarcerating so many
people when other types of sentences can be used in order to punish criminals who commit the
lesser crimes. Overcrowding is already a major issue within prisons, which makes for unsafe
environments due to the inability to keep diseases from spreading, and the inability to control
violence within the prisons as well, so the best option would be for intermediate sanctions to be
implemented upon those who are non-violent criminals and don’t really pose a threat to society
due to them not being incarcerated. Prisons were made to be used as a means to protect society
from other people who were a danger to them. The fact is that the United States of America has
incarcerated more of its population than any other country, and not all of these people really
deserve incarceration as a fair punishment.
CRITICAL ISSUES TO CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE U.S. 10
References
Carlson, P., & Simon, J. (Eds.). (2008). Prison & jail administration: Practice and theory (2
nd
ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Inc.
Henrichson, C., & Delaney, R. (2012, Feb. 29). The price of prisons: What incarceration costs
taxpayers. Vera Institute of Justice. Retrieved from
http://www.vera.org/pubs/special/price-prisons-what-incarceration-costs-taxpayers
Ingram, D. (2013, Nov. 5). Even with changes, U.S. prisons might stay overcrowded: report.
Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/05/us-usa-prisons-
idUSBRE9A405120131105
Lynch, J., (2011). Cruel and unusual: Prisons and prison reform. Colonial Williamsburg Journal,
Summer 2011. Retrieved from
http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Summer11/prison.cfm
Wing, N. (2013, Aug. 13). Here are all of the nations that incarcerate more of their pcopulation
than the U.S. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/incarceration-rate-per-
capita_n_3745291.html
Winterdyk, J., & Ruddell, R. (2010). Managing prison gangs: Results from a survey of U.S.
prison systems. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38, 730-736. Retrieved from
http://www.academia.edu/1116898/Managing_prison_gangs_Results_from_a_survey_of
_U.S._prison_systems
Zulficar G. R. (2005, October). Public health implications of substandard correctional health
care. American Journal of Public Health, 95(10), 1689-1691. Retrieved from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449420/
http://www.vera.org/pubs/special/price-prisons-what-incarceration-costs-taxpayers
http://www.vera.org/pubs/special/price-prisons-what-incarceration-costs-taxpayers
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/05/us-usa-prisons-idUSBRE9A405120131105
http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Summer11/prison.cfm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/incarceration-rate-per-%09capita_n_3745291.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/incarceration-rate-per-%09capita_n_3745291.html
http://www.academia.edu/1116898/Managing_prison_gangs_Results_from_a_survey_of_U.S._prison_systems
http://www.academia.edu/1116898/Managing_prison_gangs_Results_from_a_survey_of_U.S._prison_systems
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449420/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449420/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449420/
