Criminal justice court system issues and proposed solutions

¶ … Criminal Justice System

The civilized society is one that is founded on laws and values where each member of society thereto should abide by and adhere to. Any breach or non-conformance to said statutes and principles will be met with corresponding sanctions and more particularly in cases that are criminal in nature. Thus, the criminal justice system is the law enforcement mechanism that involves the investigation, arrest, prosecution, defense, all the way to sentencing and commitment to the penal institution for those accused of, suspected or charged with criminal offenses. Despite the raison d'etre of the criminal justice system existing to protect the members of society, the system is far from perfect and there are several issues that continually needed to be addressed. These issues vary such as the disparity between the types of defense the rich and the poor accused can avail of where the former can seek the services of high priced attorneys while the latter is consigned to public. Then there is also the matter of processing criminal cases as fast as possible in order to avoid the "justice delayed is justice denied" syndrome but nonetheless "leading at times to either under-punishment of serious criminality, or over-punishment of those who might be innocent or less guilty than charged, but who still plead guilty to avoid a trial (Leipold, 2010)." Although the thrust of a "speedy trial" is to resolve cases to determine if there is culpability in the criminal act, speed often gives way to quality and the real resolution of the case. Thus, it is important to be able to strike a balance between resolving criminal cases fast without detriment to quality thereto.

The issue of speedy resolution of criminal cases should be always heralded as a positive measure to ensure that those answerable will be meted out the corresponding penalties or set free if proven otherwise. This is also important for victims of crimes because justice would have been served should the criminal case sees completion with corresponding results. However, there have been several instances whereby justice was not truly served because of the speed at which the trial has been done. The accused could not put out a stronger defense especially if the defense attorney is a public defendant inundated with several other criminal cases. This even becomes more complicated because any criminal case falls under the purview of various government agencies and more than likely, several "red tapes" have to be hurdled along the way. "Usually the flow of cases begins with the police department. If individuals are arrested, charges must be placed by the District Attorney's Office. These cases must be heard and adjudicated by the Court System. Before or after conviction, some individuals are sent to either County or State Prisons. (West, 2009)" The initial flow alone sees a defendant going through a minimum of three government agencies thus making it more critical to fast-track some of the process in order to close the case. Again in doing so, the defendant might not be able to truly put up a viable defense and he or she might be wrongfully accused.