Colonial Period of Criminal Justice:

¶ … Colonial Period of Criminal Justice: Lawyers

Attorneys fresh from law school during the Colonial Period of American history had no trouble finding jobs, according to a study in the University of North Carolina -- Pembroke (Langley, et all, 2001). Lawyers in those times were considered "the elite of society" and most of them graduated from Harvard College (today known as Harvard University). Young lawyers like Samuel Adams, James Otis and John Dickinson were trained in law prior to the American Revolution, and so they were obliged to "uphold British law," Langley writes, "…even though they disagreed with it." The fact that most of the colonies did not like lawyers is not a surprise, because lawyers were not doing things like representing clients for the most part; they were writing legislation, wills, and representing law enforcement.

Because of the vast socioeconomic differences between ordinary people and lawyers -- the average colonist was an "uneducated, unemployed male who felt he had been oppressed and cheated by the upper class elite in England" -- a definite gap existed for a long time. People who broke the law were punished in several ways in the Colonies. One, they were put in "stocks" (locked into a wooden framework with foot holes for the ankles); two they were put in a "pillory" (like stocks only holes for the head and hands); three, they were tied to whipping posts and given lashes in front of the public; and four, criminals were tided to a "ducking stool" (a chair dunked into water as punishment).

The U.S. History of Crime: Constantly Expanding Incarceration

There have been numerous "white collar crimes" and crimes involving international issues like drug smuggling and espionage crimes over the years; there have also been terrible crimes by pathological serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer. But the crimes that have received the most public notice in the U.S. over the past one hundred or so years have been crimes like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago. This was a gang war between illegal providers of alcohol, including Al Capone and others; on February 14, 1929, six men in a bootleg liquor warehouse were gunned down in cold blood in Chicago, which led to the killing of over 500 gangsters during the next few years.

Public Policy and Crime

There are so many laws on the books -- and so many people willing to break those laws -- in all 50 states that prisons have been filling up rapidly. William Spelman writes in the journal Crime and Justice that between the years 1980 to 2000, those 50 states doubled their prison capacity "then doubled it again, increasing their costs by more than $20 billion per year" (Spelman, 2000 p. 419-420). The good news is that cities and states have found better ways to fight crime rather than just throw people in prison. The jurisdictions have hired more judges, made certain they have more effective police departments and better-trained probation officers, Spelman continues. Along with community organizing against crime, and more public education, criminal justice systems are trying to stem the tide.

Since 9-11, the Executive Branch has Dominated Criminal Justice

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, changed the way top law enforcement behaves and gave the executive branch far more power and authority then the U.S. Constitution authorizes. Congress was quick to give George W. Bush anything he wanted that would supposedly prevent another terrorist attack, but the Bush Administration went well beyond its Constitutional powers.

According to research conducted by Concerned Citizens Against the Patriot Act (CCAPA), freedom of association has been compromised; the government may now "monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity" or any evidence of probable cause to monitor. Freedom of information has changed under the Patriot Act: the federal government has closed immigration hearings (which in the past were open to the public), has "secretly detained hundreds of people without charges" and has encouraged government bureaucrats to "resist public records requests."

Freedom of speech has been compromised, CCAPA contends; librarians and others who keep public records may be prosecuted if they "tell anyone the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation." The right to legal representation has now been watered down as the Patriot Act allows government to monitor conversations between attorneys and clients in federal prisons "and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes." The constitutionally guaranteed freedom from unreasonable searches (Fourth Amendment) is no longer enforced, according to CCAPA's research, as under the Patriot Act the warrant-less search and seizure of any person records (including phone calls and bank records) may be conducted at the whim of the executive branch. Right to a speed trial: Americans may now be jailed "indefinitely without a trial," according to CCAPA. And further, the presumed right to liberty is also compromised as Americans can be (and have been) jailed "without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them; indeed, "enemy combatants" have been held without specific charges against them, some have been tortured and moved from one remote CIA prison environment to another, according to numerous sources (and not denied by the executive branch).

Patriot act tools misused by bush administration

When the Bush Administration promoted the original passage of the Patriot Act, it sited the need to use this as a "tool" for its "war on terrorism"; but according to an article in the New York Times (Lichtblau 2005) reprinted in the CCAPA Web pages (www.scn.org), the administration is using Patriot Act tools to pursue drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and corrupt foreign leaders…" as well. Critics say the administration's use of the law in areas outside the bounds of terrorism investigations is evidence that Bush and his administration have "sold the American public a false bill of goods."