ANALYTICAL/INTERNET ASSIGNMENT 1

ANALYTICAL/INTERNET ASSIGNMENT

Mercedes Bishop

American Court Systems

Prof. K. Bowen

April 12. 2024

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The Innocence Project

The Innocence project is a private legal non-profit organization devoted to the

exoneration of innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted through DNA evidence

and reforming the criminal justice system. Initiated in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter

Neufeld, the two eminent forensic DNA lawyers, the Innocence Project has been an front

runner in the criminal justice system reform movement. Since the organization came into

existence, it has established its first-grade techniques of meticulous investigations and

compelling of DNA testing. Through these, it has exonerated over 375 wrongfully convicted

individuals, most of whom were on death row for crimes they did not commit, successfully.

The Innocence Project is convinced that the application of the death penalty in the

United States is not consistent and filled with irremediable errors. The organization thinks the

system has its issues that to a large extent affect the less privileged and people of color. The

Website of the Innocence Project draws attention to many high-profile cases where

individuals were sentenced to death despite strong evidence of their innocence, for example,

in Alabama Toforest Johnson is set to be executed despite certain acknowledgement that he

did not do so. Such cases present a peek into the core problems like the poor management of

evidence, biased investigations and prosecutions, and unequal representation of defense

counsel, allowing the lives of innocent people to be ended by mistake (Archer & Gartner,

2020).

I share the Innocence Project's view that the death penalty system in the United States

has systemic problems that pose unquestionable ramifications, like the execution of the

innocent. Over a course of two decades, this organization has exposed a number of cases of

false arrest as a result of racial bias, prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate legal help and

scientific testing that is not reliable. The final and irreversible sentence of death goes beyond

the concept of the judicial system. The Innocence Project has demonstrated this many times
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in its mistakes, especially involving the issues of race, poverty and fairness in the processes.

To be fair, the criminal justice system has to consider reformation and prevention of future

harmful practices before the retribution and punishment in case it is possible.

Juvenile Delinquency Prosecution

The federal system of justice processes criminal juveniles-individuals under the age of

18- for instances of federal law violations that were committed. The latter involves crimes

such as murder and weapons infringement. Before 1938, in the federal system, there were

neither legal guidelines nor procedures that aimed at considering the developmental status of

juveniles and protecting them from their legal rights. In the period, someone under the age of

14 who fell under federal jurisdiction could face adult criminal charges and consequences

without distinction between individuals. In response to the concerns that arose, Congress

enacted the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act of 1938 which had as its main objective the

protection and rehabilitation of the youngsters referred to the Federal jurisdiction. This made

the juvenile cases different from the adult ones, where juveniles are handled separately from

adults. The new approaches replaced violent and retributive punishments with therapeutic

treatment of juvenile offenders that, whenever possible, sought to reform them (Kennedy et

al., 2020). Nevertheless, the federal jurisdiction always remains authorized to charge

juveniles for crimes of a clearly defined category if committed at age 14 or older.

Illustrations of some cases demanding federal juvenile repercussions may include the

situation where a minor below 18 is in the possession of an illegal gun or some other

dangerous weapon in the USA regardless of the crime was committed in one state. The

federal firearm laws intend to nationwide amelioration of such access. Furthermore, federal

prosecutors will assume jurisdiction in any criminal activity undertaken by a minor, including

violent crimes, and initiate a dual federal prosecution in addition to state charges, if the

federal judge believes that the offense sufficiently impacts interstate commerce.
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Notwithstanding the fact that in 1938 the act had established the procedural safeguards that

include the juveniles being kept apart from their adult colleagues during the court

proceedings, the federal charges may still bring a number of judicially imposed sanctions

mostly connected to adult criminal penalties. These questions arise in a context that legal

rights and outcomes of adolescents are within the federal system's range of action.

Prison Overcrowding

The American federal prisons are in the grip of a serious crisis because of excessively

high levels of overcrowding. Currently federal prisons operate at 20% over the maximum

design capacity. This extreme degree of crowding endangers the health and the safety of both

inmates and officers. Moreover, it takes substantial funds from other critical public safety

priorities. Understanding the need for reform is critical now to get the prison population

down without compromising public safety and minimizing costs.

The Urban Institute advocates abolishing mandatory sentences, specifically those for

drug offenses, which are the main force behind overcrowding. Now, inmates involved in

drug-related offenses in the federal prison are typically an average of 85% through their

sentences before they become eligible for parole. Nevertheless, research confirms that the

lengthy jail time is in many cases redundant for the purposes of rehabilitation and public

safety. The Urban Institute recommends that prisoners be eligible for parole after having

served 50% of their sentences. This would, therefore, give the low-risk individuals an

opportunity to return to the society earlier, but at the same time, remain under supervision.

One of the arguments commonly supported by those reaching for reform is that the

population of the prisons may be cut down by focusing less on punitive incarceration and

more on the practical measures that were proven to lower the risk of recidivism. Incarceration

that works, involves provision of educational and work training programs, mental

health/substance abuse treatment, and transitional services to better the discharge success rate
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as compared to just holding prisoners in large cells (Nosrati et al., 2021). Funds that would be

saved by population reduction can be used to extend similar programs that have already

proven to turn things around. Also, in a parallel manner, alternative sanctions such as

probation, parole, community service work and court-ordered supervision programs apply

community-based supervision in place of incarceration in most cases.

Moreover, the moral question is that wholesale arresting of non-violent offenders at a

cost to citizens is in contradiction to the fundamentals of justice and treatment. The enduring

negative consequences to minor offenses, often drugs, disproportionately punitive for lesser

crimes are much too high (Cliquennois & Birch, 2020). This leads to a universal impact

which is more associated with the poor and the socially disadvantaged. These balanced

reforms allow judges to take greater steps in reform while motivating the participants to seek

help for the underlying conditions. Getting rid of the fixed sentencing would also come to the

rescue in cases where two individuals both possessed the same amount of drugs yet one of

them received disproportionally harsh punishment while the other for some reason remains

unpunished, for example due to different criminal histories or jury system.

Critics claim that decrease in population rates may cause a rise in the number of crime

rates. On the contrary, the data does not justify these apprehensions. The state of Texas has

experienced better economic outcomes by reducing the number of people being incarcerated

and implementing programs in the community instead of the "get tough" approach.

Equivalent or better safety outcomes and less costly than other states that have taken a "get

tough" approach. Consideration of this new system, which is based on humanistic actions,

can help to narrow the scope of security systems, improving rehabilitation instead of control,

and allocating priorities properly without compromising service or fiscal responsibility.

Sometimes the projected savings of the proposed reforms may amount to tens of billions of

dollars which can go back to taxpayers within the next ten years alone.
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It has become evident that effective policies highlighting success and rehabilitation

rather than retribution can remarkably reduce overcrowding and its consequences.

Maintaining these rates at minimal levels while still keeping the money for investment in

constructive public safety projects is possible with proper monitoring. Through bold but wise

reforms, legislators become the agents of change that move toward a better society with

kindness and low cost, which is just as the society need.

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References

Archer, D., & Gartner, R. (2020). Homicide and the death penalty: A cross-national test of a

deterrence hypothesis. In Crime, Inequality and the State (pp. 469-483). Routledge.

Cliquennois, G., & Birch, P. (2020). Prison overcrowding: Examining the problem through

the prism of the European Court of Human Rights. In Prisons and Community

Corrections (pp. 43-56). Routledge.

Kennedy, T. D., Detullio, D., & Millen, D. H. (2020). Juvenile Delinquency (p. 47). Springer.

Nosrati, E., Kang-Brown, J., Ash, M., McKee, M., Marmot, M., & King, L. P. (2021).

Incarceration and mortality in the United States. SSM-Population Health, 15, 100827.