Justice System Failing

Justice System or Failing System?
Senator Jim Webb writes in Clear and Frost’s article, “ America’s Criminal Justice System has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace.” And that is the truth. The criminal justice system has many flaws that need to be fixed. There are several issues that need to be handled and dealt with properly. Tweaks need to be made to ensure that criminals are sentenced properly. But the way that criminals are picked out and failed by the system is preposterous. Although the Justice System establishes rules and makes sense out of chaos, the justice system needs reform because 25% of the nation is incarcerated, there are more drug users than murderers or serial offenders, and there are private prisons that
Laura Dimon writes that in the 1990’s, marijuana possession made up almost 80% of the arrests that occurred. This is just one example of how the criminal justice system is broken. Laura Dimon also writes that four out of every five arrests for drugs was for drug possession, not drug dealing. According to Mike Lee, families were left torn apart by a “crime wave” that never actually existed. It was simply a cover story for the justice system to use to target colored people and people who live in the poorer communities. Rich white neighborhoods were not raided and stripped of all belongings. Rich, white neighborhoods were not persecuted for the use of cocaine. But black communities were regularly persecuted and torn apart for the smallest part of any type of drug. Crack is known as a white mans cocaine and crack actually carries a higher sentence than cocaine. Crack is cheaper to buy so the poorer people would buy crack. Larger amounts of cocaine carried a shorter prison sentence compared to lesser amounts of crack, many people believe this was because cocaine was found in rich, white communities, where as crack was found in the poverty stricken black communities. The justice system also has more drug users instead of drug dealers incarcerated. Instead of going for the real problem, the drug dealers, the justice system is going after the
W.R. Kelley said that the increase in incarceration was a good look for America. It also helped Americans to feel safer. In other words Kelley is saying that the rising rated in incarceration is a good thing. It is a valid point if the government did not pursue specific races or ethnicities. It would be a great idea to put into the minds of citizens. But the facts are simply not there. This would also be a valid point if the rising incarceration rates actually dropped crime rate, which it did not. In fact, crime rates actually grew right along with the rising incarceration rates. More families were torn apart than ever before and this led to a great jump in violence on the streets. Kelley writes that more than 20% of today’s children grow up in poverty due to a family member being in prison. Kelley also says that seven percent of minority children have at least one parent in prison. Also, the crime rates did not just go up, the rate of crime was and is at an all time high. Police forces have started targeting easier people to catch. Tracking a case for years and years is becoming less popular and hard to prove. So instead of going for cartels and drug lords, drug users are targeted. Instead of going for a serial killer, burglars are caught. The big bad wolves of the nation are left out there and not hunted and the meek criminals who committed basic offenses fill