CJA/324 ETHICS in CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The most important values are honesty and integrity. Honesty and integrity go hand and hand, and should remain a vital part of our everyday lives. Without honesty there is no integrity. Integrity is doing the right thing whether you are in a group or completely alone; in other words, doing the right thing, all of the time, even if no one is watching. Integrity is vitally important when one is working in the Criminal Justice field. It is an essential value for police officers, judges and administrative professionals to maintain even if they are trying to fit into the subculture of law enforcement. Much corruption in police departments has been the result of officers compromising integrity.
These principles are important to because there may be a time when a criminal justice professional is entrusted to do a job that may require little to no supervision. Honesty is a very important part of our personal and professional lives. Being dishonest can break down relationships and harm the community as a whole. Honesty is also a major value in the criminal justice system. In order for the system to even work it must be based on honor and honesty. In this paper I will discuss the case of Cornealious Anderson vs. The State of Missouri.
Cornealious Anderson by all accounts is a hard-working, family oriented, and dedicated business man. Cornealious Anderson was convicted of robbing a Burger King in 1999. He was originally supposed to report to prison in 2002 when the appeals process was scheduled to be over. However, he was never sent to prison for his crime due to a clerical error. Over the next 12 years Mr. Anderson took the steps necessary to rebuild his life. He started his own construction business, got married, had children and coached youth football. He continued to live in the same area where he originally grew up, and never hid from his previous conviction.
References: KMOV.COM Staff and Associated Press (2014, May 05). Judge Frees Missouri Man who Avoided Jail Time for 13 Years due to Clerical Error. Retrieved on May 30, 2014. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/05/05/judge_frees_missouri_man_who_avoided_jail_time_for_13_years