Character Analysis
The person that I have chosen from the film that works in the criminal justice system is Mark Ciavarella. Ciavarella was a former president judge of the Luzerne County court system in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. This former judge was involved in a “Kids for cash’ scandal in 2008, along with Michael Conahan who was was also a former judge in the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania court. These two judges accepted money from Robert Mercile and Robert Powell, who owned two for-profit detention centers. As Merciles detention centers grew, so did Ciavarella and Conahan money. Ciavarella earned 1,000,000 dollars in this bribery scandal which all came from 4,000 juvenile offenders from 2003 to 2008. Ciavarella was found guilty of
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On August 2011, Ciavarella was sentenced in federal prison for 28 years for his act in the Kids for Cash Scandal. These two judges did the kids for cash scandal. This had all started out when the Pennsylvania county began complaining that their children are getting extremely harsh punishments which they were put into for-profit center without a lawyer to help them out. These children were brought in front of judge Ciavarella and did not get a chance for a defensive side, which they were pounced, guilty on the spot. Some of these kids spend months, even years, in these detention centers. It did not matter what the child did, they were put into these for-profit detention centers, which the two judges made a lot of money from it. This is someone that should be despaired even though he pleaded guilty on February 13, 2009. Ciavarella would put these children into these horrible detention centers for almost anything. Some of the “crimes” that these kids did was buying a stolen scooter, which the boy and his parents did not know it was stolen or one young girl punched antoher young girl which was her first time ever getting into trouble. Some of the extremely harsh ones were for mocking people such as a principal or a teacher on social media, trespassing without knowing it, and shoplifting. Lastly, some of these kids committed suicide after serving their time in the kids for cash
He believes that a kid from a place like that isn’t any good. The next character is Edward James Olmos (#11) for the first half of the movie he was very quiet and walked around, but once he changed his vote to not guilty he became very kind and helpful. Something he said when he was standing up for the kid was, “ to say one is capable of committing murder
“Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling it must increase (Charles Caleb Colton).” Colton describes that once corruption has begun, it is difficult to stop. Corruption has existed in this country, let alone this very planet, since the beginning of time. With corruption involves: money, power, and favoritism. Many people argue today that racism is still a major problem to overcome in today’s legal system. American author (and local Chicago resident) Steve Bogira jumps into the center of the United States justice system and tells the story of what happens in a typical year for the Cook Country Criminal Courthouse, which has been noted as one of the most hectic and busiest felony courthouses in the entire country. After getting permission from one of the courthouse judges’ (Judge Locallo) he was allowed to venture in and get eyewitness accounts of what the American Legal System is and how it operates. Not only did he get access to the courtroom but: Locallo’s chambers, staff, even his own home. In this book we get to read first hand account of how America handles issues like: how money and power play in the court, the favoritism towards certain ethnic groups, and the façade that has to be put on by both the defendants and Cook County Workers,
The Golding States school has a rigorous program where repeated offenders who are facing 25 to life sentences. These youths have committed horrendous crimes and have been labeled as lost cost by
When it comes to minors, we try to keep a balance between our logistic and moral views on the issue of their imprisonment. Usually, we end up thinking morally, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Children raised in harsh conditions or without adequate parenting could stay bad forever, or grow up to become a great person. A huge slip up shouldn’t take their life. We could think that the children could stay bad forever and become an even bigger problem later in life, but prison time works well to deter against that. The supreme court was right. It’s completely wrong to sentence a minor to
The people directly involved with this case are Judge Lance Ito, the prosecution lawyers, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, the defense lawyers, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro and Robert Blasier , the jury and the defendant, O.J. Simpson. The families of the victims have also been present in the courtroom, as well as other spectators and news media. This case has heard one hundred and twenty witnesses over a nine month period.
exposes many of the problems that face the Criminal Justice system, as well as reveals several
...s A. Preciado, but despite these wrong decisions being made by juveniles, they deserve a second chance to better themselves as potential future citizens. Even Gail garinger who was a former juvenile judge believes that they are capable such manner, In her article, “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences” written March 14, 2012 and published by New York Times, it states that “as a former juvenile court judge, I have seen firsthand the enormous capacity of children to change and turn themselves around. The same malleability that makes them vulnerable to peer pressure also makes them promising candidates for rehabilitation”. I believe, and still do, that even though juveniles that have taken a wrong path, regardless of what they 've done, need guidance from us and people who were once juveniles to mentor them and be given a second chance, just as I did a long time ago.
It is also all part of the economic and social scene of the correctional facility (jail) system, where it forms a great part of the management of the jail. It helps to keep the harsh rules the warden and guards apply to the inmates in place. Systemic corruption is not a special type of corrupt practice, but rather a situation in which this jail and process of rehabilitation of the prisoners is routinely dominated and used by the corrupt warden and the guards. The prisoners have no alternatives to dealing with the corrupt jail staff. Letters are censored of not delivered, visits are controlled and when a prisoner is a threat, the warden and guards get rid of them. Tommy Williams who could have given the warden information to prove that Andy Dufresne was actually innocent, was removed by the Warden when he had Captain Hadley shoot him while he tried to escape. This was a false claim but no-one could prove it. In the end the warden is caught out when Andy gives all the evidence he collected during the years in jail against the Warden to a newspaper for publication. The warden takes his own life and in a sense it is retribution for all the terrible things he did against the prisoners and the
When trying to describe Dan Locallo as a compassionate judge one could use the Tony Cameron, the Larry Bates and the Frank Caruso Jr. criminal cases. Tony Cameron has been in jail for only five months. He was arrested for armed robbery in August of 1997. Cameron has an inner conflict that he keeps fighting-whether or not he wants to plead guilty or not guilty (Courtroom 302, 26). Tony Cameron realizes that if he wants to present his case to the judge he better make it a good one. Most offenders that visit the courthouse feel like...
Garinger Gail “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences” The New York Times, 14 March 2012. The New York Times 7 May 2014.
In the film 12 Angry Men, a group of twelve jurors are deciding the fate of a young boy accused of murdering his father. Throughout the juries dilleration, one man exhibits all of the qualities of leadership. This man is juror number 8 played by Henry Fonda. Fonda not only exhibits the the 10 qualities of a leader but he uses these qualities to lead the entire jury to a vote of not guilty (Fonda & Lumet, 1957).
Most of these defendants couldn’t afford private attorneys and depended upon public defenders. For instance, Joe Moore had two prior convictions and was facing a maximum of a 90 year sentence for selling three grams of cocaine. However, Moore begged his public defender to call Eliga Kelly to stand in his defense. Moore claimed that Kelly witnessed him shoe Coleman off of his property. For whatever reasons, his public defender never bothered to call Kelly to the stand or even question him privately. After all, Eliga Kelly was considered a star witness for the prosecution, but, as a result of that negligence, Moore was sentenced to 90 years. Unlike most criminal informants, Eliga Kelly refused to lie under oath and in a subsequent trial for a different defendant, the prosecutor called Kelly to the stand. Kelly contradicted Coleman’s testimony by naming several defendants, including Joe Moore, who refused to sell drugs to
Sandra Petrocelli is the prosecuting lawyer and is good. She is pushing for the death penalty. She states that everyone involved in the crime is equally guilty including the one who wrestled for the gun, the robber and the two lookouts. She is trying to prove that Steve knew and associated with the two robbers who are bad characters.
There prison population is overpopulated with people just like these. The people in these cases needed help, whether it be employment opportunities, rehabilitation, an alternative to prison, or even a lesser sentence. We have learned that throwing everyone who has a problem in prison and letting them rot behind bars is not the answer. We have only created another problem that our prisons have become overcrowded, and when these offenders finally come out of prison they have a high risk to go right back in. We have to put funding back into communities, society needs to stop spending so much money on sending people to prison, and spend more money trying to keep them out. Society has to put funding back into creating employment opportunities, affordable rehab, and focus on low income communities who need the most help. We need to leave the violent offenders that we are afraid of for prison, and for the people that really need help we can 't put them in jail. Mandatory Minimum sentences are not the answer, this bill needs to be reformed. We have learned that our prisons are filled with people just like Angelos, Echols, and Lockwood who didn’t deserve such harsh sentences and would have benefitted from a judge 's discretion. These people lives would not have been ruined by these sentences if they had better
... believed in the innocence of the young man and convinced the others to view the evidence and examine the true events that occurred. He struggled with the other jurors because he became the deviant one in the group, not willing to follow along with the rest. His reasoning and his need to examine things prevailed because one by one, the jurors started to see his perspective and they voted not guilty. Some jurors were not convinced, no matter how much evidence was there, especially Juror #3. His issues with his son affected his decision-making but in the end, he only examined the evidence and concluded that the young man was not guilty.