The Five Major Problems In The Criminal Justice System

In the last couple of years, many Americans including political leaders have agreed that our criminal justice system is deeply flawed, unsustainable and inefficient and needs to be reformed. Our criminal justice system was “created to keep communities safe, to respect and restore victims and to return offenders who leave prison to be self-sufficient and law-abiding” (DeRoche, 2012). However, it is not only the offenders but the criminal justice system itself. There are five major problems within our criminal justice system. The first and biggest problem is our overpopulated prisons. Each year millions of people are incarcerated in local, state, and federal prisons. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Color People

Which makes the United States the highest prison population in the nation. The second problem is America’s public policies, such as the War on Drugs and Get Tough on Crime. These public policies have a major impact on our incarceration rate. The third problem is racial discrimination. African American make up a significant percentage of our prison population. The fourth major problem is that many state, and federal governments are turning to private sectors for correctional services to lower the incarceration costs and to reduce the overcrowded prison problem. The last major problem is our current sentencing guidelines. In order to reform our criminal justice system, we must understand the problems in our criminal justice system. America’s criminal justice campaign is a necessary public communication campaign because we must understand the problems, effects and look at possible solutions to reform our criminal

The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitutional protects prisons from cruel and unusual punishment. However, overpopulated prisons are affecting prisoners living condition, health and safety. Living conditions in prison is already painful, unpleasant and dangerous. When you add overcrowded prisons to this picture, it makes living conditions even more painful, unpleasant and dangerous, which effects prisoners physically and psychologically. Just how much does overcrowding prisons effect prisoners physically and