What Makes the Criminal Justice System so Slow?

According to Siegel, the criminal justice system consists of the agencies of government charged with enforcing law, adjudicating crime, and correcting criminal conduct. (2011, p. 382) The criminal justice system is a very complex and daunting system to navigate through. Is the criminal justice system in the United States too slow? Yes, it absolutely is. A murderer can be sentenced to death yet still be waiting twenty years later to actually be put to death. Plus, there are constantly more restrictions put on police officers and prosecutors to prove a criminal’s guilt. Although it is important to make sure that the correct man or woman is convicted of their crime, delays in the system cause a backup of cases that will continue to get worse. We need to look at some of the issues that cause such backups.

Law Enforcement officers are the most common symbol of the criminal justice system. Police officers enforce laws, provide services, prevent crime, and preserve the peace. (Gaines & Miller, 2014, p. 99) Police officers need to constantly adapt to new laws and new guidelines in order to properly do their jobs. For example, officers are required to have probable cause to search or detain a subject. If a search is conducted without probable cause the case will most likely be thrown out of court and the subject will get away with what they have done. Most arrests do not involve a warrant and are made due to the quick thinking and investigational work of the police officer. (Gaines & Miller, 2014, p. 163) In the case of an arrest that requires a warrant, an officer must get a judge to approve their request to detain a subject or search their property. While gathering the intelligence for this warrant and waiting for the...

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... to be limited to a more respectable amount of time. This does not mean that the defendant will be given less of a chance; it only means that the system needs to promote better time management. Judges should be made to cut out the “fluff” and only allow facts to be presented. Finally, death row inmates need to be executed at a much faster rate. This will not only open up space in prisons but it will also ease the financial burden associated with these types of inmates.

Works Cited

Gaines, L. K., & Miller, R. L. (2014). Criminal justice in action: The core (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2014). America's courts and the criminal justice system (Eleventh ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Siegel, L. J. (2011). Criminology: the core (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning