The Need for Criminal Justice Reform in the United States

3.0 Understand the Need for Criminal Justice Reform

Criminal justice reforms in the United States have attracted the attention of various stakeholders. According to Galston (2016), Americans across racial, ideological, and partisan lines are rethinking the existing criminal justice system. This has contributed to immense scrutiny of the system with the view of reforms. However, the immense scrutiny of the U.S. criminal justice system has not always been centered on sound data. Many stakeholders use contradictory and complex facts to argue the case for reforms. Consequently, the debates, conversations, and policy prescriptions on criminal justice reform have undermined efforts undertaken to improve the relatively broken system. Therefore, criminal justice reform in the country needs to be based on sound data and evidence to help generate a commonplace of factual understanding. To understand the need for criminal justice reform, one must understand the system in place currently.

3.1 Inequalities in the Current Criminal Justice System

One of the major characteristics of the current criminal justice system that demonstrate the need for reform is its inequalities. The current criminal justice system was built on values that did not promote equality for all people. Mayeux (2018) suggests that the criminal justice system currently in place was developed around the input of crime. As a result, this system did not lend itself to address issues that were not actually crimes. This framing or structuring of the system in turn contributed to the emergence of inequalities in how different people groups are treated. Practices of crime and punishment in the current criminal justice system in the country do not reflect the idea of equilibrium. The failure to achieve equilibrium in this system is partly fueled by the politicization of crime and punishment policy, which has in turn fueled inequalities and discrimination of certain people groups.

Racial disproportionality is one of the indicators of the inherent inequalities in the current criminal justice system in the U.S. Crutchfield (2017) argues that racial disproportionality affects fairness and delivery of justice to different populations across the country. Minorities and low-income Americans are seemingly discriminated against as they system apparently favors Whites. Some of the debates and conversations regarding the need to reform the U.S. criminal justice system have been centered on the rampant racial discrimination of minorities and low-income individuals. These groups are seemingly treated differently as others are subjected to favorable treatment. The gap in the fair treatment of all people groups in the American criminal justice system continues to widen due to the preferential treatment of Whites in comparison to their minorities and low-income counterparts. Minorities and low-income Americans have continued to argue that rampant racial discrimination exists within the criminal justice system.

The rampant racial discrimination in the current system is evident in the fact that communities of minorities and low-income individuals are wrongly targeted. Since the system was developed around the input of crime, targeting suspected individuals and communities is considered critical to achieve crime deterrence (Mayeux, 2018). However, racial disproportionality has provided a loophole for some groups of people and communities like minorities and low-income individuals to be wrongly targeted. These people are subjected to immense supervision and treated unfairly within the current system.

Gender discrimination is also another indicator of inequalities within the current criminal justice system in the United States. Doerner& Demuth (2012) conducted a study in which they sought to determine whether women are treated more leniently when it comes to sentencing in federal courts in comparison to their male counterparts. The study was carried out on the premise that gender seems to play an important role in...

…depression and psychological distress. Unlike Whites, minorities with a history of incarceration are increasingly likely to suffer from mental illnesses and psychological distress because of how they are treated in the U.S. criminal justice system.

4.2 Psychological Problems for Third-Parties

The structure of the U.S. criminal justice system results in psychological problems for people with a history of incarceration, especially minorities. As previously indicated, there is a strong link between the structure of the system and how different people groups are treated. Minorities and low-income individuals are increasingly discriminated against and subjected to unfair or biased treatment, which results in psychological distress and mental health issues. The psychological impacts of the U.S. criminal justice system are also evident in third-parties i.e. family members of the incarcerated. Psychological problems have been reported by those who are secondarily affected by family members being incarcerated at an extensive rate.

The imprisonment of a family member, especially for a long-term sentence, can be emotionally difficult. Family members are psychologically affected by the imprisonment of their loved ones as they have to contend with social isolation, worsening relationships, and additional difficulties in coping with lifes issues. The incarceration of a family member is associated with significant negative effects in several domains of life including family dynamics and economic hardships. These issues generate psychological distress, which in turn affects an individuals mental health and emotional wellbeing. While imprisonment, particularly a long-term sentence, is essentiall difficult, the U.S. criminal justice system does not consider familial and social relationships of inmates (Lee, Porter & Comfort, 2014). This in turn worsens the experiences of both the inmate and his/her family members and friends. The psychological impacts of long-term incarceration are exacerbated by unfair or biased treatment of certain populations, particularly minorities and low-income individuals. Biased/unfair treatment worsens the already multifaceted consequences and psychological…