uld be the Attorney General of The United States I would try to change many things in The Court System, but I have three that I that I think need to be change. For example I would stop the use of Solitary Confinement in Prisons, mostly for young people who are put in Detention Facilities, often for small crimes. I would also end the Death Penalty because for me it is cruel and unusual. Finally, i would support alternatives to arrest and incarceration programs so criminals of lighter offenses do not go to prison.
1.Stop the Use of Solitary Confinement in Prisons
Solitary confinement has a really known prison tool where the criminals are held, in extreme isolation, sometimes even for decades. But it does more harm than good. When people who locked up in solitary confinement come out of it, some are more psychologically and physically damaged than when they were put in it. Solitary confinement is also extremely costly, because every prisoner has a cell of their own, more place officers are being paid to watch them, etc. Right now, tens of thousands of American inmates are being held in solitary confinement all around the country, but there has not been much discussion in wether this should stop or not.
To better understand the issue, Maureen O’Keefe, a scientist with the Colorado Department of Corrections, and Kelli Klebe, PhD, a therapist at the University of Colorado, as of late directed a long investigation of the mental impacts of regulatory isolation in a Colorado prison. The analysts considered 65 male detainees and 24 controls who were being evaluated at institutional hearings to choose whether they would be put in isolation or the general jail population. ]The researchers found that the segregated prisoners did show elevated rates of various psychological disorders, says Klebe, but she cautions that those symptoms are often present even before inmates enter administrative segregation. It’s possible that inmates who are referred for a segregation hearing have a lot of psychological problems to begin with, she suggests, “and that’s what’s earning them the way into a lockdown situation.”
There is an on going discussion about whether Solitary Confinement should be depicted as torture or not, but in my opinion it is a really cruel form of punishment and it is really inhumane. Inmates are kept in really tiny cells(not really bigger than a king size bed), often without windows, in some cases for years or even decades. They do not generally interact with anyone, but the guard who gives them food daily, or sometimes when they go exercise in they solitary cells.
2.Support Alternatives to Arrest and Incarceration Programs.
Too many people wind up in the criminal justice system. Some people are arrested who shouldn’t be. And once an arrest is made, a cycle of incarceration begins that is often skewed against the poor and poor people of color. Support initiatives that offer alternatives to the justice system, such as after school programs, mental health centers, and drug treatment options. These programs require funding and are costly in the short term. But a healthier community is better -and safer – in the long run than an incarcerated one.
Police officers have multiple opportunities to divert youth away from arrest. Mayors and other city leaders can play an important role in helping their communities seize these opportunities on a regular and consistent basis. They can develop and promote a local public safety agenda that emphasizes fair decision-making by police and focuses law enforcement’s attention specifically on youth who pose a public safety risk. In conjunction, they can leverage available community-based services to support positive youth development for all young people, including those who come into contact with law enforcement.
By taking these steps, municipal leaders open the door for policies and objective, evidence-based protocols that their police departments will use to determine which youth should be arrested and/or detained and which youth can develop more successfully with locally controlled, community-based interventions.
The growth in alternative courts has been spurred by research that has proved such courts’ effectiveness. In fact, a 2000 California law that requires judges to offer nonviolent offenders substance abuse or mental health treatment instead of prison time is saving the state up to $18 million a year, according to a report by the Judicial Council of California’s Advisory Committee on Collaborative Justice.
Moreover, California’s program reduced recidivism: Arrest rates for participants who completed the program declined by 85 percent, conviction rates by 77 percent and incarceration rates by 83 percent.
And considering that 15-20 percent of prisoners have a mental illness and more than 40 percent have participated in substance abuse programs or treatment, mental health and drug courts can reduce burgeoning prison rolls not only by initially diverting offenders, but also by reducing the likelihood they’ll return to the justice system. That makes them an attractive option for states with strapped budgets looking to reduce prison costs.”It’s cheaper to provide outpatient services than to pay for their confinement in a prison,” explains Strickland. “But more importantly, these are human beings who are worthy of receiving appropriate interventions and treatment.”
3. End the Death Penalty.
Capital punishment, which is also known as the death penalty, is a practice where a person is put to death because of a crime he or she committed. Crimes can be punishable by death are called capital crimes which are murder, war crimes, crimes against humanity, treason, espionage and genocide.
The death penalty is racist, really costly and cruel. White victims often get life in prison, while black defendants and black victims get death penalty or no justice at all. Not only is the death penalty discriminatory, but it is also really expensive. Death penalty cases cost millions more than non-capital cases ending in a life sentence. We could take those savings and do a whole lot of good, for a whole lot of people. And dare I say it? The death penalty is just flat out wrong. Europe and most of the Americas have abolished it, leaving the United States in the company of China, North Korea and Pakistan on the list of countries who retain the punishment. Come on, now. It’s time. Get rid of it.
This summer, a federal review found that as many as 27 death penalty convictions may have been made based on erroneous testimony. APA has long recognized that inaccurate testimony is just one of the problems inherent with the death penalty. That’s why in 2001, APA’s Council of Representatives called upon U.S. jurisdictions that impose the death penalty to not carry it out until they implemented policies and procedures that could be shown through social science research to ameliorate serious deficiencies in how executions were carried out.
The racial disparity is arresting. In a mostly white America, significantly more blacks than whites were put to death. Whites were almost never executed for crimes—even murder—involving black victims. But blacks were so frequently executed for sexual assault that newspapers could report that a prisoner was hanged or electrocuted “for the usual crime” and everyone would know what that meant.