US senator, Cory Booker once said, “All across this country, communities, cities, and states are working to advance our national ideals of “equal justice under the law.”” Intending that the country is working on improving equality in the criminal justice system. Not only are there challenges with the criminal justice system in the United States, but there are challenges in the criminal justice systems all over the world. “Canada’s criminal justice system faces many challenges, but it has been making improvements in several key areas.” (Laurier, 2018, p.13) With all challenge comes change and throughout the years the criminal justice system has rapidly changed, fluctuating from good changes to poor ones as well. These challenges and changes are influenced by many things, however the main sources are racism and drug control within the system, as well as the youth criminal justice system. They have progressively changed the criminal justice system, for example in the ways the jails and prisons are run and the rules that are being enforced throughout the system.
Racism, according to the Oxford dictionary is defined as, “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.” The act of being racist can be considered deviant behaviour due to the fact that it violates the basic social norms in society, and can also lead to hate crimes. There are two types of deviance: informal, which is minor transgressions and formal, which is crime that involves the violations of the law; racism could lead to both of these. Racism has played a huge role in society for a considerable amount of time, specifically in the criminal justice system. On the topic of incarceration, African Americans and Hispanics are arrested at a rate that is 5 times greater than caucasians. More times than not, it is seen in recent news that an innocent person of colour has been shot and killed by police, for example Alton Sterling, Stephon Clark, and Eric Garner. All of these men were innocent and unarmed, and yet had their life taken by police officers. “Black people are dying in this country because we have a criminal justice system which is out of control, a system in which over 50% of young African-American kids are unemployed. “ It is estimated that a black baby born today has a one in four chance of ending up in the criminal justice system.” US senator Bernie Sanders said, speaking to the fact that black people have a severe disadvantage in today's society. Racial profiling is a subtly deceptive and especially harmful kind of racial separation that identifies with ideas of wellbeing and security. Racial profiling disregards people groups' rights under the Ontario Human Rights (Code). Individuals from a wide range of groups encounter racial profiling. In any case, usually coordinated at First Nations, Inuit and different Indigenous people groups, Muslims, Arabs, West Asians and Black individuals, are frequently impacted by the antagonistic generalizations that individuals in these groups confront. One indication of both clear and unmistakable racist law enforcement is the over the top number of African Americans detained in the United States and Canada. Former US president Barack Obama once said, “The criminal-justice system is, obviously, the sole source of racial tension in this country [USA] or the key institution to resolving the opportunity gap. It is a part of the broader set of challenges that we face in creating a more perfect union.”(Obama,2015) Obama highlights that the criminal justice system is the sole reason for racial tension in the country and plays a key role in disturbing the peace of the perfect union they wish to have. Government authorities have all added to the extensive meaning of racial profiling. In Canada, African-Canadians are now the fastest growing group of individuals to be incarcerated in federal prisons. African-Canadians make up three percent of the overall public, they represent 10 percent of the government prison population. The ongoing report additionally demonstrates that while in jail, black prisoners are overrepresented in isolation, and that they are liable to about 15 percent of all use-of-force occurrences within the prisons. “In a case study released in 2014 on the Black inmate experience, the office of the correctional investigator points out that “despite being rated as a population having a lower risk to reoffend and lower need overall, Black inmates are more likely to be placed in maximum security institutions.” (Mcintyre, 2016) Further showing that racism and racial profiling are continuing to be an ongoing challenge in the criminal justice system.
In addition drug control in the criminal justice system, more specifically in prisons is growing to be a great challenge. “Drugs are rife in prisons worldwide and illicit drug use such as cannabis, heroin and NPS remains endemic.” (O’Hagan & Hardwick, 2017, 1) Drug use and reliance fluctuate worldwide from 10% to 48% among male prisoners and 30% to 60% among female prisoners. A recent report found that 75% of inmates in England and Wales had taken illegal drugs while in jail. During their prison stay, 17% to 13% of prisoners admit they developed their drug addictions while imprisoned. Research recommends that drug-using prisoners dictate the day to day routine in prison. This incorporates narcotic treatment programmes and control measures aimed at counteracting drug trafficking and violence. Prisons turn into an effective vehicle for spreading narcotics in light of the fact that it is simple for a drug user to build up social connections and pass on their drug habits to other inmates, due to peer pressure and power affiliation. The primary explanations behind drug using in penitentiaries are reportedly due to insomnia sleep disorder, boredom, and furthermore used as a method for dealing with stress.These factors can be connected to control theory, internal and external factors that control their impulses to break norms. Inmates may feel many internal factors such as insomnia or boredom, as well as external factors such as peer pressure which intrigue them to want to begin to do drugs which is breaking regular norms. In addition social learning theory could be connected as well, social learning theory is a learned response due to the environment. Being incarcerated for a long period of time could push learned behaviours onto the inmates, for example getting into illegal narcotics, this may become a social norm for some who are in prison for a long period of time.
Since the 1970s, when retribution replaced rehabilitation, penitentiary populations have climbed drastically while crime has remained impartial. A solid conviction that adjustments couldn't rehabilitate guilty parties was fueled by research studies that basically inferred that "nothing works" (Lipton et al., 1975; Martinson, 1974). As rehabilitation fell into disapproval, determinate sentencing and diligent lawful offence laws were implemented. Officials also reacted to the disturbing increase in drug abuse amid the 1980s by ordering harder sentences against drug dealers and users. due to the new sentencing laws, the country's penitentiaries turned out to be overwhelmed with serious drug offenders, a large number of them recidivists. Searching for approaches to lessen recidivism and control overcrowding, correctional authorities have started growing prison based narcotic treatment programs. In contrast to the perspective that nothing works in rehabilitation, the viability of an arrangement of growing drug treatment for prisoners and parolees would now be able to be upheld by sociology research. Thus exemplifying how the challenges of drug control in the criminal justice system ensued changes within the system as well.
“Longitudinal studies show that children exposed to juvenile court reoffend at higher rates and are stigmatized in the process.” (Birckhead, 2015) The youth criminal justice system is a newer system compared to the adult, however, although it is newer it still comes with its challenges as well. In 1899 Illinois and Colorado introduced the “children’s court”, over 20 years other states established it as well. there were 4 keys assumptions behind children's court; firstly children were not small adults so they needed to be treated differently. Secondly there would need to be specially trained leal and correctional faculty to work with the youth. Thirdly they noticed that when children were incarcerated it would make them more antisocial and criminal-like. Finally the growing science behind rehabilitation might be able to save many of the trouble kids from living a life in crime.
Youth who commit crimes must be considered responsible, however in Canada (as in most other western democratic systems), in light of their age, Canada approaches "youth crime" uniquely in contrast to how they approach adults who have committed a crime. With regards to worldwide guidelines and logical understanding, youth – under the law, those in the ages of 12 and 18 years old – can't be held to the same standards as grown-ups. In this way, they have a different law, now the Youth Criminal Justice Act (the "YCJA"), to administer how they react to youth who perpetrate criminal offences. Historically, youth who committed offences were dealt with as "delinquents" needing a remedial heading. Under the Juvenile Delinquents Act (the "JDA"), kids who messed with the law had a couple of procedural protections. For instance, the age when youth who were charged were sent to adult courts differed across the nation, often between sex. In a few territories, young men aged 16 or 17 would be prosecuted and sentenced as adults while girls regularly continued to be sentenced as a youth until the point when they turned 18. Actual "trials" were uncommon under the JDA however the premise of the court was to act in the best interest of the kids. All the more frequently, a private casual hearing was held where the child had few rights. Following the hearing, a child may be sent to a "training school", (although they were called training schools realistically they were juvenile prisons), put into a foster home, or put on post-trial supervision. “A series of legal challenges culminated in the landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision In Re Gault.” Writing for the Court, Justice Abe Fortes proclaimed, "Under our Constitution, the condition of being a boy does not justify a kangaroo court." Surveying the instance of 15-year-old Gerald Gault, who was sentenced to six years in an Arizona youth penitentiary for influencing an odd telephone to call, the Court announced that minors be afforded a large portion of the due-process rights required in grown-up criminal courts. Gault flagged another time of changes. One was a development to redirect however many adolescents as could be expected under the circumstances from the formal court framework and to decriminalize "adolescent status offences, for example, truancy, fleeing, time limitation infringement, and hopelessness. The 1970s saw boundless endeavours to deinstitutionalize or "decarcerate" youths, moving them from secure training school to community-based programs that underlined academics and rehabilitation. It was these series of challenges that lead to a major change in the youth criminal justice system.
Overall the criminal justice system still has many inconsistencies to fix and challenges to overcome. Racism, drug control and the youth criminal justice system are all very important aspects to the criminal justice system that pose many challenges. However over the years with more enlightened communications, awareness and education these challenges in society have persuaded a fluctuation of change in the system which will ultimately improve it for all.