The US Justice System Has Flaws

The United States’ justice system has numerous flaws. Three of the major flaws in the U.S. are police retention and recruitment, public perception, and lack of resource parity between the prosecution and public defenders. The people who have been convicted for crimes they didn’t commit are victims of these flaws. The truth is coming to light for some of these people. However, this can take years to decades to happen.

Flawed Justice System

One victim of false imprisonment is Albert “Ian” Schweitzer. He was convicted of murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault. The victim was a woman visiting Hawaii. Schweitzer spent over 20 years in prison. Judge Peter Kubota ordered Schweitzer to be released from “his shackles immediately.”

Humberto Duran was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in 1993. He is now on parole after spending three decades in a San Diego state prison. The Loyola Project for the Innocent took on his case in 2017 and discovered compelling evidence to support Duran’s claims of innocence.

Studies Show

The U.S. justice system’s flaws have been slowly coming to light as new technology develops and discoveries come unraveled. Researchers found the number of people convicted of crimes, proven to be innocent, has increased by 70% in the last five years, according to a recent study into wrongful convictions.

The “Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022” report reviewed the cases of 3,200 innocent defendants exonerated in the U.S. since 1989. It found the justice system is seven times more likely to falsely convict Black Americans of serious crimes.

Black individuals face other racial disparities within America’s justice system. For example, Black individuals are eight times more likely to be wrongfully convicted for sexually violent crimes than white people. In fact, innocent Black individuals wrongly convicted of a crime are likely to spend much longer periods of time in unjust incarceration than white people in all crime categories.

The “Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022” identifies many of the specific reasons for wrongful convictions. It concluded that police or prosecutorial misconduct are often the sources of these miscarriages of justice, according to the report.

Adults Aren’t the Only Ones

The U.S. justice system is also flawed when it comes to youth as well. Author Jeff Hobbsn provides some background on the evolution of America’s juvenile justice system in “Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System.”

“Many of the statistics are grim and the outcomes depressing. America’s penal system is overly punitive, infected by racism, and generally not geared toward rehabilitation,” wrote Hobbs.

The punishment for the crime depends on where the juvenile or adult committed the crime. Especially since the legal definition of what constitutes a crime varies widely across the United States. It wasn’t until 2005 that the Supreme Court outlawed youth executions. Until then the justice system had that option. The number of incarcerated youth has declined by 77% from 2000 to 2020, according to the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

However, those who remain unjustly incarcerated are still having their lives and that of their families ruined by the justice system. Youth face the same disparities as adults due when dealing with the U.S. penal system. Depending on one’s background, ethnicity, and income status, relates to the severity of their punishment.

By Sheena Robertson

Sources:

CBS News:  Falsely accused man who spent 30 years behind bars is released from prison
AP News: Hawaii man imprisoned for 1991 murder, rape released
NPR: ‘Children of the State’ examines the American juvenile justice system
Neal Davis Law Firm: Students Answer: What Are the Largest Challenges to the Criminal Justice System?
EJI: Study Shows Race is Substantial Factor in Wrongful Convictions

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