Learning Team Policy Analysis II Paper - Essay Example

7th March Learning Team Policy Analysis II The police department is one of the major components ofthe criminal justice system. The role of the police mainly revolves around arresting wrongdoers and taking them to court to seek justice (Peak 1). This means that during the arrest of a wrongdoer, the police have a central role of getting the suspect and handing him/her to the court. The police also record the offences done of the suspect. At times, the police acquire an arrest warrant from the court.

Policies within the Criminal Justice SystemThe policies of the correctional facilities revolve around 4 goals. 1. Retribution – this refers to punishing the offender for his/her crimes.2. Rehabilitation – this policy tries to reform the offender to a better person by perhaps making them realise their own potential.3. Deterrence - this seeks to prevent the offender from breaking the law in the future.4. Incapacitation – prevents offenders from committing any other crimes by physically restricting them to prisons.

These policies work hand in hand with the police department since they arrest the offenders as suspects. If the police do not have the duty of arresting the suspects, then offenders cannot be taken through the four policies (Mackenzie 4). There would also be no offenders since the courts would not have any suspects to prosecute. The police policies mainly involve arresting suspects. The suspects can be reported by the public or spotted by the police. The police then go ahead to have statements of wrongdoing by the suspects written down in preparation for the court.

This directly affects the court since the prosecutors can only prosecute the suspect according to the statements written down. Sometimes the prosecutors end up complaining about the poor quality of the statement forwarded by the police. The role of the police goes on to affect the correctional facilities, if the suspect becomes convicted of his/her offences at the court. It affects the correctional facilities by having the offender punished according to the offences he/she has been convicted of and their magnitude.

Over time, drug related arrests have increased significantly. The reason behind the increase mainly involves the higher rate of testing for drugs. This led to drug related offences being the highest number of arrests made. As a result, most of the correctional facilities have too many offenders (Drakeford and Kristin 13). Due to this problem, prosecutors found it necessary to avoid prosecuting suspects possessing little quantities of drugs. As a result, the correctional officers have recorded less congestion in their facilities.

Conclusion In conclusion, the police play a central role in the criminal justice system. Without the police, the criminal justice system can as well be considered useless. For instance, a judge cannot pass judgement on a suspect without considering the offence that led to the suspect’s arrest. Likewise, a prosecutor cannot prosecute a suspect without considering the offence that led to the suspect’s arrest. The correctional officers then end up administering punishment to a convicted offender according to the offence that led to his/her arrest then conviction.

Finally, if the police do not make arrests, then the rest of the criminal justice system cannot have roles to play. Their roles can be diminished since they only deal with the suspects arrested and by the police and consequently convicted if found guilty. This illustrates further the significance of the police in the criminal justice system. Their procedures whether done to perfection or faulty end up affecting the whole criminal justice system.Works CitedMackenzie, Layton. “Sentencing and Corrections in the 21st Century”.

Setting the Stage for the Future. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice University of Maryland College Park, MD. Evaluation Research Group, July 2001.Peak, Kenneth J. "Justice Administration." Justice Administration: Police, Courts, and Corrections Management. Pearson Education, Inc. Prentice Hall, 2010.Drakeford, William and Friedman, Kristin. "History of The Criminal Justice System." Edjj Professional Development Series Module 1. University of Maryland, n.d.