Integrity In The U.S. Criminal Justice System - Research Paper Example

Integrity of the U.S.A Criminal Justice System Integrity is the adherence to moral and ethical principles, sound morals and honesty. Every criminal Justice system must uphold this, without which a Justice system crumbles. The United States Criminal Justice System has come under scrutiny and questioning on its integrity as pertaining law enforcement, the courts adjudication and the correction of the offenders, (Most Americans Doubt Fairness of Criminal Justice System, Reveals Center for Prosecutor Integrity Web). Such scrutiny and questioning is not an exercise in vain but presents the need for strong moral standing and principles in the Criminal Justice System. One that the public can confidently rely on to protect their interests, give a competent no-biased ruling, protects the rights of the public among the other legal principles that dictate the working of the system. This is what integrity is all about. This paper will therefore look more in depth to applicability of integrity in the Criminal Justice System and generally its relevance thereof. By large, the integrity of the criminal justice system is characterized by but not limited to: Transparency in the employment of the personnel in the courts, law enforcers and the correction facilities; high standards of professionalism in the way the personnel in the Justice system carry out their duties; transparency in the assignment, deciding of the cases, correction of offenders and the adherence to the set legal procedures while conducting the duties set out (Langseth). A Criminal Justice System that has integrity attracts public confidence to its working. This is to the effect that the public can comfortably send take their matters to them without fear that the outcome will be tainted with injustices. This elevates the possibility of the public taking matters in their own hands so as to fight for their rights and criminal justice due to the fear that once the law enforcers come into play, the perpetrators of a particular crime would be let go either because of their influence, race, relationship to a particular public figure or whatever other reason. It has been argued it takes integrity to fight corruption, and that the public can only make reports of criminal activities if they believe that an action will be taken and that their lives will not be endangered for making such reports, neither will they face any threats from those they reported. Without integrity, the fight against corruption and injustices in the criminal Justice System is handicapped (Langseth). Integrity avoids tragedy. It is a tragedy to the victims of a crime and others affected when the police incarcerate the wrong individual for years when the real criminals walk scot free and continue to propagate their criminal acts. This tragedy is a reality in the United States Criminal Justice with an example of one Greg Taylor who was convicted in 1993 or crime of murder, which he did not commit. Twenty years later, Greg was exonerated on evidence gathered by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission as they found out that a man they imprisoned for twenty years and had him lost an entire two decades of his life was all along innocent. This tragedy would have been avoided had the Justice system acted with integrity in each of the processes and been convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that the man they were sentencing was actually the real criminal. Lack of integrity in the justice system has seen many others executed on a wrong belief that they were the perpetrators of a felony punishable by death. If the Justice system would embrace integrity such tragedies of life would not be in the records of the U.S.A Criminal Justice System (Moore). Correction facilities in the United States have come under heavy criticism as far as integrity is concerned. The society entrusts the correction bodies with the persons found guilty and sentenced by the courts to punish and rehabilitate them in consonance with the crimes committed by them. As stated in our introduction, integrity is the exhibition of high moral standard and principles, adherence to the set rules and procedures without any form of compromise. This however may not suffice in certain correction facilities as excessive force is used by the correction officers to get their way. It is the expectation of all that with integrity, the correctional professionals will protect the general public from the convicted offenders and thus will not connive with them to escape from the facilities for a favor. Further, the correctional facilities have been entrusted with the duty of providing humane custody of the offenders while in custody and not to arbitrarily interfere with their human rights without a reasonable and justifiable cause in a democratic society. Integrity also calls for the correctional facilities to try and rehabilitate the offenders as opposed to ill-treating them. This is what builds the confidence of the public in the criminal justice system. Failure to uphold integrity weakens the justice system, it scraps and mutilates the name justice and betrays public trust in the way the system conducts itself (Sturgeon). If is for this reason that there have been numerous undying attempts to eliminate racism in the criminal justice system and improve law enforcement training and discipline. This is aimed at condemning and elimination of racial and ethnic profiling and present a Criminal Justice System that upholds the rule of law, shuns corruption, inequality before the law and biasness that has crimpled its integrity. A conspicuous step was made in January 2014, by the reintroduction of the Justice Integrity Bill to the Congress. This Act’s principle objectives pegged on increasing public confidence in the justice system and address any unwarranted racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal process (Justice Integrity Act of 2014). In conclusion, a Criminal Justice system must be founded in the value of integrity so as to perform its functions appropriately and attract public confidence in the running of the system. The United States of America Criminal Justice System ought to uphold its integrity and guard it with all due diligence. The success of this system and the public confidence in it will only suffice if the system itself is alive to the need to fight every vice within and without itself that might compromise their integrity. It is not enough to state that a system has integrity. This is seen through the conduct of the personnel in the Criminal Justice System at all level from the Law enforcers, the court systems and the correction facilities. A reconsideration of the integrity and the focus to restoration of the sound moral and ethical principles in the system will go a long way in building public confidence in the system, in reducing the rate of criminal activities in the country, proper rehabilitation of the convicts and avoiding the tragedy of incarcerating and executing the wrong persons. The U.S.A Criminal Justice System can only regain its standing and confidence to the public if the value of integrity will be deeply embedded in every personnel in the justice system and further if they will fight at all costs to protect and preserve this indispensable value. Works Cited "Center for Prosecutor Integrity | Most Americans Doubt Fairness of Criminal Justice System, Reveals Center for Prosecutor Integrity." Center for Prosecutor Integrity. Web. 21 Nov. 2015. . "H.R.3907 - 113th Congress (2013-2014): Justice Integrity Act of 2014."H.R.3907. Web. 21 Nov. 2015. Read More