THE ETHICAL DEBATE OF OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

The United States Criminal Justice System currently uses a punitive system, otherwise known as the prioritization of harsh punishment. However, there have been many ethical debates on our current system, and questions about whether we should aim to prioritize another system. Other criminal justice alternatives, like rehabilitation (rehab), transformative justice, fines, and many other works. In this blog, we will be discussing the pros and cons of our current system and alternatives, and the process of implementation of new programs, if any. 

Let’s begin with our current criminal justice system, the punitive one. The reason it is believed that our current harsh punishment system is so effective is because of the idea of ‘deterrence’. Deterrence, in this context, is defined as a fear of imprisonment which leads to a lack of crime. The effectiveness of deterrence is still a large debate in our country. While many sources state that deterrence in general is highly effective, when it comes to deterrence from fear of imprisonment in our current prisons, many sources say it is not working effectively. However, deterrence has been proven to be very effective in many other countries; one example is Singapore, which cites its death-penalty threat for drug offenders as the key reason as to why it has such a low crime rate. Understandably, Singapore is a very different country from the United States, and has many different cultural and societal beliefs, and, most importantly, uses rehabilitation widely. While some sources state that deterrence is a key reason for the success, we must keep in mind that the rehabilitative systems help solve some problems, too. 

One major problem of our current criminal justice system is how unsafe prisons are. Prison systems have been looked into, and multiple studies prove that the violent environments within prisons create more mental instability to criminals, and ‘rinses away their humanity’. When committing crimes, many tend to be in a mentally unstable state, and with a punitive prison system that makes the problem worse, we must come to terms that our current system is only making the problem worse, increasing reoffense rates. As seen here, the current punitive criminal justice system seems to have been implemented with good intentions, but because it hasn’t been seen through properly, we aren’t able to meet the benefits of our program.

One of the most popular alternatives to the status quo is rehabilitative systems; many argue that rehabilitation should be prioritized instead of our current harsh punishment system, as it is much more moral and is much more effective. Some popular programs include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Risk Need Responsivity (RNR), Educational Rehab, and many more. To go into further detail, RNR and CBT are both two programs that address triggers within a criminal’s brain. They look to see what triggers a criminal to give a violent response, and calm the trigger down, eventually getting rid of it. By doing this, they ensure the safety of the criminal's mental health, reduce reoffense rates–a huge problem proposed by the status quo—and address the root cause. 

Speaking of the ‘root cause’ , let's move to Educational Rehab. Educational Rehab understands that many criminals come from underprivileged neighborhoods with a lack of education, thus leading to their lack of success, which in turn leads to the necessity for criminals to commit certain crimes, like robbery and theft. Furthermore, poor neighborhoods also lead to an unfortunate exposure to substances like drugs, alcohol, and other unsafe materials that are not safe, especially for a younger population. Educational Rehab helps criminals gain the skills they need to survive in the world, and also gives them educational credits, which help them get a job easier. With these key skills, criminals can escape the unfair cycle of poverty and reoffense.  This brings us to one of the biggest problems in our society right now. As recidivism rates, or reoffense rates, are skyrocketing, there seems to be a clear cycle of recidivism. As criminals keep reoffending, they are continuously put back out in the world, commit crimes, creating more victims, and come back into jail, and the cycle starts all over again. This is either because of their mental health issues, or because they have a huge obstacle in front of them due to their criminal record on their ‘resume’. Rehab very clearly solves this issue, by helping people solve their mental health issues and also providing them with the tools needed to reintegrate into society. 

However, the problem of a rehabilitative justice system in the United States is the cost of implementing it. In order for there to be a prioritization of rehab, or an increase of rehab, in the United States, we are going to need multiple resources, including certified Corrections Psychologists. Unfortunately, Corrections Psychology is facing a huge job-shortage, so it seems to be impossible to even implement more rehabilitation in the United States. A common argument in response to this is the idea that with more job openings, more people will start to become Correctional Psychologists. However, this is simply untrue; there is a shortage right now, and no one is filling these positions. What is the guarantee that these positions will ever be filled if they aren’t even being filled now? In response to this, some propose a plan called ‘job training’, a program where we train prison guards and other prison workers to be psychologists, but this is a terrible idea. Everyone who will be in these rehabilitative systems will be criminals who have serious mental instability issues, and if we try to appoint them to poorly trained psychologists to take care of these dangerously unstable criminals, it will be completely ineffective and just a waste of money.

This argument, though, doesn’t consider the scope of Educational Rehab, which might not require as many psychologists, but more educators; however, educational rehab has been proven to be ineffective. This is not based on the idea that education isn’t being taught properly; it is based on the lack of guarantee that any criminals have the incentive to go and get a job post-imprisonment. Many criminals recidivate even after completing educational rehab, showing that educational rehab seems to be pretty ineffective, as there is no guarantee that prisoners who are coerced to take educational rehab will even have the incentive to go and attempt to get a job and better their lives after getting released. 

And finally, considering all scopes of rehabilitation, let’s talk about coerced rehab, or forced rehab. Even if we somehow managed to successfully facilitate rehabilitation as a priority in the entire United States, it is highly likely that rehabilitation doesn’t work. Coerced rehab is highly ineffective against the majority of criminals, or violent criminals. Because many studies on rehab focus on voluntary rehabilitation and not mainly on court-ordered rehab, we are forced to consider this unconsidered aspect of rehabilitation. Because rehabilitation is ineffective if the participant is not willing to make a change, we might as well say farewell to all hopes of seeing the benefits of rehabilitation, as the lack of resources, incentive, and willingness annuls any. 

Let’s move on to a different justice program, transformative justice. Transformative justice is an alternative in which the justice system aims to solve for the root cause from the beginning itself. While programs like rehab work after an offense has been committed, transformative justice programs prevent crimes from even happening in the first place. Some programs in transformative justice include reconstructing neighborhoods, building better schools, etc. These programs recognize the root causes for crimes in society, like drug-riddled neighborhoods, a lack of education on consequences of crime, and more. Transformative justice seems like the perfect solution, and unlike rehab, if implemented into the United States, it would be life-changing and completely effective, with no complications like coercion. However, similar to rehab, we have a problem: lack of resources. This program is impossible to implement, as this program suggests that we transform nearly every neighborhood in the United States in order for it to actually be effective; the cost for this would be immense, and we simply can’t afford it. We’re already spending so much money on our criminal justice system right now, and a huge portion of taxes the average American citizen pays goes to funding our CJS (criminal justice system). With an already economically struggling CJS, attempting to implement such a new program in the United States could and will lead to disastrous effects. 

Finally, let’s discuss the system of prioritizing fines as a form of punishment in our CJS. This system could perhaps lead to the most disastrous effects on our country. It is well known that there is a huge wealth gap in our country; this implies that some people can afford fines, while others can’t, and will have to be incarcerated. Because the underprivileged population is already more exposed to crimes due to a social disadvantage (i.e. crime-riddled neighborhoods) in comparison to the more privileged population, they will likely be the most fined population. However, because the underprivileged population is more likely to struggle with paying fines, a majority of this population that commits crimes will most likely be incarcerated; however, the privileged population is already at a social advantage, but now can also pay a fine and avoid incarceration. This results in a huge problem in our society; a majority of the incarcerated population would most likely be minorities and people from underprivileged groups. The fining system provides no help with reintegrating criminals back into society; it only increases crimes in underprivileged communities and increases structural violence by putting mainly minorities in prison. 

Right now, it seems as if our CJS is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Our current system could be effective if implemented properly, but our country is struggling to do so, which results in a huge increase in crime rates. In an attempt to solve this problem, we look at many alternatives like rehabilitation, which we can’t implement due to a lack of resources, no incentive guarantee, and no effectiveness. We also look at the alternative of transformative justice, which seems to work great, but is impossible to implement, as the cost of implementing it is too much for our country to handle. Finally, we look at the prioritization of the fining CJS, but that system just leads to disadvantages all around. Are our current conditions so bad that we must take the gamble of implementing other programs? Or are we stuck with our current criminal justice system forever?