International Crime Witness Essay Part 2

Introduction

Criminal justice systems involve practices and government's institutions that are directed to maintain social order, to mitigate and deter crime and sanction lawbreakers with criminal penalties and rehabilitation according to a set of rules. The system has three main parts: the law enforcers (police), trial, and correctional facilities. This part discusses how the courts in England treats defendants during court proceedings, its prison system, and ethical concerns observed in the prison and court orders, and recommendations for improvements in the systems.

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The Courts Approach during Trial

In the law, offenders apprehended without warrants are usually released within twenty-four hours unless charged in a magistrate's court or detained for acts of terrorism. The criminal code in England offers an independent judiciary and the nation respects this provision in practice. Majority of the criminal cases are brought before a magistrate's court that is locally managed by committees. Their verdicts can be appealed to the Crown court which hears criminal cases that require a jury trial, while the Appellate committee of the House of Lords happens to be the final court of appeal. For this case, the hearings were made in the magistrate's courts. According to the 1994 Act, the law guarantees the liberty to a reasonable trial which is generally enforced by the independent judiciary (Jewkes, 2015). In court, the defendant will appreciate'a conjecture of innocence unless proven guilty, and the right to interrogate witnesses against as well as the right to petition to sequentially superior courts' (Jewkes, 2015). The defendant will have the right to free counsel as well. The law encourages magistrates to instruct juries that they can make an inference of guilt when a defendant refuses to respond to trial or interrogations, even though no conviction might be based solely on such interpretations. While being tried under the Official Secrets Act, the magistrate orders the court session closed, yet sentencing must be public.

The Country's Prison System

Even though the court is against degrading, inhumane, cruel treatment, some members of the police force often exploit and otherwise abuse prisoners. Such maltreatment, as a matter of human rights violation, is a subject of concern in England's prison system. The prisons conditions generally adhere to universal standards but then, instances of mistreatment by officers in the jail, suicide, and overcrowding continue being a challenge (Ministry of Justice, 2016). Safety in correctional systems has deteriorated since 2012. The rates of assaults and mistreatment of convicts have been on the rise and continued to escalate. From 2012 to 2016, total attacks on correctional facilities have risen by sixty-four percent (Ministry of Justice, 2016). The defendant is, therefore, more likely to end up in a cruel, inhuman system that will have him go through a robust and stressful life.

Ethical Concerns in England's Court and Correctional System

One of the ethical concerns in the correctional facilities is the subjection of prisoners to harm and mistreatment by police officers. Members of the law enforcement team on most occasions mistreat detainees through physical and psychological abuse, degrading, harsh, and inhumane treatment. There are also numerous reports of police mistreatment during questioning in the holding facilities (Ministry of Justice, 2016). Even though the police positively engage in unethical practices, personnel's workings in the court also happen to behave in unethical and inappropriate ways. Custodians in the correctional facilities are informed by fellow members of the staff to never liaise with their managers by engaging in activities which might be unfavorable to their colleagues. Due to this police culture, an incredible degree of unethical practices like brutality goes unreported in correctional agencies thus the convicts continue suffering in the hands of their guards.

Since judiciary professionals like judges, defense attorneys, and prosecutors have unrestricted authorities, if faced with moral predicaments, they tend to make decisions one way or another that are inappropriate. Some prosecuting attorneys, for instance, are biased. They practice a great deal of choice since they make decisions on the kind of cases which can be dismissed and the ones which require going through a trial. For example, when a convict complains of being assaulted, the magistrate gets to examine such claims but then concessions attained by aggressive treatment are not tolerable in courts, and the adjudicators ignore even voluntary confessions. Hypothetically, prosecutors must attempt to find justice and not only a conviction (Kleinig, 2008). Nevertheless, they are occasionally pushed by their desires for personal gains instead of impartiality. Prosecutors are primarily tangled in the plea-bargaining process, whereby the conjecture of guiltlessness is conceded, and the offender pleads guilty and in turn gets a lesser sentence or charge. With these unethical practices, justice is not efficiently achievable in the court system.

Recommendations

England needs to offer chances to change, that for individuals attempting to change their behavior, they require hope, which in a compassionate state, they ought to be helped through their mistakes and find their way back into the right path. In short, England requires a correctional system which does not perceive offenders as responsibilities to be achieved, but rather as potential possessions to be improved. The current levels of prison assault and police mistreatment require reforms which can make a long-term modification to individuals within the society and take full advantage of the chances of prisoners being changed when they are released from the facilities. Being hard on offenders is never equal to being hard on delinquency. By enacting strict prison reforms, the correctional systems will be able to evaluate physical and emotional situations in correctional systems and how inmates are treated, revealing bad conditions, stressing good practice and treatment to the general public.

In having a more diverse judicial system, the nation ought to pay attention to the critical way in which individuals end up in the law career in the first place. England and the United Kingdom, in general, seem to lay back on diversity and have to catch up. The lack of diversity contributes to bias in the court system which directly impacts decision-making among the juries. Generating respect and trust for the law requires a step modification in the variability of magistracy more particularly the law lords. A persistent perspective of 'us and them' among black, Asian, and minority ethnicities, as well as other suspects, will continue unless diversity is achieved (Lammy, 2017). Since the magistrate's and crown courts offer insight into the future, judges and law lords have to weigh sequences of recidivism and not just the kind of punishment to be imposed. A unique structure like the judicial appointments commission ought to be given extra resources and powers to achieve this.

Conclusion

Concludingly, with the challenges faced by prisoners through England's, criminal justice system a lot ought to be done to build on the courts, and correctional system's principle that justice should not be merely accomplished but has to be evident to be achieved. Sentencing remarks on all cases should also be published to the public. Feedback systems can help magistrates and police officers in assessing how well they interact with defendants, victims, convicts and others in courts and correctional systems.

References

Jewkes, Y. (2015). Media and crime. Sage.

Kleinig, J. (2008). Ethics and criminal justice: An introduction. Cambridge University Press.

Lammy, D. (2017). The Lammy Review: An Independent Review into the Treatment of, and Outcomes for, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Individuals in the Criminal Justice System. London: Lammy Review. Google Scholar.

Ministry of Justice. (2016). Prison safety and reform.