June 24, 2016

The Shame of American Criminal Justice: Abusive Courts

             On paper, the American Constitution, within its first 10 amendments, known as the "Bill of Rights," guarantees citizens the right to a trial by jury and protection against "cruel and unusual punishment."  Later, in the 14th Amendment, the Constitution provides that citizens cannot be deprived of their life, liberty, or property without "due process of law."  Although not specifically stated, it is also implied in three amendments, the 5th, 6th, and the 14th, that an accused is considered innocent until proven guilty.  These are among the legal protections that provide a foundation for democracies.  While a defendant is awaiting trial, American courts provide for an elaborate system of bail, which allows those individuals to deposit money or property in the court's holding to guarantee against their flight.  The system is great for the middle and upper classes and for the Bail/Bond Commercial Industry; it is different for the poor.

             A judge can deny bail and order pre-trial detention in cases of capital crimes if there is a high risk of flight or if the defendant is considered dangerous to the community.  However, in most cases, a middle-class or upper-class person is able to post bail and remain free until the trial.  For a poor person, bail is set at the same amount depending on the offense, not on the means of the defendant.  Thus, a system of pre-trial detention forces masses of poor people behind bars for many months while they wait for their turn in overloaded court systems.  The tragedy is that "detention centers" are not much different from regular prisons, and detained defendants, innocent and guilty alike, are thrown into the general inmate population.  It is common knowledge that an individual becoming a general population inmate must be a "Viking or a victim;" for the weak, it means a life of rape and enslavement.  It is a clear case of "justice delayed equals justice denied."  I experienced this firsthand during the years that I worked as a teacher and counselor inside the prisons of New York City's Rikers Island.  The bulk of these cases are resolved through a system of "plea bargain," where detained defendants, after months of incarceration, are offered the choice to plead guilty to a lesser charge and be sentenced to "time served," with immediate release.  Otherwise, their inexperience, the Legal Aid Society, a court-appointed attorney, tells them that they can wait more time behind bars to go to trial and then risk a long sentence.  It is an offer few can refuse.

             If this type of "plea bargain" system were to be eliminated, the court system would be overwhelmed; it would collapse.  The possible solutions are additional funding for more courts and personnel, running existing courthouses on a 24/7 schedule, and the introduction of lower-salary magistrates to take lesser offense cases away from high-salary judges.  A simple way to convince the public to accept the higher cost of these reforms would be to restructure the bail system so as to set bail based on means to pay.  Hence, masses of middle and upper-class defendants would experience a stay in detention centers for non-capital crimes.  Of course, while most of us are insulated from a stay in the hell of prison, it is easier to continue to keep the plight of the poor out of sight and out of mind.  Is this the America we want?


Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

June 24, 2016

The Shame of American Criminal Justice: Abusive Courts

             On paper, the American Constitution, within its first 10 amendments, known as the "Bill of Rights," guarantees citizens the right to a trial by jury and protection against "cruel and unusual punishment."  Later, in the 14th Amendment, the Constitution provides that citizens cannot be deprived of their life, liberty, or property without "due process of law."  Although not specifically stated, it is also implied in three amendments, the 5th, 6th, and the 14th, that an accused is considered innocent until proven guilty.  These are among the legal protections that provide a foundation for democracies.  While a defendant is awaiting trial, American courts provide for an elaborate system of bail, which allows those individuals to deposit money or property in the court's holding to guarantee against their flight.  The system is great for the middle and upper classes and for the Bail/Bond Commercial Industry; it is different for the poor.

             A judge can deny bail and order pre-trial detention in cases of capital crimes if there is a high risk of flight or if the defendant is considered dangerous to the community.  However, in most cases, a middle-class or upper-class person is able to post bail and remain free until the trial.  For a poor person, bail is set at the same amount depending on the offense, not on the means of the defendant.  Thus, a system of pre-trial detention forces masses of poor people behind bars for many months while they wait for their turn in overloaded court systems.  The tragedy is that "detention centers" are not much different from regular prisons, and detained defendants, innocent and guilty alike, are thrown into the general inmate population.  It is common knowledge that an individual becoming a general population inmate must be a "Viking or a victim;" for the weak, it means a life of rape and enslavement.  It is a clear case of "justice delayed equals justice denied."  I experienced this firsthand during the years that I worked as a teacher and counselor inside the prisons of New York City's Rikers Island.  The bulk of these cases are resolved through a system of "plea bargain," where detained defendants, after months of incarceration, are offered the choice to plead guilty to a lesser charge and be sentenced to "time served," with immediate release.  Otherwise, their inexperience, the Legal Aid Society, a court-appointed attorney, tells them that they can wait more time behind bars to go to trial and then risk a long sentence.  It is an offer few can refuse.

             If this type of "plea bargain" system were to be eliminated, the court system would be overwhelmed; it would collapse.  The possible solutions are additional funding for more courts and personnel, running existing courthouses on a 24/7 schedule, and the introduction of lower-salary magistrates to take lesser offense cases away from high-salary judges.  A simple way to convince the public to accept the higher cost of these reforms would be to restructure the bail system so as to set bail based on means to pay.  Hence, masses of middle and upper-class defendants would experience a stay in detention centers for non-capital crimes.  Of course, while most of us are insulated from a stay in the hell of prison, it is easier to continue to keep the plight of the poor out of sight and out of mind.  Is this the America we want?


Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

The Shame of American Criminal Justice: Police Abandonment

It has been universally recognized that protection from foreign invasion and from criminals at home is the primary function and duty of government and the paramount justification for its existence. In America today, the threat of foreign invasion is unthinkable, but domestic tranquility is far from universally guaranteed. For upper and middle classes, American police protection is superb by any standard, but for the poor, it is not.

Poor neighborhoods have many more criminals living in them, and a frightening percentage of residents there have been through the criminal schools in our prisons, many with advanced degrees, so to speak.  Criminologists have traditionally suggested that flooding those neighborhoods with police presence would only displace crime.  Yet, that is a great idea; when criminals are displaced to wealthy neighborhoods to practice their trade, residents there will pay to flood their neighborhoods with police presence.  The problem is that wealthy citizens do not want to pay for the cost of flooding poor neighborhoods with police presence to control crime while they remain unaffected by it within their comfort and wealth.

The poor neighborhoods in Chicago and many other major cities resemble war zones.  Gangs rule the streets and the schools, and the ubiquitous response from our political leaders is always the same, "there is nothing that can be done” other than to increase the funding of anti-poverty programs.  The Great Society programs begun in the 60's have cost $trillions and it is hard to notice it.  Local political leaders have often used the funding to build their own electoral machines, public-funded, social-service delivery organizations that employ their loyal ground-game workers.  Some even work in partnership with neighborhood drug gangs, as well as with corrupt police gangs.

Can this change?  Anything can be changed with enough political will.  Street gangs have to be confronted as the terrorist organizations that they are with brute force.  Violent neighborhoods need to be flooded with police forces, with as many minority members as possible within them, but sufficient to reestablish order.  Police officers working in anti-drug units should be scrutinized in the same way that we filter agents for the Secret Service, FBI, and CIA; there is a great deal of corruption in these local forces, and drugs are destroying the fabric of society in these forgotten segments of our nation.  The route out of poverty is good education, which, first of all, requires discipline,  accountability, and a safe neighborhood.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

The Shame of American Criminal Justice: Police Abandonment

It has been universally recognized that protection from foreign invasion and from criminals at home is the primary function and duty of government and the paramount justification for its existence. In America today, the threat of foreign invasion is unthinkable, but domestic tranquility is far from universally guaranteed. For the upper and middle classes, American police protection is superb by any standard, but for the poor, it is not.

Poor neighborhoods have many more criminals living in them, and a frightening percentage of residents there have been through the criminal schools in our prisons, many with advanced degrees, so to speak.  Criminologists have traditionally suggested that flooding those neighborhoods with police presence would only displace crime.  Yet, that is a great idea; when criminals are displaced to wealthy neighborhoods to practice their trade, residents there will pay to flood their neighborhoods with police presence.  The problem is that wealthy citizens do not want to pay for the cost of flooding poor neighborhoods with police presence to control crime while they remain unaffected by it within their comfort and wealth.

The poor neighborhoods in Chicago and many other major cities resemble war zones.  Gangs rule the streets and the schools, and the ubiquitous response from our political leaders is always the same, "there is nothing that can be done” other than to increase the funding of anti-poverty programs.  The Great Society programs begun in the 60's have cost $trillions and it is hard to notice it.  Local political leaders have often used the funding to build their own electoral machines, public-funded, social-service delivery organizations that employ their loyal ground-game workers.  Some even work in partnership with neighborhood drug gangs, as well as with corrupt police gangs.

Can this change?  Anything can be changed with enough political will.  Street gangs have to be confronted as the terrorist organizations that they are with brute force.  Violent neighborhoods need to be flooded with police forces, with as many minority members as possible within them, but sufficient to reestablish order.  Police officers working in anti-drug units should be scrutinized in the same way that we filter agents for the Secret Service, FBI, and CIA; there is a great deal of corruption in these local forces, and drugs are destroying the fabric of society in these forgotten segments of our nation.  The route out of poverty is good education, which, first of all, requires discipline,  accountability, and a safe neighborhood.

Is There a Donald Trump Secret Majority?

One wonders how Trump has won the Republican Party nomination while so few people seem to publicly proclaim to be ready to vote for him.  Has it been an exercise of reactive choice and suspended judgment?  I dare suspect that there is a "secret majority" of voters in the Republican Party and perhaps beyond who desperately hope for radical change in key areas of government policy but are intimidated into silence by a wave of boisterous repulsion by the American mainstream media.  For Mr. Trump's public and secret supporters, his inartful policy statements are a small price to pay in exchange for the anticipated certainty of his promises of draconian transformation of current government rule.  In his crude way, Mr. Trump is rekindling hope for those who yearn for the days of nearly balanced budgets, unperceivable undocumented immigration, trade surpluses, energy sufficiency, near full employment, secured homeland, predictable social mores...  The media is the message, but will its relentless demonization of the self-funded champion of the dream suffice to prevent the covert revolt?

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net