I've always though the biggest problem with the criminal justice system in the United States is that it somehow manages a weird trick of being both too lax and too punitive.
Punishment is very severe on the face of it. Long jail sentences; even the death penalty is possible in more then a few places. Even after you've served time a criminal record will affect you for the rest of your life.
The effect of that though is a weird laxness. The harsher the penalty the greater the temptation to give people multiple chances. The greater the penalty the more effort you need to put in to making sure that the person you're putting away really committed the crime. All of this means it takes longer to actually convict anyone. All of which increases the temptation to let people out on bail while the wheels of justice are turning.
The end result is that people commit multiple crimes with no consequences until they finally trip the line and the consequences are a metric ton of bricks falling right on their heads. And this is affecting people who almost by definition are not good at making long term plans on possible future rewards or problems - if they were they'd be tax payers.
A better system would - in my opinion - be one that comes down very fast with relatively small consequences on criminal behavior. If I knew that people who shoplifted $20 worth of goods were almost certainly going to spend a week in jail - even if there would be no record of them doing that jail time anywhere - I honestly think that kind of petty crime would be greatly lessened.
Frankly (and please don't ask me Kitty Dukakis type questions ) I think the general principle goes all the way through criminal conduct.
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I've always though the biggest problem with the criminal justice system in the United States is that it somehow manages a weird trick of being both too lax and too punitive.
Punishment is very severe on the face of it. Long jail sentences; even the death penalty is possible in more then a few places. Even after you've served time a criminal record will affect you for the rest of your life.
The effect of that though is a weird laxness. The harsher the penalty the greater the temptation to give people multiple chances. The greater the penalty the more effort you need to put in to making sure that the person you're putting away really committed the crime. All of this means it takes longer to actually convict anyone. All of which increases the temptation to let people out on bail while the wheels of justice are turning.
The end result is that people commit multiple crimes with no consequences until they finally trip the line and the consequences are a metric ton of bricks falling right on their heads. And this is affecting people who almost by definition are not good at making long term plans on possible future rewards or problems - if they were they'd be tax payers.
A better system would - in my opinion - be one that comes down very fast with relatively small consequences on criminal behavior. If I knew that people who shoplifted $20 worth of goods were almost certainly going to spend a week in jail - even if there would be no record of them doing that jail time anywhere - I honestly think that kind of petty crime would be greatly lessened.
Frankly (and please don't ask me Kitty Dukakis type questions ) I think the general principle goes all the way through criminal conduct.