Experiential Project on Criminal Justice System

The assignment discusses the experiential project on criminal justice system, where a practitioner interview was conducted with a former correctional officer. The officer shared his views on the current state of the system, highlighting its flaws and inefficiencies. He noted that the system is slow in resolving cases, providing too many rights to prisoners, and failing to rehabilitate inmates. The officer also discussed the impact of these issues on public perception of the criminal justice system, leading to mistrust and a lack of respect for law enforcement.

Project 2
Experiential Project
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Experiential Project 1
Practitioner Interview
The presence of criminal justice system exists for many years. There are major institutions that
are associated with the system of criminal justice and they are involved in the processes by
which the cases happen here from the point of inception, through trial and till punishment. Any
case under the criminal justice system starts with the investigation of a law enforcement official
who gathers the evidence against the suspected people so that it can be used in the court and it
can help in carrying the proceedings of the case (Surette, 2014). The evidence helps in
determining that whether the defendant is innocent or he is guilty of the crime. If the guilt of the
person gets proved in the court, then the punishment is given to him as per the scope of controls
of the criminal justice system and as per the specifications of the system. The criminal justice
system provides justice to many and it may also fail to do so many times. This makes the people
like or dislikes this system. The criminal justice or the law enforcement system is established to
protect the people of the country. The people who are convicted for the criminal offences are
prosecuted, defended, sentenced and punished under this system. As per the justice and
punishments given to the people, the view differs in regard to this system. My views have also
changed since I interviewed a former correctional officer. Correctional officers are those people
who enforce the rules and they are responsible for keeping the orders within the jail. They also
have to supervise the activities of the inmates, provides an aid in rehabilitation and they counsel
the offenders. The officers inspect the facilities and then they ensure that all the standards are
met. The purpose of interviewing him was to record his views on the system of criminal justice
in the country. This will help in comparing the actual practices and experiences with the things
that are there on paper.

Experiential Project 2
At the beginning of the interview, I asked the practitioner about the present condition of the
criminal justice system. As per the response of the officer, the system is flawed. The reason that
he gave for this was that he feels that the system is very slow with regard to resolving the cases.
Many cases remain unsolved in the courts for years and the criminals get dragged without
punishment for a very long time. The officer says that there are cases that are required to be
solved on priority basis but they take a lot of time to get concluded which lead to injustice in a
way to the victims. The flaw is also due to the fact the prisons of US provide many rights to the
prisoners when they are inside the prison. According to the officer, when the prisoners have
committed a crime, they should be given limited rights and freedom because they no longer
remain a normal citizen of a country after committing a crime.
Then, I asked the correctional officer that how satisfied he was from his job and how did people
of the country perceive the correctional officers. He was quite upset on this question and he
answered it by relating the present condition with the past scenario. He says that in the past,
people perceived him and the other correctional officers as somebody who will help them in
solving their issues and making the people feel safe. But today, the scenario has changed and the
people of the country have lost trust in the correctional officers. The citizens feel that the officers
shoot the innocent people of the country and they exercise unnecessary and unjustified power on
them. This has happened because there are few officers who do this and they harm the people of
their own country for the sake of money and for the sake of obtaining more power, but due to
these people, the entire section of the correctional officers suffers.
The third this that I inquired from the officer was that how effective is the criminal justice
system today? To this question, the officer said that it works to some extent but the flaws that are
present in this system makes its working ineffective many times. This system was created so that

Experiential Project 3
the communities in the country remain safe and the criminals are kept off streets. The country
has spent a great amount of money to make the criminal justice system work but the rate of
criminal offences have also been rising. The officer believes that the perception of world has
become like, only the minorities commit the crimes. The majority of the inmates belong to the
minority community. This shows that the system of criminal justice is not justified and it fails to
work to its full potential. Also, it is the responsibility of the system that once they catch a person
during commitment of crime by him, and he gets the punishment, he must be trained and treated
in a way so that he learns and good values inside the prison. The inmates must be provided with
education so that they change their mindset and the way of looking at things. The inmates must
be given a purpose to learn that how they should deal with others and how they should respect
the fellow citizens. But, unfortunately, the officer does not find any such practice by the prisons
and thus according to him, the criminal justice system is not effective at all.
Next, I asked the officer that whether the system has flaws or the people are not using it
properly? To this, the officer replied that if he considers the rate of criminal offences in the
country, then they are quite low as compared to other nations. This shows that the system is
doing well in keeping the society under control. The criminals are penalized if they are found to
violate the rules and laws. But, it is not necessary that people observe these things and they value
them. This is because they do not visit the court rooms on daily basis. When they get to know
about any case from newspapers etc., they trust only the facts that are being told to them, they do
not consider other relevant things in it. They feel that the justice is not providing for most of the
times and they feel that the system is totally flawed. But, this is not the case. Though there are
some loopholes in the system which is very harmful, but it is not true that justice is not given in
any case. They people believe that they can misuse the system and they can make it work as per

Experiential Project 4
their own convenience and will. This makes them underestimate the criminal justice and they
end up using it in a bad way.
Finally I asked the officer that with all the positives and negatives of this system, what his views
on the future of criminal justice are. He said that there are changes happening in this system in a
consistent and constant manner. He predicts that it will continue to change but the perfection will
come after a long span of time. The system will get better in the future if the citizens of the
country change their way of thinking and they start respecting the system. Also, they have to
change the way in which the system work. This can be done if they get educated and be a part of
this system so that they can carry out the honest and valid practices and cover the loopholes of
this system. As per the officer, the future entirely depends on the ideology that people will carry
in the future, they need to instill the trust with the quality policing and they will have to build the
respect for law and order otherwise, the situations will not change for the better.
When I talked to the officer about the relevant instructional material of the course, he agreed
with the material and found it relevant. The material contained all those things that a person
needs to learn and know about at the initial stages of this course and area. Also, the officer said
that the material was enough to develop a base for a person who has never been a part of this
field. But, he wanted to expand the experiential learning of this course. Apart from the material,
he would like to see some of the dummy plays or case studies that will help the students in
gaining an experience of the courtrooms and they will be able to know the realities behind the
scenes. Also, this will help the students in learning by practicing. According to (Cole, 2015),
when the students learn from playing the roles of a lawyer, criminal defendant, judge etc., then
they learn in a better way than the learning that they get from the course material. They need to
get into the actual practices to understand that how things work in the real world.

Experiential Project 5
References:
Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2015). The American system of criminal justice. Nelson
Education.
McMains, M. J., & Mullins, W. C. (2014). Crisis negotiations: Managing critical incidents and
hostage situations in law enforcement and corrections. Routledge.
Surette, R. (2014). Media, crime, and criminal justice. Nelson Education.