Impact of Covid-19 on Criminal Justice System

The assignment examines the effects of COVID-19 on the criminal justice system, focusing on pretrial release, probation, and parole. It discusses the challenges faced by law enforcement officers and the potential for early release programs to reduce prison populations. The document also considers the broader implications of the pandemic on the justice system and society.

Unit 7: Law & Legal Systems
Introduction
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The purpose of this essay is to provide an account of what we mean by the Criminal Justice
System, as well as to answer the essay topic question that the English Criminal Justice
System is ‘on its knees’. For starters, we will first introduce the criminal justice system and
its various departments, and then explain it in the paper. Furthermore, we are going to present
different types and principles of law that exist in the jurisdiction of England & Wales, how
crimes are dealt with by English courts including the right to appeal, the role of various
stakeholders involved in the criminal justice process, and how the effectiveness of the
criminal justice process can be measured during the Covid-19 pandemic and how it can be
improved.
Different types and principles of law that exist in the jurisdiction of England & Wales
In the UK, the head of state is known as the Monarch. In general, the Monarch performs the
tasks, carries out the roles, and utilizes the forces specified by the convention. A monarchy
has long had a provision that the monarch should be politically impartial. England and Wales
have a mixed legal framework, legislative, and tradition approach. Laws are formed by the
passing law by Parliament, which consists of the ‘the Crown', the House of Lords, and the
Commons. Usually, the Prime Minister is a member of the House of Parliament. The Court
system and case law are entirely different from Parliament (Ashworth 2014). Moreover, one
of the most significant public services offered by the English criminal justice system it is
composed of many enforcement departments who combat the commission of crimes. Such
measures and goals are identical. In England, these departments include the ‘Police Service,
the Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty's Service, and the Youth Services Committee.
These units oversee all three governmental entities. Those are the Home Office, the Ministry
of Justice, and the Office of Attorney General. Furthermore, these units conduct various roles
and are part of numerous programmes within the entire structure (Malleson and Moules
2010).
England and Wales have a common law tradition, which can be traced all the way back to
older cases and hence reflects judge-made law. Many common statutes were enacted during
the reign of King Henry II's (1154-1189). The UK has a constitution, but all of it is written
into laws that have been approved by Parliament (Allen and Edwards 2019). The following
legal and civil law are of greatest interest under the unwritten constitution:
● Case Law - The common law is a significant concept regarding protection of human
rights and the establishment of the rule of law (Allen and Edwards 2019).
● International Law - The UK is subject to international legal obligations, treaty, and
convention obligations, particularly to the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, Parliament's acceptance of treaty commitments does not affect the rules. It
is the job of the government to introduce and to pass laws if treaties warrant a reform
in domestic law (Allen and Edwards 2019).
● Criminal Law - Crime behaviours, whether minor or major, are handled by the
company If a defendant is represented by a private attorney, it is for the prosecution;
if it is the CPS, it is working for the state; if it is a public defender, they are working
for the community (PDS). Crime attorneys manage every part of the case, from the
initial investigation to possible post-conviction appeal. Formal interpretation of laws
is needed in this field, in addition to foreign affairs because of terrorism, extradition,
and money laundering concerns (Slapper and Kelly 2009).
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● Employment Law - Laws that aim to maintain the balance between employers and
their workers which also involves deciding what employers can and can demand from
their employees. The focus of the legislature is on topics such as workplace
inequality, operating hours, data privacy, and dismissals (Slapper and Kelly 2009).
● Human Rights Law - In the UK, the Civil Rights Act of 1998 and the European
Convention on Human Rights It includes multiple facets of public justice, such as
equal opportunities, freedom of expression and inequality, as well as penalties against
governments or societies which have violated the human rights of their people. good
advocacy skills, knowledge of the rules, and an empathetic personality are essential in
human rights work (Ashworth 2014).
How crimes are dealt with by English courts including the right to appeal
There are two courts in England and Wales that are dealing with crimes, Magistrates Courts
and Crown Courts. In the Magistrate courts trial proceedings are typically taking place before
three justices of the peace, or before a judge in a district. They have fewer sentencing rights
than judges of the Crown courts. Both offences have a defined maximum fine or minimum
potential penalty period of imprisonment. In addition, the police have authority to try
offences in the superior courts (Malleson and Moules 2010). Section 54 of the Environment
Act grants Environment Agency employees the right to instruct their trained lawyers to
perform the task. In the Crown courts. All criminal accusations can be appealed in the Court
of Appeal. Only the Court of Appeal in England and Wales has the authority to hear cases
from other courts or tribunals. It is known as illegal and is based at the Old Bailey in London.
The members of the Court of Appeal include the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls,
the President of the Family Branch, the President of the High Court, and the Chancellor
(Allen and Edwards 2019).
The private role of the right of appeal is to hold defendants accountable. The public role is to
ensure that mistakes are resolved in order to preserve and increase citizens' trust in the justice
system. Another part of the appeal court's public service is that it will offer precedent for
potential litigation, thus facilitating clarity. In these cases, the appeals process contributes to
the rule of law.
Among the many circumstances in which a right of appeal can exist are the following:
● In felony trials, the prisoner may appeal his or her verdict or sentencing, and the
Attorney General may refer a case to the Court of Appeal if the sentencing is deemed
to be too lenient in more extreme cases.
● In family law proceedings, an appeal against a judge's decision to put a child in foster
care, to award custody of a child to one parent over the other, or to decide how
matrimonial assets can be shared in the event of divorce;
● In civil courts, instances involve litigation from a judge's decision on a commercial
dispute (between a customer and a supplier, a manufacturer, and a homeowner, or two
businesses), a border conflict between neighbouring homeowners, or a lawsuit for
reimbursement for serious injuries suffered in an incident or as a result of a doctor's
misconduct.
● Against judicial decisions deciding on citizen objections to public authority
judgments; for instance, objections to actions of NHS Trusts about the supply of
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a medication and choices of policy makers approving or denying authorization to
construct or expand buildings, bridges, or highways;
● Judges' administrative rulings in all branches of the justice system, such as whether to
admit or exclude such proof, whether or not to publicly disclose of such evidence, and
whether or not to extend an arraignment, are also appealable.
The role of various stakeholders involved in the criminal justice process
To function jointly on life-threatening situations, it is critical to identify criminal justice
stakeholders. These partners are critical to the safety of our societies.
For instance, a police officer pursues a suspect in an attempted burglary of a shop down the
street. The attacker then flips around and shoots at the officer. A skirmish ensues.
Fortunately, the officer asks for assistance and more police come. The perpetrator is arrested,
and the case proceeds to trial. The defendant is arrested and sentenced to jail. What if the
criminal is captured but is not charged and sentenced to prison? What if the officer requested
assistance from other officers and they were unavailable? Truly, the criminal justice system is
dependent on all stakeholders (Joyce 2013).
Stakeholders of the criminal justice system are impacted by the system; in other terms, those
who have everything to lose. This group will consist of both internal and external
stakeholders. Internal stakeholders include the criminal justice system, while external
stakeholders include those that the criminal justice system represents and influences in some
way. Recognizing these stakeholders provides critical context for understanding the criminal
justice system (Smith and Painter 2012).
● Internal Stakeholders - Internal stakeholders involve agents of the judiciary,
prosecutors, probation officers, parolees, corrections officers, attorneys, and court
staff. Internally, those liable for delivering and interpreting the legislation are
members of the criminal justice system. Additionally, those arrested and accused of
offences can be called internal stakeholders of the criminal justice system. Many of
these stakeholders are interconnected and have an impact on one another. All these
stakeholders have to do their part to effectively deter crime, arrest criminals, and
handle criminals (Joyce 2013).
● External Stakeholders – For instance, a criminal interacts with a range of diverse
authorities during their journey from arrest to reintegration into the surrounding area.
There are representatives from a variety of Criminal Justice Agencies, including the
Police, Courts, Prisons, Probation, and city government, as well as private
organisations that provide care, housing, and jobs. While all the organisations are
ultimately concerned with public safety and well-being, their disparate talents,
priorities, budgets, and objectives appear to obstruct their combined effectiveness.
Although, in some cases, they are downright counter-productive, when one agency's
future success is thwarted by the activities of another. It's impossible to fix the
situation when there is no one figure with charge due to the plethora of reporting
lines. This is the point at which dialogue is critical (Joyce 2013). The more
stakeholders there are and the more their priorities are at odds, the more important
dialogue is. Bringing all parties together in dialogue shows the many low-cost ways in
which they can assist one another's needs and desires, as well as the service barriers
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that contribute to criminals' recidivism. A list with types of external stakeholders is
provided below:
o Clients
o Consultative Boards of Trustees
o Representatives/Elected Leaders
o Governmental Organizations
o Mass media
o Interest Groups (e.g., victim advocacy agencies, religious organisations, and
so forth)
o Companies in the Private Industry
o Electorate of the Group
o Community Organizations (that provide services to former offenders)
o Family Units (individuals that are a part of an offender's life)
o Union members (Joyce 2013).
How the effectiveness of the criminal justice process can be measured during the Covid-
19 pandemic and how it can be improved
COVID-19 has become a global public health global epidemic, causing anomic symptoms
that disrupt everyday activities. COVID-19 measures taken change work routine and both
limit and increase incentives for different forms of violence, posing unparalleled obstacles to
the criminal justice system. Additionally, the virus provides natural laboratory environments
for criminologists and social justice scientists, allowing for real-world hypothesis testing and
observation of the relative feasibility of procedure and strategy options under adverse
conditions. We propose the advantages of a COVID-19 crime and justice analysis initiative
and include some anchoring ideas in order to synthesise scientific debate and forthcoming
academic work. Contagion, containment strategies (physical distancing, facemasks, shelter-
in-place, economic breakdown, simulated education, and learning, and prohibited public
gatherings), and voluntary or mandated compliance with local ordinances all provide a
contextual context for studies on crime, justice, and victimisation throughout the epidemic
(Menkes and Suska 2021).
For criminology and criminal justice, the current standard of virus life offers a wave of
equally nuanced options between public safety and the welfare of those under the criminal
justice system's jurisdiction, as well as those who work in it. The majority of observers
predict that the virus will raise certain kinds of frauds (e.g., commercial robbery as a
consequence of absences leading to a lack of safeguarding) while decreasing others (e.g.,
domestic robbery as a consequence of enhanced home involvement and guardianship), that
increased domestic abuse will theoretically reflect the limitations of social exclusion, and that
the justice system will be tested. Maybe the pandemic's most real impact on the criminal
justice system is the fear of COVID-19 pandemic among the people under the system's
jurisdiction of prisons and jails. Which defendants must be held in prison awaiting sentencing
and which will be discharged into society? Will accused individuals be imprisoned or put on
probation? What criminals should be easily released into the society, either due to their high
risk of infection or their low risk of causing crime on the outside? These decisions on pretrial
release, probation, and parole have historically been made on a regular basis, but they may
take on a new shape in the aftermath of the epidemic. Concerns over contagion lend weight to
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the case for parole in order to minimise density in the invariably cramped prison or jail
settings (Menkes and Suska 2021).
The outbreak has elicited a variety of responses from law protection the judiciary, and
corrections, many of which point to potential study opportunities. To restrict officer exposure
to the virus, some states' police forces have started reducing convictions for misdemeanour
crimes. London Metropolitan Police, for example, has also ceased misdemeanour convictions
with exception of domestic abuse and drinking and driving in order to limit COVID-19
visibility within their detention centres. In certain areas, law enforcement officers lack access
to private protection systems and testing despite being gradually, and perhaps surprisingly,
confronted with more virus-related dangerous jobs. If more officers get infected and
government finances become stretched, certain agencies may be forced to cut non-essential
programmes. The complex nature of the pandemic epidemic would undoubtedly influence the
evolving impact on the criminal justice system. The first period of social alienation,
characterised by a high degree of remaining at home, is essentially complete. If policies are
influenced by the need to rebuild the economy, the possibility of revival persists. The struggle
to contain contagion in jails and prisons will create natural experimentation around early
release programmes, which may prompt reconsideration of the relationship between
imprisonment and public safety, which in turn may prompt a broader reassessment of
economic inequality strategies. Although it is fair to expect that counties with riskier release
practises would have higher recidivism rates, reviews of these rates, as well as the justice
practises and measures that contribute to them, can provide valuable guidance about when to
reconsider existing detention and release policies. Due to the increasing incidence of lengthy
and life terms, a sizable proportion of jail cells are filled by elderly and less dangerous
prisoners who are fair applicants for parole in order to decrease the prison population's
density and susceptibility to virus pandemic (Menkes and Suska 2021).
Given that the epidemic would inevitably uncover disparities, shortcomings, and associated
infrastructure disparities, exposure to the justice system's success during the pandemic should
be expanded to more systemic and serious conversations about wider justice policies. Due to
COVID's concerns, the virus necessitates reassessment of the nation's current "mass prison
populations," which are more than nearly triple that that existed for at least fifty years before
corrections strategies were determined by criminal justice system officials, rather than by
current social propaganda to the naive population that increased incarceration somehow
reduces rates of crime (Menkes and Suska 2021).
References
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Ashworth, A. (2014). Positive Obligations in Criminal Law. A&C Black.
Allen, M. and Edwards, I. (2019). Criminal Law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Joyce, P. (2013). Criminal Justice. Routledge.
Malleson, K. and Moules, R. (2010). The Legal System. Oxford University Press.
Menkes, J. and Suska, M. (2021). The Economic and Legal Impact of Covid-19. Routledge.
Slapper, G. and Kelly, D. (2009). English Law. Routledge.
Smith, D. and Painter, A. (2012). Business Law. Routledge.
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