Criminal Justice System in the United States: Issues and Solutions

This report explores the challenges faced by the criminal justice system in the United States, with a focus on corruption within law enforcement, the courts, and correctional facilities. The report highlights how corruption undermines the principles of criminal justice, such as fairness and integrity, and suggests solutions to address these issues. Recommendations include establishing an independent judiciary, scrutinizing police practices to prevent bribery, and implementing anti-corruption measures within the prison system. The report also emphasizes the importance of financial accountability to prevent embezzlement and misappropriation of funds within all agencies of the criminal justice system. The report references various academic sources to support its arguments and recommendations.

Running Head: Criminal Justice System 1
Issues in the Criminal Justice System in the United States
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Criminal Justice System 2
Police (law enforcement officers), courts, and correction system, together constitute the
criminal justice system in the United States. These agencies are faced with many challenges and
among them are managerial and administrative crises. This essay will explore the issues in brief
and recommend approaches for administering justice better in the US.
The most serious obstacle of success of the United States’ criminal justice system is
corrupt justice sectors institutions (UNODC, 2019). When the police, courts, and correction
systems are ethically compromised by acting in a corrupt manner, it becomes difficult to trust in
the integrity of the CJS. Corruption is both a managerial and administrative issue like it, in most
cases involve the higher ranked officers in their respective agencies. The wider effects of
corruption are destructive by undermining the principles of criminal justice like independence,
neutrality, integrity, and fairness (Søreide, 2016). These unethical practices erode the public trust
in law and order, deter business, entrepreneurial spirit and investment, and bring legal
uncertainty.
To solve the issue, the judiciary administration should strive to establish an independent
and effective system that protects human rights to promote free and fair access to justice
(Søreide, 2016). The police, on the other hand, should be scrutinized against receiving bribes that
influence their independence in pursuing criminal offenders (Punch, 2013). The prisons and
correction systems should be reinforced with strict anti-corruption measures that prevent their
officers from acting in favour of certain inmates (Pederson, 2019). For all the agencies it is
important for the management to account for funds allocated as a way of preventing
embezzlement and misappropriation.

Criminal Justice System 3
References
Pederson, W. D. (2019). Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United
States.
Punch, M. (2013). Police corruption: exploring police deviance and crime. Routledge.
Søreide, T. (2016). Corruption and criminal justice: bridging economic and legal perspectives.
Edward Elgar Publishing.
UNODC (2019). Integrity in the Criminal Justice System. Unodc.org. Retrieved 17 April 2019,
from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/corruption/criminal-justice-system.html