Criminal Justice System

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1. The Criminal Justice System consists of three major functional units. They are Agencies of Police, Courts, and Corrections. Following is the purpose of each

A. Police agencies are generally responsible for the investigation of a criminal event and based

on the results of said investigation, request arrest warrants, affect the arrest and place the offender in lockup, prepare all reports and present reports and evidence to the District Attorney for prosecution. Police Officers are required to present oral testimony at the offender's trial.

B. The Courts consists of Attorneys, their staff, and judges and their staff. The District Attorney must make the decision on what charges are filed based on information provided by Police agencies. Judges must review all reports and evidence to insure proper procedures have been followed prior to issuing warrants for arrest. Once the offender has been arrested, he is granted an initial appearance before a judge for possible bond setting. The judge can release the offender on his own recognizance, require bail be posted to insure offender's return to court or order the offender held without bail. The next court appearance, arraignment, is to insure the offender is aware of the charges filed against him, to see that he is adequately represented by counsel and to set a date for Preliminary Hearing. At the preliminary hearing, the District Attorney is required to place sufficient evidence before the court to prove that a crime has been committed, that the accused committed the crime, and that he the offender should stand trial before a jury of his peers.

C. The Corrections Department includes jails, prisons and community-based treatment programs (half-way houses) and programs for probation and parole. Prisons are rated on their custody level of prisoners held, i.e., Maximum, Medium and Minimum prisoners. Boot camps are designed to shock youthful offenders into quick rehabilitation, whereas long-term confinement facilities are designed for the hard-core criminals who are likely to return to crime quickly if released.

. Important activities of above functional units

A. Police At the heart of the Police Officer's Creed, To Protect and Serve lies his primary duties. Officers must ever be aware of their responsibilities to protect and serve all the population, not the select few. Laws must be enforced with dignity and restraint, never abusing the rights of an individual, whether to affect an arrest or let him go. It is only through a well-trained, self-disciplined police force that the public can rest assured they will be treated fairly. Crime prevention should always be the aim rather than arrest and prosecution. A good police officer is one who recognizes his duties and performs them without bias. He must never let the actions of the courts govern his actions or thoughts.

B. Courts The primary responsibility of the Courts is to prosecute cases presented by police agencies. Throughout the system, the offender's rights must be protected. From the DA to the Judge, all their actions must be above board, must be available to public scrutiny, and must be fair and equitable. They must assure that the punishment fits the crime.

C. Corrections This agency is responsible for the receipt, classification, and housing of prisoners. The primary goal should be rehabilitation. Although locked behind the wall, prisoners still have rights. These rights must never be violated, not by the Police, by the Courts, or the Corrections personnel. Since every person convicted of a crime is not sentenced to prison, the Corrections Department must establish and operate a system of Probation and Parole. The end result should be to return a productive person to society.

. Ranking of Activities

A. Police Departments

(1) Protect and Serve

() Crime Prevention

() Investigation of Crimes

(4) Enforce laws with Dignity and Restraint

(5) Love, Protect and Educate our youth

(6) Love, Honor and Protect out elderly.

B. Courts

(1) Prosecution of Offenders

() Protect the rights of all

() Insure the Punishment fits the Crime

(4) Insure all offenders' are treated fairly and equitably

(5) Insure that all offenders are given the right to defense counsel and the right to a speedy trial.

C. Corrections

(1) Receive, classify, and assign prisoners on the basis of their crime. No bias can be allowed.

() Make programs available for rehabilitation

() Develop programs for the rehabilitation and education/training of youthful offenders, whether in confinement or through Probation and Parole.

(4) Protection of the public by insuring dangerous criminals serve their allotted time and appropriate personnel are notified of their pending release.

(5) Return to society a productive individual through education and training.

4. In my judgement, personal integrity is more important than organizational integrity. The organization is made up of several personnel, each from a different way of life, with different values and with different ideas on what personal integrity means. It is only through the combined efforts of all members of the organization that breeches of integrity are weeded out. Management must insure that all officers are knowledgeable, well-trained and that one bad apple cannot spoil the barrel. Integrity comes from inside an individual. It is based on his early years of formulation. Mr. Michael Palmiotto of Wichita State University really summed it up, not only does misconduct by an officer personally affect that officer, it also affects the community, the department that employs the officer and every police officer and police department in the nation.

5. The County (District) Court is the court most important in our daily lives. This court is the one with which citizens usually have contact. They handle most criminal cases and the great bulk of legal businesses, i.e., wills and inheritance, marital disputes, and other day-to-day matters. Officers presenting evidence to District Attorneys for criminal prosecution are normally called as witnesses. Filing these cases in District Court allows the officer time to prepare for trial, review reports and make timely appearances at trial. Trials are usually during an officer's off-duty time and he is seldom compensated for his time and travel. For instance, I know that in Creek County there are three locations for District Court Sapulpa, Bristow, and Drumright. All misdemeanors in Western Creek County are filed in Drumright. All felonies are filed in Sapulpa. By having three locations, both officers and witnesses are saved time and cost.

6. The Author's approach to the Courtroom Work Group was adequately explained. It is true that the Judges, District Attorneys, Defense Attorneys, and their respective staffs are court professionals. The average person may never appear in court either as a defendant, witness, or victim. The professionals must guide the outsiders through the system to insure the system operates smoothly and effectively. As we look at the Court system, the Judge is definitely the main player. It is his responsibility to insure justice. He must safeguard both the rights of the accused and the interests of the public in the administration of criminal justice.

7. As our corrections departments moved through the phases listed; punishment, rehabilitation, and warehousing, we were given a look at totally different methods of treating prisoners. During the Punitive Era (15-145) emphasis was placed on punishment and security with the prevailing belief that prisoners owed a debt to society which only a rigorous period of confinement could repay. They believed that convicts should be both shunned and securely locked away from society. An out of sight - out of mind philosophy characterized American attitudes toward inmates. The Treatment Era (145-167) was based on a medical model of corrections which implied that the offender was sick and that rehabilitation was a matter of finding the right treatment. The goal of therapeutic treatment was to help the inmate mature psychologically and to learn to accept responsibility for their life. Both individual and group therapy sessions were utilized. Other forms of therapy used in prisons have included behavior therapy, chemotherapy, neurosurgery, sensory deprivation, and aversion therapy. An honest evaluation of the treatment era would conclude that treatment was more an ideal than a reality. Although 167 was declared the end of the treatment era, many correctional rehabilitation programs survive to the present day and new ones are constantly being developed. The Warehousing Era (180-15) came about as a result of the changes of individual sentencing decisions of judges, citizen outrage at the high recidivism rates and restrictive legislative action. The judges went back to the just deserts concept, built upon a renewed belief that offender's should get what's coming to them. Couple these actions with the truth in sentencing laws, three strikes and you're out law, we find that warehousing has led to prisons being frighteningly overcrowded. A quick recap of the three listed eras leads me to believe that society has yet to adopt a workable solution. We did not discuss the Community Based Era in this paper but it became rapidly obvious that was not the answer. We were returning repeat offenders back to the corrections system faster than we could rehabilitate. Of the three Eras listed, I tend to believe society accepted the rehabilitation era more than the others. However, in 17 a group of prisoners calling themselves the Federal Prisoner's Coalition insisted that inmates have a basic right to resist rehabilitation techniques designed to change their attitudes, values, or personalities. They were supported by the American Civil Liberties Union and their protest resulted in funds being withheld from any system utilizing psychosurgery, medical research, chemotherapy and behavioral modification. The rehabilitation approach leans more to public order than the individual rights of inmates. It is felt in most channels that hardened criminals have revoked their rights through the commission of their heinous crimes. To close, one must look at the number of drug-related offenders presently incarcerated. As long as they retain their dependency on the drugs, they are not able to cope with daily living nor do they recognize the concept of right and wrong.

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