Week 8 Evolution of the legalization of Marijuana

Marijuana has been the center for debate over the past few years in several states.  California and Colorado have acted as the first two states to really address the legalization of the natural plant of Marijuana.  This "drug" is now being used freely in Colorado and large groups have gathered to celebrate and use the drug out in the open, in public.  Federally, the drug is still illegal but the State no longer recognizes the drug being illegal which has marginalized the federal governments enforcement within Colorado.  This legalization will present both challenges and opportunities.  Many consider this drug a gateway drug to worse things where as others see it as a recreational activity that is harmless.  None the less, issues will arise over time whether they be DUI related or taxation related.  My question is, will we see all 50 states and federal legalization in our lifetime?  Will we see federal taxation and what kind of negative and positive impacts might we have as a country?  Personally I believe most states will legalize in then ext 30 - 40 years but the federal government will lag behind and perhaps legalize recreational use but have difficulty and setting laws for growing it in large groups. 

Week 7: Media... unethical, as always

Media Ethics and Criminal Justice

            The Media in the Criminal Justice system plays the role of a watcher.  Media agencies are typically privately owned and funded by their commercial sponsors which may make them biased to whom they would select to air on their television channels or internet websites.  Some agencies seem to support some sides of an argument while others support the other side.  The Media is held far less accountable than the government whenever a blunder occurs and typically is not sued for their mistakes or slander (Dickie, 1992).

            Since Media agencies compete for ratings, viewers or hits on their websites they need to provide the best information possible and more importantly, the sooner the better.  Since the constant pressure is on for new news and better stories media agencies will post stories as fast as they can even if facts are limited or even misleading.  Since media outlets are often the only source of information for most Americans this lack of information or misleading information can drive popular opinion in the wrong direction and force Americans to think a different thing than what is actual truth.  Some media outlets correct their information when it’s updated while others may find the side of the story they want in order to support and argument or perspective that they support (Dickie, 1992).

            Misinformation is everywhere.  In cases that involve trials or court hearings or long term criminal justice proceedings the media can play a major role.  A man, who is involved in an unfortunate shooting may have the information pertaining to that event skewed and intentional changed in order to demonize him so a media agency can capture better ratings and put a spin on a story that isn’t actually there.  This rarely results in law suits but in some cases it does.

I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts on intentional media misinformation, especially if it pertains to George Zimmerman.

           

Dickie, P. (1992). The Media's Role in The Criminal Justice System. Social Alternatives, 11(3), 26-28.

Week 6 Terrorism

Ethical Public Policy Dilemmas and the War on Terror

            The war on Terror has taken a toll on the United States since the September 11^th, 2001 strike on the World Trade Towers.  Following the 9/11 strike, policies and acts have passed that grants more power and authority to government agencies in an effort to deter future attacks.  These policies have come with a price of liberty and challenge the coverage of several amendments, mainly the fourth. 

            This blog is being written the day the strikes in Boston have occurred.  It is not yet known who conducted the attacks or what the motive was but this is an extremely high visibility attack that caused mass casualties.  Many are asking why hasn’t this happened sooner while others ask why did this happen at all.  The answers are not yet known; however, there will be much debate over the next few months about what powers need to be given and used in order to deter from this sort of an attack from happening again. 

            For this blog I will speculate as to what kind of policy changes we might see over the next few months.  First, we will assume this was a domestic terror attack.  If this were a domestic terror attack legislators may look to impose tighter laws restricting the sales of certain materials that can be made to use bombs or have authorities watch records of these materials being sold.  Other changes we may see would be an increase ability to scan internet searches to find people researching how to make high explosives or home made explosives using an IP within the U.S.  We will see policies to increase security for large scale events and possibly background checks for buying mass amounts of materials such as fertilizers that could be used to make explosives.

            Assuming this attack was conducted by a foreign group, possibly Middle Eastern due to media reporting that there were ball bearings in the bombs which is a signature ingredient in bombs made in the Middle East then there might be more dramatic changes.  Changes we could see will vary by strict sanctions against the country that sponsored it or immediate special operations or drone targeting of the group that is associated if it were not state-sponsored.  Worst case scenario, we may see a land invasion like occurred in Afghanistan, but that is unlikely due to the amount of money spent on Iraq and Afghanistan and the results of those expeditions.

            Lastly, it’s important to consider policy and terrorism on the minds of American citizens.  Living in terror is not a good thing; fear can drive most people to do almost anything.  Fear and the thought of being blown up make many Americans willing to give up some freedoms for increased safety.  If it comes to this, law makers will need to determine just how far freedoms can be infringed on before being ruled unconstitutional. 

Week 5 Public Policy in Criminal Justice

Public Policy in Criminal Justice

            Ethical decisions are decisions that every person makes every day when going about their day.  Making an ethical decision could be as easy as waiting at a red light when nobody is around or crossing the street by foot when cleared to by the traffic system.  The problem with ethics is that they are subject to interpretation from person to person.  Ethical standards often drive various policies to determine what is allowed and what is not allowed.  These same standards drive legislation to create what is illegal and what is legal under the government of any society.

            As time progresses some things that were illegal become legal or fall under far less of a punishment and some things that were not illegal become illegal.  This trend is representative of a changing culture, social standard and mentality of what is ethical or right and what is unethical or wrong.  Police officers face tough ethical decisions daily when facing difficult calls where they need to determine use of force if necessary.  Historically, there have been some severe use of force cases that have gone national and some cases where the victim has won in court.  These police officers however do not write the law but merely follow it assuming the laws written by the elected officials are right and ethical.

            Policy writers in the criminal justice system are often reactive to incidents.  When cell phones first become popular in the late 90’s and early 21^st century some vehicular accidents occurred as a result of a vehicle operator being distracted by the use of their phone.  This drove criminal justice policy writers, or the legislature in some states to begin writing policies to make the use of a cellular device while driving a finable offense.  This penalty picked up momentum in several other states where the penalty has grown and become more and more severe.  The questions the policy writers face whenever writing any new policy, such as cellular device restrictions are if they are ethical and constitutional. 

            While banning cellular devices while operating a vehicle sailed through some states, it failed in others or hasn’t even been brought to the table.  This split in mentality shows two distinct sides to the issue.  Some states have legislature writers who state that careless and reckless driving are obvious offenses already in law that match the description of what a careless or reckless vehicle operator may do while distracted by their cellular device.  States that block cellular use state that they are saving lives and preventing accidents by introducing additional laws other than careless and reckless driving laws.  So this presents an issue, are the states that refuse to introduce new laws being unethical and careless or are the states entering additional laws being unethical by appearing to be more of a “nanny” style state?

Week 4 Ethics in Corrections

Ethics in Corrections

            The Unites States of America has the highest per capita of incarcerated persons in the world.  Many of these persons are in prison for drug offenses as opposed to violent crimes.  This growing prison population has vastly surpassed the amount of persons that can be held in prisons.  This over-populations of prisons has led to American enterprises opening up privately ran prisons that are paid by the prisoner thus granting incentive to keep persons behind bars (Fox, 2008).

            Private prisons and corrections have largely been a topic regarding ethics.  Why would a business enterprise want to release a prisoner when they are paid a certain amount a day to keep that prisoner within their prison?  State’s and federal government paying a private company grants inventive not to correct their wrong behavior and to keep them behind bars for longer periods of time.  This kind of business model has been called unethical by many but yet continues to exist today due to the dramatic amount of persons behind bars in the United States (Fox, 2008).

            Corrections officers are often over worked and well underpaid for the type of work that they do.  These officers may receive minimal training, have limited promotion potential and deal with many issues far above and behind the average person.  Corrections officers often make ethical decisions each day in order to better their lives or the lives of the prisoners in which they must see every day. 

            Personally, a man was hired at the same job that I work at.  He was a former corrections officer returning to the Intelligence field from which he was trained to do in the Army National Guard.  This individual told us many stores about when he ran his cell block.  His pay was very low, shifts were twelve hours and strenuous and he worked with two Nationally known gangs, the Bloods and Crypts.  His stories told a lot about making “deals” with prisoners in order to make everyone’s life easier.  The difficult part was drawing the line of how far deals could go and what you could give prisoners in order to make the job easier.  These are ethical decisions our underpaid corrections officers face each and every day on their jobs. 

Bibliography

Fox, C. (2008). The prison population in America. Probation Journal, 55(4), 403-404.

Week 3 Criminal Justice Racism and Efforts to Correct

Criminal Justice Racism and Efforts to Correct

Racial disparities exist in education, jobs, salaries and of course, policing.  Racial disparities in policing range in different cities from the composition of the police force to the types of arrests and to the actual court system.  Over the past decade, policing forces have become more and more diverse, especially in cities like Los Angeles which has a large Latin American population that continues to rise.  The types of persons being arrested shows disparities all over the country, such as in Philadelphia where approximately 90% of the death row inmates are minorities (Crutchfield, Fernandes, Martinez, 2010).

            Individuals on parole often saw favoritism from their parole officers if they were part of the majority group.  Minorities felt discriminated against and reported various degrees of prejudice radiating from their parole officers when making decisions regarding their parole periods.  These disparities are but one part of the criminal justice system where racism is seen.   Reports, studies and findings over the years have shown a possible decline in racism within parole but many of these studies have been criticized due to their methodology (Denney, 1997).

            Anti-racism behavior reportedly didn’t develop within criminal justice systems until the 1980’s when equal opportunity policies and to a lesser extent, anti-racism policies were developed in local government ran education and social services.  One of these examples early anti-racism policies within the criminal justice department that was developed was in relation to the training of probation officers.  The training school that trained probation officers wrote into their requirements the ability to demonstrate and operate antiracist, anti-sexist and other forms of discriminatory policy and practice in order to enable them to work effectively within a multicultural society (Denney, 1997).

Since civil rights movements in the 1900’s, the criminal justice system has continuously evolved in an effort to become more multi-cultural and racially accepting.  These improvements to the criminal justice system will build trust between public and policing departments and further solidify society as a whole. 

Bibliography

CRUTCHFIELD, R. D., FERNANDES, A., & MARTINEZ, J. (2010). RACIAL AND

        ETHNIC DISPARITY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE: HOW MUCH IS TOO

        MUCH?. Journal Of Criminal Law & Criminology, 100(3), 903-932.

Denney, D. (1997). Anti-racism and the Limits of Equal Opportunities Policy in the

        Criminal Justice System. Social Policy & Administration, 31(5), 79-95.

        doi:10.1111/1467-9515.00076