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Running head: IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL INJUSTICE
Impact of Institutional Justice
Kakesa Wilkerson
Keiser University
Dr. Lori Daniels April 14, 2018
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IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL INJUSTICE
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Introduction
The incarceration rate in the United States is the highest among the developed nations of
the world because of an institutional justice system that is designed to punish more than to
rehabilitate criminals, especially minor offenders. It is challenging when consideration is given
to the statistical figure of the number of inmates relative to the population and uses the figure to
perform a comparative analysis of other countries. According to Ahalt et al. (2013), the gap is
wide because imprison its citizen 15 times more than Japan, 11times more than the Netherlands,
and 7 times more than France, which are countries that have similar economic and political
conditions as the nation. On the other hand, the problem with the mass incarceration agenda of
the institutions in the criminal justice system is leading to a situation where the social issues
experienced by some minority group is getting worse thereby increasing the need for the
development of alternatives to the methods for implementing institutional justice policy.
Therefore, racial profiling, criminal stereotyping, and harsh sentencing are factors that are
creating imbalances in the administration of institutional justice in the country. However, DiIulio
et al. (1993) argued that evidence from the literature showed that institutions in the justice
system have to be ineffective in meeting the expectations of the citizens, which is a major
challenge because of the enormous resources that are invested in them and their role in the
attainment of social harmony, democratic principles, and economic development.
The Impact of Institutional Justice
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In every democracy, the justice system should be efficient, effective and fair to all
citizens in its administration of the provisions of the laws of the society. While retribution is an
essential part of the process of maintaining law and order in the country, the institutions are
expected to use the punishments to rehabilitate the incarcerated and deter people for engaging in
crimes (Collica-Cox & Sullivan, 2017). However, the outcome of the overall assessment of the
U.S. justice by scholars and analyst showed that the most of the institutions have policies that
would make it impossible for them to achieve this imperative. In their study on the institutional
impact of incarceration on the public health system, Schnittker, Uggen, Shannon, and McElrath
(2015) posited that “individuals residing in states with a larger number of former prison inmates
have diminished access to care, less access to specialists, less trust in physicians, and less
satisfaction with the care they receive.” They further noted that a greater level of the effect of the
failures in the American justice system could be observed through its influence on the women
and dependents of inmates who alluded to the notion that the uncompensated care available at
the correctional facilities is part of the problem.
Social institutions are designed to implement the policies and laws of a nation, which
establishes a link between their performances. When one fails in the attainments of the policy
goals that are placed under its jurisdiction, the performing ones would need to create new
programs to accommodate the spillover effects from the institution. This dimension is a critical
one for examining the overall impact of institutional injustice on the current society. Moreover,
Blanco (2012) asserted that the attainment of social objectives such as employment, provision of
affordable housing, and education is the essence of the huge investment in their operations.
Empirical evidence from their research showed that funding of institutions in the educational
sectors is critical for improving the performance of a nation in most of the human development
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parameters. Therefore, a failure of the system designed for improving the moral and intellectual
capacity of the citizens would contribute to the pressures on other systems such as healthcare and
social services. Rosich (2007) supported this viewpoint when they cited the role that the
institutional justice system of the United States has played in the race issues that exist in the
country, especially those related to the experiences of ethnic minorities. For example, the
historical bias of the criminal justice system to African-Americans in the country is making the
fight against crimes as a tool for promoting racial discrimination thereby making diversity
management and inclusion difficult.
Furthermore, it is pertinent to examine the impact of institutional justice on the
prevention of crime and reduction of the incident rates of violent criminal activities. In this
regard, it is important to conduct a structured examination of the factors responsible for the
problem as a means to identify the strategies for dealing with the negative consequences of
programs and policies of the institutional justice system. According to Seigafo(2017), the
criminal justice system of the United States used the rehabilitation based policy directives to
reduce criminal activities in the country by ensuring that correctional facilities offer programs
that provide opportunities for acquiring occupational skills and treatment for psychological
problems. Regarding the interventions for mental disorders, the goal was to use them to reduce
the recidivism rate since the scientific evidence showed that they play a major role in the
commission of crimes. An example is the substance abuse and anger management programs that
the Department of Justice used for the allocation of financial resources to the prisons. Duwe
(2017) claimed that programs such as cognitive behavior therapy and social support systems are
effective in the reduction of an ex-convict to engage in criminal activities after their release.
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While the programs offered by the prison system are useful for rehabilitation of prisoners,
the bigger problem of overpopulation is making them irrelevant to the needs of the society.
According to Phelps (2011), 1 in 142 Americans are either in jail or prison while an additional 45million is on probation or parole. They noted that the implication of this stance by criminal
justice professionals is that U.S residents are more involved in the criminal justice in one way or
the other than their counterparts in other developed societies. Also, the country is the only one
among the developed nations that imprison people for non-criminal activities such as
prostitution, drug possession, and violation of several complex regulations that most citizens are
either unaware of and lacks their understanding. Leighton (2014) corroborated this position by
arguing that a prison system that cost taxpayers an estimated $30,000 per inmate per annum is an
ineffective one that should be reformed with alternative solutions that are less expensive and
contribute to a safer and secure society. Therefore, low socioeconomic development of the
citizens could be regarded as one of the impacts of an institutional justice system that fails to
meet the social objectives for its establishment. Rather, than contribute to social order and
harmony, it would exacerbate existing problems and make solutions that are designed for their
resolution ineffective.
In spite of the issues surrounding the U.S criminal justice system, especially those
associated with institutionalized racial discrimination, the correctional system remains a critical
element for achieving the global status of a leading economy. In the opinion of Reiman and
Leighton (2015), prisons are designed to deter criminals from engaging in crimes because its
absence would result in an unjust environment where the weak becomes victims of the strong. A
burglar will continue to torment residents of a community if he or she knows that his or her
actions would go unpunished. Rapists and juvenile sex offenders would take advantage of the
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vulnerability of the young and old to cause emotional and physical pain unabated. Also, CollicaCox et al. (2017) argued that punishments are methods for maintaining the existence of equity
and social debt since it serves the goal of retribution, which is required to maintain law and
order. Therefore, the pain and unpleasant feelings associated with punishment are necessary for
achieving other elements of retribution including rehabilitation and deterrence
Conclusion
The examination of the literature has shown that the duties performed by social
institutions are interrelated which makes the effective delivery of their expectations a necessity
for the maintenance of social harmony. According to Blanco (2012), the judicial reforms should
cause the perception on the security of individuals and people being seen as victims of crime.
Each judicial reform is supposed to deal with specific issues that are unique to the factors of each
locality since it is the institution justice is one that seeks to promote the larger goal of “good
governance, and consequently greater economic growth”, which leads to the rule of law and the
respect for the right to property of all citizens. As a conclusion, institutions in the criminal justice
system of the United States must strive towards ensuring that its policies and programs are
designed to generate outcomes that positively impact the citizens by reducing the potentials for
people to engage in criminal activities or contribute to an increase in the population of the
prisons.
IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL INJUSTICE
References
Ahalt, C., Trestman, R. L., Rich, J. D., Greifinger, R. B., & Williams, B. A. (2013). Paying the
price: The pressing need for quality, cost, and outcomes data to improve correctional
health care for older prisoners. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 61(11).
Blanco, L. R. (2012). The impact of reform on the criminal justice system in Mexico.
Collica-Cox, K., & Sullivan, L. (2017). Why Retribution Matters: Progression not
Regression. Theory in Action, 10(2), 41
DiIulio, J. J., Alpert, G. P., Moore, M. H., Cole, G. F., Petersilia, J., Logan, C. H., & Wilson, J.
Q. (1993). Performance measures for the criminal justice system. US Department of
Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Duwe, G. (2017). The Use and Impact of Correctional Programming for Inmates on Pre-and
Post-Release Outcomes. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National
Institute of Justice.
Leighton, P. (2014). 'A Model Prison for the Next 50 Years': The High-Tech, Public-Private
Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Center.
Phelps, M. S. (2011). Rehabilitation in the punitive era: The gap between rhetoric and reality in
US prison programs. Law & Society Review, 45(1), 33-68.
Reiman, J., & Leighton, P. (2015). The rich get richer and the poor get prison: Ideology, class,
and criminal justice. Routledge.
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Rosich, K. J. (2007). Race, ethnicity, and the criminal justice system. ASA.
Schnittker, J., Uggen, C., Shannon, S. K., & McElrath, S. (2015). The institutional effects of
incarceration: Spillovers from criminal justice to health care. The Milbank
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Seigafo, S. (2017). Inmate’s right to rehabilitation during incarceration: A critical analysis of the
United States correctional system. International Journal of Criminal Justice
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