Criminal Justice

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ALL PARTS HAVE TO BE COMPLETED, PLEASE DO NOT COMMIT IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO COMPLETE ALL PARTS

Part 1

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Judge James Shoreman is up for reelection in 2 months. He has a full docket on Monday morning. Two of the individuals on this docket are Thomas J. Catalano and Abdul Hussein Jabari.

Mr. Catalano has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. His prior record consists of breaking and entering, assault on a police officer, and possession of narcotics. Mr. Catalano has a “high-priced” lawyer with the discretionary funds for an additional investigation. Mr. Catalano has a wife and two children. He has been employed for 5 years for the local banking institution. Mr. Catalano has received a 10-year probation sentence with the stipulation that if he violates this probation, he will serve the remainder of the sentence in the state prison.

Mr. Jabari has been charged with the distribution of a controlled substance (prescription drugs). His prior record consists of possession of narcotics and falsification of identity. Mr. Jabari has a court-appointed lawyer who is on the pro bono list maintained by the judge. His funds are limited but the Muslim community has rallied to his financial aid, and there have been demonstrations at the courthouse. Mr. Jabari has a wife and three children. He has been employed for 8 years as the chief chef at a local restaurant. Mr. Jabari has received 7 years in the state prison, without the possibility of good time.

  • Looking at the family situations, the employment situations, and community support, give a reason why you think the judge would render such decisions.
  • How could the judge support his decisions?
  • Do you think he showed any type of bias? Why or why not?
    • If he did, what form of bias?
  • Could the demonstration have had an adverse effect upon the sentencing? How? Why?
  • Search the Web, and find 2 examples in which minorities were sentenced unfairly.
    • Explain the reasoning behind this sentencing, and determine if the sentences were fair or biased.

Part 2

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

George is a college student in North Carolina. Every weekend, he drives into Georgia to visit his family. George’s family is well-respected and are influential members of their community. They are wealthy enough to give George a good education and supply him with an upscale, flashy, and expensive automobile.

George is very religious, has extremely high ethics, but is also an eccentric and unique individual. He does not follow the trends in clothing or personal presentation. He has long hair, a flashy car, and wears "hippie" attire. Every time he travels through the northern counties of Georgia, he is either stopped by the Georgia Highway Patrol or the local sheriff’s office. They stop him because he fits the profile of a drug dealer.

The Georgia Highway Patrol and the local sheriff’s office have policies and procedures pertaining to drug trafficking. The highway that George is traveling is known as a “drug pipeline.”

  • Do you think these repetitive stops are reasonable? Why or why not?
  • What would be the reasoning behind the stops? Explain.
  • If these stops are based on policy and procedure in your state, what would the major in the Georgia Highway Patrol and the sheriff of the local county say to officers who did not stop George? Explain.
  • If the patrol had a field training officer (FTO), and you were a new recruit, how would you react if the FTO said “just skip him”?

On his last trip home, George passed a large city, and the highway patrol stopped him. This officer carried tools and a battery-powered screwdriver. He proceeded to take George’s car apart, piece by piece. When he did not find drugs, this officer just drove off, leaving George stranded. It was found that this officer just received a commendation for the highest amount of drug busts on this highway.

  • Should he be put up as an example of a good leader to follow for other drug officers? Why or why not? Explain your rationale.

Support your answers with scholarly sources and research into the laws and policies of your state.

Part 3

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Asalah is a Muslim female who has immigrated to the United States with her husband and two children. Her husband is considered moderate and progressive in his ideals. Asalah is working in the female section of the county jail. Although she is progressive, she still feels that she should wear a khimar (type of head scarf), but by policy, this is not allowed within a jail setting.

To follow policy and procedure, she does not wear any covering in the female section but wishes to wear the khimar when coming into and leaving the jail setting because there are males in this institution.

She has just heard from her family that they are coming for a visit. Her family is quite conservative and also realizes that she will not be wearing a burqa but would expect her to wear a khimar.

  • Could there be an exception made for her to come to and from work?
  • Knowing that she is Muslim, would this head scarf put her in any danger from the female inmates?
  • The jail has offered to place her in the classification department if she wishes to wear the khimar, but would this be considered discrimination? Why or why not?
  • During her lunch hour, she wishes to go to the cafeteria to get some snacks but she is not allowed to wear her khimar. This causes a problem because men are walking the halls and are in the cafeteria. What would be the reasoning that the jail administrators could give her for this procedure?
  • What types of policies exist regarding cultural considerations such as this? Explain.
  • Do you feel that these policies are effective in their purpose? Explain.

Part 4 (400 words)

Review and reflect on the knowledge you have gained from this course. Based on your review and reflection, write at least 400-600 words on the following:

What were the most compelling topics learned in this course?

How did participating in discussions help your understanding of the subject matter? Is anything still unclear that could be clarified?

What approaches could have yielded additional valuable information?

Part 5

Address the following in 2–3 pages:

The blood type did not match the assailant's; could this be ignored today? Why or why not? Explain.

Are crimes still tied together today? Explain.

With the today's studies, it is realized that most murders or rapes are intraracial, not interracial. Should people have realized that in 1984, or was it just a matter of bigotry?

Use scholarly and academic resources to support your argument.

Take this case and make 2 scenarios:

Create 1 in which the perpetrator is Caucasian and 1 in which the perpetrator is a minority.

Explain how it would be handled in this day and time.

Locate 2 cases that are similar to your scenarios, and use them as scholarly sources to back up your opinions.

Explain the legal and ethical details pertaining to your scenarios' individuals.

Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.

Part 6

Address the following in 3–4 pages:

What effect would this have on his leadership role with his officers? Explain.

What effect would this have on his interaction with another agency? Explain.

Would this have an effect on community relations and cooperation with the community with the FBI? Explain.

If this attitude continued and Sheriff Jones held back pertinent information from the FBI that caused the perpetrator to flee the area, would this behavior cause moral problems within Sheriff Jones’ department? Why?

How would it have an effect on the officers?

Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.

Part 7

Address the following in 4–5 pages:

Most judges are elected; would it be better to have the judges appointed by a committee? Why or why not? Explain.

Would the committee be affected by graft?

If so, how?

If not, how will it not be affected?

Be specific and detailed in your responses.

When judges violate the constitution, what should be the recourse? Explain.

What current policies exist regarding judicial misconduct? Explain in detail.

Do these policies sufficiently address judicial misconduct? Explain in detail.

What can be done to improve these policies?

Should there be political and financial pressures put on judges? Why or why not?

Pertaining to re-election, should judges be held to a higher standard than other candidates for any political office? Why or why not?

Be sure to use at least 5 academic and scholarly sources to support your arguments.

Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.

Part 8

In those states with the three strikes laws, any person who has 2 felony strikes and commits another felony, whether it be violent or not, can be required to serve a sentence of 25 years to life.

Look at the case of Ewing v. California:

Ewing v. California

Click on the PDF link next to the case title.

The defendant had his third strike when he committed grand theft at a golf course in Los Angeles County. This was not a violent crime but he was subject to the three strikes laws. He appealed this case up to the United States Supreme Court—and lost.

The public has always been worried about violent crime, but just how worried are citizens about nonviolent crime? With mandatory sentencing, society will have many older inmates within the prison system. In the criminal justice community, it is known that inmates “age out of crime.” Can you imagine a 68-year-old man climbing in a window or jumping an 8-foot fence? By keeping these older inmates incarcerated, is this a disservice to society?

State prosecutors have the discretion to lower the charge so that the third offense would not be considered a third strike. For this assignment, you are a policy maker in your state legislature. You are concerned about the heavy tax burden on your constituents. The cost of the actual running of the prison and costs of personnel will rise.

You are also up for re-election, and the feedback that you have received from your constituents has shown that they are dissatisfied with the law that now stands. They are afraid of violent crimes, not just felonies, and are very aware that the last crime committed by the perpetrator does not have to be a violent crime. They are also worried about the use of their tax dollars to incarcerate nonviolent offenders.

Assignment Guidelines

Address the following in 5–7 pages:

Develop a policy regarding the three strikes laws in the State of California. Address the following in your policy:

What alternatives would be placed in the law to give the state prosecutor more freedom to manipulate the third strike?

Many prosecutors “load up” charges against defendants to force a plea bargain. What can be done to limit or prevent this practice?

Will your policy allow multiple counts arising from the same incident to count as multiple strikes? (For instance, a man arrested for aggravated robbery because of the use of a weapon is charged with aggravated robbery and a felony gun possession charge. Should that count as 1 strike or 2?)

If one of the alternatives was supervised probation, how would you convince the public that it would be more cost-effective for the person to be supervised than incarcerated?

Show the public where you would be saving money by not incarcerating the perpetrator.

If brought up in the legislature to be an amendment to the law, could this be grandfathered in to help older inmates?

Could this have a backlash from the public, or would they approve? How? Why?

Once you are finished with the policy, draft an executive summary of the policy to be used for political decision making.

Use 6–10 scholarly resources to support the provisions of your policy. Dictionaries and encyclopedias are not scholarly sources. Look at federal and state legislation and court cases.

Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.

Part 9 (new 2-4 pages but 8-10 pages total)

First, revise your Week 4 Key Assignment based on your instructor's feedback and peer responses.

In Week 4, you developed a policy regarding the three strikes laws in the State of California. Now, the state has decided to try to revamp other systems within the government to accommodate more diverse populations. The three strikes laws are now causing a problem for the correctional institutions in the United States. Now, there is an older inmate population because of the aging of the population.

Locate and analyze the current problems pertaining to the three strikes laws and incarceration.

For this assignment, you will develop a policy change to address prisoners who have been sentenced under these three strike laws and have reached the age of 60.

In your policy, address the following:

Describe your proposed policy in detail, and provide the specific language you would propose to be part of any statute or regulation that results from your proposed policy.

What information could you provide to the community and the state legislature to implement such a policy change?

What would be the advantages of this policy? Explain and provide support for your arguments.

What would be the disadvantages? Explain and provide support for your arguments.

You should use the same format that you used for your Week 4 Key Assignment Draft policy.

Address the following in 1-2 pages:

What effect would your corrections policy have on the state budget and state taxes? Explain.

How have you ensured that your second policy effectively utilized the feedback you received for your three strikes policy from Week 4? Be specific and explain in detail.

Remember to support your policy with scholarly and academic resources.

Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.

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