Inequalities In The Criminal Justice System

Throughout our readings, it became clear that police are forced to deal with the burdens of our society’s inequalities, while politicians often ignore them. The politics of criminal justice are put in place in order to fix society and reduce crime, yet we are constantly seeing legislation, such as legislation to do with the War on Drugs or the War on Poverty, that seems to increase crime and even worsen racial and class divides, while the intention was the exact opposite. With the legislation still in place, police are forced to deal with the burdens created by this legislation. These burdens sometimes go on to reinforce society’s inequalities. Meanwhile, politicians often ignore these new or reoccurring problems, because in the eyes of the
Our society is in need of true social reform in order to limit crime, and limit racial and class divides. The War on Drugs has done nothing but being ineffective and is not fair to people of color or to people in a lower class. The War on Drugs has actually been very counterproductive because not only has it ignored the true problems in our society, but it has labeled drug offenders as “evil”. In reality, that is just another prejudice being reinforced through old legislation. In fact, that particular prejudice can even be one of the reasons behind mass incarceration. Many of the offenders in prison today are low ranking drug offenders. Once legislation is put into place by the politicians addressing the true social problems in our country, issues of mass incarceration and false burdening of police can be solved. The way to begin will be for political pressures in the U.S. demanding a new stance on crime. A stance that is neither “law and order”, or “tough on crime”. This is because average crime is not committed for fun, but is committed due to problems that are buried deeply within our political system and started by politicians. A problem started by politicians, should not be blamed on figures who are meant to serve and protect U.S. citizens each and every day. That blame is just another reason for the fearful misinterpretation of those in positions of authority within our