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... of Prisoners, 2004, 4) In the United States the inmates rights are guaranteed by the Federal Constitution, Federal Statutes and regulations. So what are rights of the prisoners? First of all, there are political rights right to vote, serve on a jury or run for a political office. Criminals who are imprisoned for felonies usually do not have the right to vote as well as other political rights, however those convicted of a misdemeanor are free to exercise their political rights. Prisoners are also ensured access to courts.
They have a constitutional right to file certain petitions with the courts: criminal appeals (including post-conviction appeals and habeas corpus petitions) and civil rights lawsuits. (Tone, 2005, p. 16) Prisoners are also protected against retaliation by jail officials which can take different forms, for example, interfering with a prisoners legal papers, providing poor living conditions, refusal to provide hygiene materials, threats, sometimes even assaults. Inmates enjoy the freedom of religion and government is prohibited from interfering with the free exercise of the religion to which a prisoner belongs. In the context of family relationships, the prisoners have a constitutional right to get married. The issues of parental rights, divorce, custody of children and so on are governed by state law. (Tone, 2005) Prisoners communication with the outside world is usually monitored and censored. They are provided with equal protection and due process rights, which means that no one is deprived of his liberty or property without due process of law. (Tone, 2005) The international community continuously stresses the obligation to treat prisoners with humanity and dignity: Not only may persons deprived of their liberty not be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including medical or scientific experimentation, but neither may they be subjected to any hardship or constraint other than that resulting from the deprivation of liberty; respect for the dignity of such persons must be guaranteed under the same conditions as for that of free persons. (International Human Rights Standards Governing the Treatment of Prisoners, 2004, 5) References: International Human Rights Standards Governing the Treatment of Prisoners. (2004). Human Rights Watch.
Retrieved June 14, 2005 from web Tone R. E. (2005). Protecting Your Health and Safety: Prisoners Rights. Retrieved June 14, 2005 from web 5. The Juvenile Justice Process Today When a child or a teenager is accused of a crime, the justice process is carried out differently than the usual criminal justice process. The overall concept over the last years was that juveniles commit not crimes but acts of delinquency and they require state intervention to correct. (Juvenile Justice Process, 2005) The first juvenile court was established around one hundred years ago in the State of Illinois and was yet another important landmark of social legislation of the previous century.
The original idea for juvenile court took into account the notion that children were not like adults, they were different and that rehabilitation was a more possible and more important way to deal with juvenile criminals than punishment; the idea was that most children were redeemable and judges, making decisions about kids, could best use the individualistic approach. After a very short time following the implementation of specialized juvenile court in Chicago, such courts existed throughout Western Europe and in every state of the U. S. (Mlyniec, 2000) However, recently federal and state legislators have begun to re-consider and abandon these principles. There are many reasons for this change of attitude political rhetoric, public perceptions of crime, and unprecedented increase in news covering crimes committed by children. Despite declining crime rates, the small number of children committing violent offenses, and the obvious dangers to children from adult processing, more than 40 states have toughened the sanctions children face in juvenile court and made it easier for prosecutors to bring charges against children in the adult court. Indeed, many policymakers and academics have called for either the abolition of the juvenile court or major changes in the way it does business, writes Wallace J.
Mlyniec in his article The Special Issues of Juvenile Justice. (Mlyniec, 2000, 2) Typically, juvenile courts deal with cases that involve children aged from 10 to 18. However, its been a recent tendency that in case of extremely serious or violent crimes, for example, murder and rape, the prosecutor decided that juvenile should be tried as an adult according to the ordinary criminal justice process. There is a trend in many states to lower the age at which a juvenile may be tried as an adult and be subject to adult punishment. In some states, the process is reversed and a juvenile accused of a serious crime is automatically charged in adult court, with the judge having the discretion to transfer the case to a juvenile court. (Juvenile Justice Process, n. d. , 2) In fact, today 10 -year old child can be tried as an adult. So at the beginning of the 21 st century, and the second century of existence of juvenile courts, legislators, lawyers, judges as well as all citizens of a country should rationally tackle that critical issue of how the children who commit crimes are treated within justice system.
As a society, we must decide whether we will cope with juvenile crime focusing on the offense and imposing proportionate sanctions, or, as was the idea initially, focusing on the offender and providing services and programs, which can punish but also will be essentially directed to reform and correct the offender. The issues confronting society regarding crimes committed by youth are serious and complex and take an enormous toll on victims, perpetrators, and the professionals engaged in this work. For 100 years, juvenile courts have served the nation. Like all institutions, the court has had its successes and failures. But 100 has not changed the essential fact that no matter what crime is committed, children and adolescents are not adults. They do not think like adults and they do not function like them. (Mlyniec, 2000, 16) This should be kept in mind as well as basic principles that served as a trigger point to create special court for juvenile offenders.
References: Juvenile Justice Process. (2005). Retrieved June 14, 2005 from web Mlyniec W. J. (2000). The Special Issues of Juvenile Justice.
Criminal Justice Magazine. Spring 2000. Vol. 15, Issue 1. Retrieved June 14, 2005 from web 6. Different Strategies for Attacking the Drug Problem The proliferation of drugs is a tragic reality of today and therefore national as well as international cooperation is needed in developing strategies that are able to meet the challenge and prove their effectiveness in combating drug abuse. Measures created to improve international cooperation to deal with the world drug problem include action plan against illicit manufacture, trafficking and abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants and their precursors; control of precursors; measures to promote judicial cooperation; countering money-laundering and action plan of international cooperation to eradicate illicit drug crops and to create alternative development. (Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction, 1998) On a national level, there are three main components of the drug control strategy.
The first one is law enforcement efforts and supply reduction, which is also one of the main international objectives. Supply reduction policy means efforts to stop the drugs cultivation. If this extremely important component of national security and the well being of society is taken care of within the country, it will also make a worldwide contribution. Prevention is the second part of the national strategy and is considered practically the most difficult challenge. The problem of finding ways to stop drug use before it begins, of reaching into communities and young peoples lives to create the situation in which they can resist to drug use and substance abuse has no easy solutions. (Reducing Drug Use and Crime, 2003) If the first component of national drug control strategy is the supply reduction, the third is reducing of demand for drugs, demand reduction. As in every market, in drug trade there is also a supply and demand.
Therefore Office of National Drug Control Policy looks for ways to undermine to drug business, to disrupt its organization and its capacity to make profits. By reducing the drug demand, it also becomes possible to influence supply reduction and to create the atmosphere in which people will not be tempted into drug abuse. (Reducing Drug Use and Crime, 2003) When talking about drug control, one cant but underline the significance of the criminal justice system in this respect. Its known that substance abuse is the major contributor to criminal activity and therefore, the court system cannot stay aside from this problem. The criminal justice system is becoming more and more responsible for identifying the drug users and getting them into drug treatment immediately and exercising its authority for keeping them there. The effectiveness of the court system is also increased with the development of drug courts and diversion programs that do exactly what their name suggests divert people. They do so most often and successfully with sanctions and supervision involved, oftentimes involving appropriate objective testing to ensure that someone is drug free.
Oftentimes they depend upon something, either pre-sentencing diversion, which has its need for sanctions and time limits and requirements to go into treatment, but also a post-sentencing one seems to be extremely useful where we find people genuinely have over them the concern that a more serious response will be forthcoming. They do not take seriously the obligation to get themselves clean and to move into recovery. (Reducing Drug Use and Crime, 2003, 20) So, there are a variety of strategies, tactics, programs and initiatives to tackle the drug problem worldwide as well as in every certain country. Extensive efforts made by Governments at all levels aim to suppress the illegal drugs production, trafficking and distribution. The most effective approach to the drug problem consists of a comprehensive, balanced and coordinated approach, by which supply control and demand reduction reinforce each other, together with the appropriate application of the principle of shared responsibility. (Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction, 1998, p. 7) References: Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction and Measures to Enhance International Cooperation to Counter the World Drug Problem. (1998). Special Session of the General Assembly Devoted to Countering the World Drug Problem Together. 8 - 10 June 1998. Retrieved June 14, 2005 from web Reducing Drug Use and Crime.
Strategies That Work. (2003). The Urban Institute. Retrieved June 14, 2005 from web 7. Police Community Relations Policing.
Team and Community Policing What are the ways for a democratic country to ensure freedom for all the citizens and at the same time to allow police to enforce the laws on these citizens? The answer depends on the role this country ascribes to the police reform. The police can protect law and order while showing respect to the rights of individuals. However, it is for the specific society or community involved to decide how much power the police can have and at this level community power can be established through the political, social and economic activities of people who have common goals. When governing ourselves, it is natural that we also agree to police ourselves accordingly.
Community policing is the notion tried and used in many countries of the world to achieve the above goal. The definition of this notion, however, is elusive. Some people even noted that community policing became a buzz word that is taken for granted by professionals and scholars who used the term to replace other terms such as foot patrol, crime prevention, problem-oriented policing, community-oriented policing, police-community relations and more. (cited in Ferreira, 1996, 8) Others insisted on creating a definition and even came up with Nine Ps of community policing: Community policing is a philosophy of full service personalized policing, where the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis, from a decentralized place, working in a proactive partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems. (cited in Ferreira, 1996, 8) Still others defined community policing as a belief or intention held by the police that they should: (1) Consult with and take account of the wishes of the public in determining and evaluating operational policing policy and practice; and (2) Collaborate with the public whenever possible in solving local problems. (cited in Ferreira, 1996, 9) Once there is an understanding of what police is expected to fulfill in society, there is a possibility to determine and establish the model and type of policing suitable for a specific community. The basic three models of community policing are crime prevention and peace preservation policing, communications policing and community building policing. The first model implies that in order for the police to preserve peace and prevent crimes, it should secure the support and active cooperation of the community.
This also means that community will be involved in controlling and monitoring police activities. Communications policing is fulfilled when community members inform the police of risk and security of certain society. Finally, community-building policing is seen as social as opposed to legal action. Police will need to penetrate the community in all its aspects and develop personal relationships at beat level (cited in Ferreira, 1996, 13). The police should help to shape communities and serve as a means to establish peaceful neighboring relationships and to strengthen the institutions that make the community more apt to deal with its problems. (Ferreira, 1996) While community policing provides community resources to share and participate in crime control efforts, team policing is a strategy created to help the police perform traditional crime fighting more efficiently. (About Community Policing, 1998) Team policing focuses on improvement of productivity through increased efficiency.
It might seem that community policing does just the same, however, there are significant differences. Community policing implies practically complete involvement of the community in the police activities. Team policing may include such feature as consulting with the community members, but it will not ensure community partnership; it does not use fully its crime-fighting possibilities. The team-policing concept presupposes superior role of the police over the public crime prevention efforts, while community policing is created to share crime control. (About Community Policing, 1998) However, both policing concepts engage community at some point and thus help reduce crime and maintain law and order.
References: Ferreira B. R. (1996). THE USE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNITY POLICING IN A DEMOCRACY. POLICING IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: Comparing Firsthand Knowledge with Experience from the West, 1996 College of Police and Security Studies, Slovenia.
Retrieved June 14, 2005 from web About Community Policing. (1998). Community Policing Pages. Retrieved June 14, 2005 from web
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Research essay sample on Criminal Justice System National Drug Control
