Constitutional Rights & Criminal Justice System Overview

Constitutional Amendments & Policing

Key Amendments

• 4th Amendment: Searches and seizures (exclusionary rule)
• 5th Amendment:
  • Grand jury indictment
  • Double jeopardy
  • Due process
  • Self-incrimination
• 6th Amendment:
  • Public and speedy trial
  • Impartial jury
  • Notice of the nature and cause of accusation
  • Confront opposing witness
  • Assistance of counsel
• 8th Amendment:
  • Excessive bail
  • Cruel and unusual punishment

Policing Duties and Constitutional Protections

• Arrest
• Searches
  • Searches with warrants
  • Searches without warrants
• Interrogations

Incarceration Disparities

Black people are incarcerated at a rate 80% higher than whites.

Deterrence and Capital Punishment

Summary of Deterrence: The idea that abolishing the death penalty leads to a rise in murder has little support. There's no evidence of lower murder rates in states with the death penalty, nor a negative correlation between the rate of execution and the rate of murder. Some economists in the 1970s and 80s suggested that one execution resulted in 8 to 24 fewer murders, but there are problems in methodology and interpretation.

Hood argues that for capital punishment to be a deterrent, it must be “enforced mandatorily and without exception on a large scale across all categories of homicide.” However, a recent study showed that 88% of criminologists surveyed do not believe capital punishment serves as a deterrence.

Capital Punishment: Key Issues

• Cost: Capital punishment is currently more expensive than life without parole.
• Debate between LWOP and CP: Is life without parole more cruel than execution?
• Executing innocents
• Retribution vs. Revenge

Parole and Probation System

According to the Petersilia reading, which of the following best illustrates her proposed solution(s) to the current problems with the parole and probation system in the United States?

A) Reinvest in prison work, education and treatment programs for drug and alcohol abuse

B) Reinstitute discretionary parole

C) Front-load post-prison services to the first 6 months after release

D) Allow released prisoners to expunge their records

E) She mentioned all of the above.

Summary: Challenges Faced by Released Individuals

Individuals leaving prisons and jails are not a random selection of individuals. These individuals tend to:

• Experience rates of illness and disease higher than the general population.
• Experience mental illness at rates higher than the general population.
• Experience higher rates of joblessness.
• Experience higher rates of homelessness.
• Experience higher rates of drug and alcohol addiction.