ADDRESSING UNKNOWN VARIABLES: THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Second Chance Act and Crimes Victims' Rights Act

18 U.S. Code § 249 - Hate crime acts

"Get Tough" on crime seem to be a very defective approach on crime as it is equally defective on disciplining children and the youth. Mauer, " And also the issue of prison reentry - 95 percent of the people coming home from prison, are going home from prison, so whether one is a liberal or a conservative, we should be concerned with their ability to make it back in the community. And increasingly we're seeing people in both parties embrace that," (NPR, 2012). The model of getting tough on crime expired when the world started to pay attention that their neighbors were incarcerated due to the high population and expanded supervision of the state and federal in the system. In prior years, incarceration did not have a massive incarceration or prison complex ratio per person. People are no longer a citizen with clean slates. The United States has roughly an estimated 350 Million people considered citizens according to the Department of Census, (Census, 2021).  

An estimated two million are incarcerated, but over thirty percent have been convicted or encountered an offense with the law. And fifty percent have been supervised by the criminal justice system for less than a hundred years, (Prison Policy Initiative, 2021). Fifty percent of our national population are encountering an offense with the law within their lifetime or more than once in their lifetime. Getting Tough on crime seem to be thought of as a defective approach to controlling crime since fifty percent of the national population encountered an offense with the law. The ideology of the good guy or bad guy model seems to be a damaged model based on more populations are crossing over to the bad guy model based on fractions with the law for mild or non-violent crimes as to poor quality attitude, traffic stops, and behavioral issues through domestic issues or interpersonal communications' issues. It is a bad hair day world type of life with the criminal justice system these days. 

The Second Chance Act has been effective based on the process of restorative justice mediation models to integrate populations back into their communities without experiencing recidivism and fractions against the law. It is evident in these times, people need a handbook on how to maneuver in the criminal justice system as a real-life application and human development as a citizen. It is no longer a good citizen and bad citizen issue or civility issue. It has become a behavioral issue as to detention in school for children. The adult system world has become a huge school with detention to the principal. The criminal justice system is no longer a safety and security issue for just violence and threats. Now it is an issue of behavior and personal conflict or professional conduct issues within the law.

This discussion is a reflection on this week's resources, and extended research on the tone of the criminal justice system from the past to the present, and the evolution of its future. I am very reflective and curious whether we will allow the Second Chance Act to extend into a "Forgiveness Act" whether incarcerated populations will return to their communities as restored civilities or fractured, and reduced to broken, damage, and inflicted relationship perpetuating as a revolving door into the prison complex cycles. I am very interested in the direction we as a national professional union responds to the evolution of conduct, conflict, and behavior in our human development from childhood, teen years, and over into adult years further to our seniority years. We have to address and respond to the deviation of variables and factors that never were meant to be part of the equation as to the environment, historical standpoints, and Eco-Socio-economics. The socialization that involves hate crimes has been ignored, and now we are a national forum that must address the interdependency of relationships with each other through human development and interaction with environments. The grieving process must begin, so we may completely heal. Therefore, socialize without fractions.

References

Census, (2021). Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/popclock/

Cornell Law School. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/249

National Public Radiio. (Producer). (2012 September 20). Is "Tough on Crime" no longer a talking point? [Radio Program] Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2012/09/20/161475623/is-tough-on-crime-no-longer-a-talking-point

Office Justice Programs. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/second-chance-act-fact-sheet.

Oxford Handbooks. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398823.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195398823-e-1

Prison Policy Initiative. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/pie2020.html

United States Department of Justice. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/usao/resources/crime-victims-rights-ombudsman/victims-rights-act

Wilson, J. Q., & Petersilia, J. (2011). Crime and public policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.