Justice for All

Repairing American Criminal Justice

Charles MacLean, Adam Lamparello

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000544107
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Criminal Law
• Index: Law

Justice for All identifies ten central flaws in the criminal justice system and offers an array of solutions – from status quo to evolution to revolution – to address the inequities and injustices that far too often result in courtrooms across the United States.

From the investigatory stage to the sentencing and appellate stages, many criminal defendants, particularly those from marginalized communities, often face procedural and structural barriers that taint the criminal justice system with the stain of unfairness, prejudice, and arbitrariness. Systematic flaws in the criminal justice system underscore the inequitable processes by which courts deprive citizens of liberty and, in some instances, their lives. Comprehensive in its scope and applicability, the book focuses upon the procedural and substantive barriers that often prohibit defendants from receiving fair treatment within the United States criminal justice system. Each chapter is devoted to a particular flaw in the criminal justice system and is divided into two parts. First, the authors discuss in depth the underlying causes and effects of the flaw at issue. Second, the authors present a wide range of possible solutions to address this flaw and to lead to greater equality in the administration of criminal justice. The reader is encouraged throughout to consider and assess all possible options, then defend their choices and preferences. Confronting these issues is critical to reducing racial disparities and guaranteeing Justice for all.

Describing the problems and assessing the solutions, Justice for All does not identify all problems or all solutions, but will be of immeasurable value to criminal justice students and scholars, as well as attorneys, judges, and legislators, who strive to address the pervasive flaws in the criminal justice system.

PART I

Law Enforcement

DOI: 10.4324/9781003163411-1

This part of the book discusses the roles of law enforcement officers (peace officers) in ensuring that their functions in the criminal justice system are always delivered in a fair, impartial, and reliable manner. The chapters in this section will require you to propose solutions that address the infirmities and inequities in law enforcement today along three dimensions: de-escalation and use of excessive force (chapter 1); reforming, transforming, reimagining, or defunding the police (chapter 2); and mental health of United States law enforcement officers (chapter 3). Each chapter provides the factual backdrop for the issue addressed, proposes a number of solutions, then calls on you to devise the wisest course of action.

Furthermore, as stated in the Preface, this book is intended not merely to help you acquire knowledge, but to require you to offer workable solutions that make a positive difference in people’s lives. Put differently, it is not sufficient to merely complain about a problem. Transformative thinkers offer solutions that make a difference in people’s lives.

1

De-escalation and Police Use of Excessive Force¹

DOI: 10.4324/9781003163411-2

Officer-involved shootings of civilians in the 2010s appeared to skyrocket, the appearance, at least, exacerbated by the ubiquity of cell phone, squad, and body-worn cameras, trumpeted and magnified by the 24-hour news cycle and spread widely on social media and elsewhere on social media and the Internet more broadly. Excessive force incidents of virtually all types seemed to be on the rise, too.

The use-of-force continuum identifies a series of perceptions by the officer regarding threats posed by those with whom they interact and with each perception higher up the continuum justifying the officer to use increased force in response. The problem is that much use-of-force continuum training does not adequately question the officers’ perceptions, which may be colored by implicit race bias, adrenaline, fear, inadequate training, and other factors. On the contrary, and far too frequently, use-of-force continuum training merely trains the officers that their perception – no matter how flawed – justifies their response based on the continuum’s escalating categories.

Over 18 million new criminal cases were filed (United States Courts, 2020) and over 61 million contacts with the public were made by law enforcement in 2018 (nearly 29 million of those contacts were police-initiated) (Harrell & Davis, 2020). The vast majority of those cases were developed, and contacts were effected constitutionally by ethical officers without excessive force; four percent of Blacks and two percent of Whites experienced threats or use of force during their police contacts in 2018 (Harrell & Davis, 2020, n. 2, Table 3). However, subjective fears, misperceptions, stereotyped fear assessments, and racist or force-centric training have no place in the equation when the downside is an errant on-the-spot risk assessment that needlessly causes civilian injury or death. The use-of-force continuum and other use-of-force and de-escalation trainings, too often black-and-white and bathed in absolutes, must be softened with judgment, flexibility, understanding, and re-assessment at the scene coupled with a far more objective and less subjective perception trigger. After all, execution is a potential consequence only for the most serious crimes and only in a dwindling number of states, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• PART I: Law Enforcement
• PART II: Attorneys and Courts
• PART III: Sentencing and Corrections
• Index