Pick one aspect of the criminal justice system that was discussed in the lesson and readings: policing, courts, or corrections. Discuss one deficiency within your chosen area and how you would improve that deficiency. Why did you choose this particular deficiency?
REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE QUESTION AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE? (A MINIMUM OF 125 WORDS EACH)
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿCLASSMATE’S POST
The criminal justice system within America has its pros and cons, just like all other criminological systems around the world. The downfalls of any system are deemed as deficiencies. These deficiencies are seen through all sectors of the American penal system from policing, courts, and correctional system. The issues pertaining to women and minorities that presented with the correctional system within the United States is monumental. These deficiencies that create problematic situations that affect the officers, inmates, and governmental officials or private owners of such institutions. Institutions lack hiring women and minorities, lack to provide equal opportunity of employment for female officers, and the purpose of them supervising female prisons. Therefore, the indirect result can be when the people question the system by providing evidence that the punishment systems may be in violation of human rights conventions or incapable of being equitable.
The Criminal Justice system has different influential and impressionable factors that change the process in which correctional staff are hired. If the Criminal Justice system fails to interest those people in which the system seeks to hire, then the functionality of the criminal justice system diminishes as well. Criminologist have argued for decades about how correctional officers are hired. Numerous criminologists believe that one’s physical demographics (i.e., sex, age, race, ethicality) is the greatest influence on the employment opportunities one may encounter within the Criminal Justice System of America. Minorities and women within today’s correctional system are faced with a constant uphill battle when compared to their white and male counterparts. Unfortunately, physical demographics influence the employment and career opportunities of minorities more significantly than whites within the criminal justice system. The nation’s correctional officers are predominately white males between the ages of 18 to 21 years (Ross, 2016, pp. 196).
One of the methods to combat discrimination is that of Title VII which is the 1972 amendment. This amendment indicates that it is illegal to hire and fire any individual based on their race and or sex in conjunction to any other demographic (Ross, 2016, pp. 196). The goal of creating a workforce which is vastly diverse allocates for the corrective measures to reverse the impacts of previous racial and sex-based acts of discrimination (DiMarino, 2009). The federal prisons within the United States must consider the vast number of different issues while employing individuals. The increase in the overall number of recruitments of female and minority officers can be denoted by the exertions conducted by the institution’s hiring committees. These exertions are made through job fairs, advertisements, and conducting recruitment events through community oriented non-profit groups (DiMarino, 2009). Although these efforts are made daily, it can be concluded that the correctional system indeed employs more male officers than females at the ratio of 2:1.
The solutions that allocate for a higher female presence prompts facility to improve the training methods of all their officers. These new training methods include gender specific training efforts which would provide women with the education to obtain positions of leadership (Winters, 2014). Consequently, the equality for women within corrections can be assertively advocated for surrounding community through major gender equality movements. These movements are concerned with the economic, political, ethical, and moral actions of equally hiring correctional staff of any demographic. These resolutions are increasing the education that is delivered through sophisticated training sessions that understand the “big picture” of today’s correctional system (Farkas, 2001).
References:
DiMarino, F. (2009, June 1). Recruiting Minority Employees in Corrections. The Corrections Connection. https://www.correctrions.com/articles/21076-recruiting-minority-employees-in-corrections
Farkas, M. A. (2001). Correctional Officers: What Factors Influence Work Attitudes? Corrections Management Quarterly, 5(2), 20-26.
Ross, J. I. (2016). Key Issues in Corrections. Policy Press, pp. 195-207
Winters, R. (2014, July 14). Understanding and Enhancing the Value of Female Corrections Professionals. The Corrections Connection. http://www.corrections.com/news/article/36734-understanding-and-enhancing-the-value-of-female-corrections-professionals