Introduction
Regulatory laws refer to the criminal regulations that reject socially unacceptable conducts, such as possession, use, and sale of drugs, traffic violation, and gambling. Criminal Justice System (CJS) is a string of federal and local government institutions and agencies that directly regulates these laws. Its main responsibility is the correction of offenders, deterrence of crimes, and giving moral support to the victims. The criminal justice system’s primary institutions include the police, courts, and prisons. The objective of this paper is to review the impact of systematic challenges associated with the enforcement of regulatory criminal laws on the criminal justice system.
Impact on Police
Several empirical studies on police problems have proven the existence of poor relations between the police and the public. The negative association has highly been motivated by the enforcement of regulatory laws, which has placed a heavy burden on the police in their bid to discharge their duties (Petit, 2017). Significantly, the load also affects the entire social justice system, hence preventing it from functioning to full capacity.
For example, the primary mandate of the police is law enforcement. It includes police arrests, arbitration and correction, and ultimately the re-entry into society. However, the majority of arrests made by the police are routinely and prematurely allowed back to society through plea-negotiations. In spite of these challenges, the inclusion of a consent decree, which is a settlement agreement between the plaintiff and the police, has positively changed police operations and behavior. Such regulations have led to an increase in the level of public satisfaction with police service.
Impact on Courts
In the CJS, the courts provide an avenue for dispute settlement and administration of justice. Therefore, the regulatory criminal laws ensure that justice is served to the concerned victims. However, these laws have led to over-legislation, which has made the court system to be unable to adequately process (Petit, 2017). With the increasing number of police arrests, courts in many states have resorted to the reduction of criminal sentences and charges through the use of plea negotiations.
Regulation on criminal laws, for example, allows judges to consider reduced punishment for offenders who pleads guilty, especially when the prosecution’s case is weak. When such offenders are hastily allowed into society, they often continue with their criminal activities (Petit, 2017). Due to the overwhelming number of cases and numerous regulatory laws to be observed, the courts have been incapable of swift implementation of the legal protocols in rendering judgments.
Impact on Prisons
The prisons lack adequate facilities to host people who have been convicted of various crimes. In spite of lack of capacity, the regulatory law system provides for continuing incarceration of higher proportions of the population (Heen et al., 2018). As such, the original duty of prisons to provide an opportunity for rehabilitation is continually diminishing. Instead, the prisons are increasingly becoming detention centers due to the overwhelming number of people being hosted.
A major example of the impact of regulatory laws on prisons is the development of prison gangs. Due to increased ethnic and racial incarcerations that are motivated by criminal laws, there is limited security available for the inmates (Maguire, 2018). The situation has prompted prisoners to form groups that are responsible for protecting their members. The police inmate ratio has been found to be highly disproportionate, which means that the prison wardens are not well equipped to effectively secure the inmates.
Impact on the Society
The regulations have led to increased imprisonment of many African Americans over the years. According to Ewald (2019), police brutalities in the estates inhabited by the minority communities are three times higher than in estates inhabited by the majority ones. The situation has caused to an increased negative perception of the police force. Most minority community members believe that the police are racists and corrupted in nature owing to their experiences when they are incarcerated. Additionally, regulatory laws also lead to increased insecurity in the community. Such a situation can be attributed to the selective application of justice by the social justice system. For example, studies have shown that the majority of people in prisons are from the African American community (Ewald, 2019). As such, it can be argued that the prevailing criminal laws are geared towards disenfranchising minority communities instead of empowering society for a greater good.
Conclusion
Owing to the increasing publicity of inadequacies of the regulatory laws to shape a stable and prosperous society, there have been calls for better reforms in the CJS. The existing regulatory criminal laws have provided loopholes in the laws, which have promoted police corruption and brutality. Similarly, they have enabled the judiciary to deviate from the true service delivery and engage in unfair practices leading to unnecessary incarcerations. Therefore, both the police reform and the legal intervention roles of courts are some of the key areas that need improvements to help in creating sanity in these critical areas. Such kind of improvement will help to promote smooth operations in all the critical areas of CJS.
References
Ewald, A. C. (2019). Barbers, caregivers, and the disciplinary subject: Occupational licensure for people with criminal justice backgrounds in the United States. Urban Law Journal, 46(4), 719.
Heen, M. S. J., Lieberman, J. D., & Miethe, T. D. (2018). The thin blue line meets the big blue sky: Perceptions of police legitimacy and public attitudes towards aerial drones. Criminal Justice Studies, 31(1), 18–37. Web.
Maguire, E. R. (2018). New frontiers in research on procedural justice and legitimacy in policing. Police Practice and Research, 19(2), 107–110.
Petit, N. (2017). Law and regulation of artificial intelligence and robots-conceptual framework and normative implications. Criminal Justice Journal, 2(1), 1–31. Web.