Justice
By: Nicole Holzer
If someone were to ask me what justice means to me, it would be difficult to give just one meaning. To me justice means upholding what is fair for all individuals involved in a specific situation. If a person commits a crime, that person needs to be held accountable for their actions. It does not just mean a criminal goes to court and justice is served for their crime. Although that is one version of justice, justice also has to come to the victims and loved ones of those victims that have been affected by a horrible tragedy. I often think of justice when it comes to families affected by tragedies where they lose loved ones which was seen a lot this past year such as school shootings, movie theater shootings, etc. In the cases where the criminal committed suicide, the families of the victims will never see justice served. In the cases where the criminals are still here today, it is easy for the public to say justice will be served once the court has made the decision, but for the families affected, they will never have their loved ones back or their lives be the same. When talking about the criminal justice system, we take into consideration how all the components work together. There are three main components that make up the justice system including; Law enforcement, courts and corrections. The first component we look at is law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement officers are responsible for keeping peace and order in their communities. Police officers patrol the streets of their communities to keep watch for suspicious activity, monitor individuals to be certain they abide by the law, and enforce the law when broken. The law enforcement aspect of the justice system ties into the other systems in a couple ways. First off, it is the law enforcement officers that bring criminals to jail for committed crimes. They also, gather evidence for possible convictions in cases that may be brought up in court. Next we look at the courts in relation to the justice system. Court is a place where individuals who commit a crime go to face “justice” and take responsibility for their actions. The court is overseen by a judge as well as a panel of jurors who deliberate and come to a verdict of “guilty” or “not guilty”. The defending and prosecuting lawyers each take their turns stating their case to the judge and jurors presenting evidence to support their case. Once a verdict is reached, the judge delivers the decision made by the jury and presents the consequence the criminal will have to face. This is where the corrections system comes into play. Once the judge gives the sentence, whether it is probation, jail, prison, etc. the individual facing the sentence is sent to the corrections facility to serve their time. All three components typically come together in some way to form a justice system that works for all citizens, however like with many other systems, there are bumps along the way that could cause them to not work so well. When it comes to differences between the three main components, we can look at how the law enforcement agencies sometimes conflict with the other two. Law officers often have a specific way they conduct arrests and steps to go through to make the process happen correctly. If a step is missed, say the officer did not deliver the Miranda rights at the time of the arrest, that could come back in court and the end result may be different for the accused. There is also times when an
