Criminal Justice Unit 3

Wrongful convictions

a grossly unfair outcome in a judicial proceeding, as when a defendant is convicted despite a lack of evidence on an essential element of a crime

First wrongful convictions

During the Salem Witch Trials

Scottsboro Boys

African American boys wrongly convicted of rape and murder; the errors contributed to public fear and a racially charged atmosphere

First study of wrongful convicitons

Done by Edward Borchard in 1932 and found that the US system of justice was fallible

DNA testing

First done in 1989 in the Dotson case proving his innocence

Challenges with DNA testing

Availability of evidence and cost (even if it is collected it may never be tested; natural disasters)

What percentage of violent felony cases have DNA evidence?

Only 20% of cases

Justice for All Act of 2004

Outined rules and procedures for any federal inmate applying for DNA testing

Innocence Protection Act of 2003

Established funding for DNA testing for those inmates claiming innocence

Randal Dale Adams (1978-1980)

Convicted in Dallas; sentenced to death at Ellis unit (jury instructions); illustrated inaccuracy of eye witnesses (Anthony Graves and Raymond Jackson)

What do we expect from the CJ system?

Expect to get the right perpetrator ( is not infallible or new)

Herman Munsterburg

Looked at wrongful convictions

What changed wrongful convictions in the 80s?

DNA (first exoneration in 1989)

Why does this happen?

A.) cognitive dissonance (blinders up)

B.) administrative evil (train keeps moving)

C.) dehumanization of criminals (evil)

Frequency of wrongful convictions

2%-16%

Prosecutorial integrity units

Mitigates wrongful convictions (Dallas was the first)

Jail vs prison

Jail you go for less than a year and prison is for a year and more

Confinement institutions

Have morphed into debtors prison, work houses (for homeless), and orphanages (Oliver Twist)

Where did the idea of confinement come from?

Quarentene (1100s and 1200s)

Volstare

Punishment must match the crime

Jeremy Benthem

Created the penopticion (round building for criminals)

What was the first jail?

Wallnut St. Jail in Philidelphia (Quaker influence for programing) because a POW place during the Revolutionary War

1820s

Jacksonian era built institutions (Eastern State Pen. in Philly) that was based on the silent system and had work (stir crazy came from breakdowns)

Auburn system

Industrial prison in NY where the prisoners worked and congregated during meals but had their own cells

Alexis Tatokaville

Reported on the competing models (industrial model spread)

1870s-1900

Incarceration changed (the number of people went up and slaves were free)

South Carolina

Developed the county system that had chain gangs

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas

Created delta prisons (segregated camps); sexual assaults and murders were common (conjagal visits were created to reduce sexual assaults; red house)

Lex talionis

Eye for an eye

Enlightenment thinkers

Embraced humanism, rationalism, and science

Classical school (Beccaria)

Laws should be designed to preserve public under, not avenge crime

Jeremy Benthem

Pleasure vs pain

Positivist

Human action have a cause found in uniformities that precede those actions

Retribution (just deserts)

Punishment must match the crime

Incapacitation

Inability of criminals to cause victimization (incarceration)

Collective Clemancy Bill

Released 1/3 of Italy's prisoners

Rehabilitation

Restore or return to constructive or healthy activity

Reintegration

Focus on job rather than attitude

Congregate labor system

Prisoners can pay for their own keep

Contract labor system

Prison labor offered in exchange for profits for private firms

Medical model

Inmates were seen as needing treatment rather than being moral failures

How are criminals classified starting in the 1870s?

By their needs, custody, and treatment

What happened in the 1880s?

There was group separation (women, juvenile, etc.) that has their own bartering system with rules, regulations, and hierarchy (subculture)

What can you sell in prison?

Weapons, body, drugs, cell phones, tattoos, and alcohol

What are the different gangs

Arian Brotherhood (Cali white supremacist group), Mexican mafia, and Texas Sinicid

El Salvador Prison

Holds 30k violent criminals/gangs

Reconstruction era (1870s)

Ruffin v Commonwealth in Virginia that said the state owns your labor (you are a slave to the state, so you have no rights)

Hands Off Doctrine

The courts would defer to the administration

Civil rights (1960s)

Started after WWII beginning with the Nurburg trials (war crimes), which led to informed consent (studies)

Brown v Board of Education (1954)

Said that segrigation in schools was unconstitutional; led the Supreme Court to look at rights of non-protected groups

Fullwood v Clemor and Cooper v Pate

Sued on religious grounds (pork free diet and access to religious materials); they both won

What were some huge trials that granted prisoner rights in the 1960s?

Miranda, Escabito, and Gault (juvinile)

Gates v Collier and Hutto (1968-1970s)

Looked at the conditions; led to class action law suits

Lamar V Cofiel (1976) and Johnson V California

Sued over segrigation of prisons; forces desegrigation over all and with cell assignments

Estelle v Gambel

Sued over lack of medial care (delebrate indifference)

Ruiz v Estelle (1978)

Overcrowding lead to higher death rate/anxiety/violence (suggested that it also lead to cancer, but it did not)

Wolff v McDonald

Due process (trial was recorded)

Plata v Newson (2002)

Deals with overcrowding (realignment, especially in California)

Madrid v Gomez

Conditions of confinement in Pelican Bay (led to suicide); showed mentally ill need their own space

NBC reports on number of incarcerated inmates

There are 4,890 transgender people incarcerated and just 15 are house in facilities that match their gender identity

Cisgender

Sex and gender are aligned

Transgender Survey

40% reported attempting suicide, 82% had seriously thought about suicide in their lifetime, and 48% had thought about it in the last year. Additionally, 39% reported experiencing “serious psychological distress.”

Risk Factors

The risk of depression and suicide, transgender people experience sexual violence, harassment, and other adverse conditions at higher rates than the rest of society

Universal precautions

All inmates are possible escape risks, all inmates are possible suicide risks, all inmates can be violent, and all inmates are possible manipulators

Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA)

It established standards to guide correctional staff in preventing sexual violence in jails and prisons; housing must be done on a case by case basis