Situation
Congratulations you have been elected Governor of the state of North Carolina! A central plank of your campaign was to deal with the criminal justice system. You have called your first staff meeting and you want to implement needed changes in three key areas; law enforcement, trials, and corrections. Thanks to your extensive education at Wake Technical Community College, you feel qualified to begin to change the system.
Please outline to the staff the following:
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The three critical problems that are plaguing each part of the system (one problem in each please).
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The reasons the problem represents a failure of the system and why it needs reforming or why the ‘problem’ is not in fact a problem and why the status quo should be maintained.
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Your solution to deal with each of the three problems. This should be a practical correction and one that can be implemented in a democratic society.
Basically – Tell me the problem, tell me your solution, and tell me way it would work.
First, the question calls for you to select three different
problems from the three major areas of the criminal justice system (police,
courts and prisons). You should choose one form each and pick a topic
that interests you!
Second, you may either create one large essay or break it
down into three separate efforts, the choice is yours.
Third, please use material and information from the text or
lectures in your essays. Opinions are nice but facts and data that are
integrated with a solution are far better.
Fourth, keep in mind the two main themes of the text/class –
the Struggle between crime control vs. due process and the identification of
moral issues with relevant ethical solutions. When selecting your topics
try to relate them to these two main themes in order to better demonstrate what
you hope to prove.
Fifth, Length is important – but not the only
measurement. A single paragraph for all three is likely a failing effort,
but simply padding your essays out to a dozen pages won’t get you an ‘A’.
Sixth, there is no mandatory style for the essay. I
generally recommend a simple introduction-body-conclusion format, but the
choice is yours.
Seventh, use criminal justice vocab and concepts. While
broader societal issues often intrude and shape the criminal justice field, you
should narrow your focus to how we in criminal justice deal with them.
Thus, if you addressed juvenile crime, it is great to mention disproportionate
rates of male incarceration, but you would address issues like the ‘chivalry
effect’ in explaining it in the CJ context.
Eighth, don’t wait until the last moment. I will be
grading on Monday the 24th and will get grades submitted either that
afternoon or early on Tuesday the 25th. There can be no
extensions.
Ninth, because of the time issue I generally will not post
any comments about the submitted work. If however you want personalized
feedback I will try to send anyone who asks a brief email about their test (as
it seems the blackboard feedback is not working properly). Include such
requests at the END of your submission and I will try to honor them.
Tenth, try to finish early. This will leave time to
re-read the essays before the due date and avoid any issues with last-minute
technology failures.