ABSTRACT
The criminal justice system – consisting of law enforcement, prosecutors, victim services, corrections, and other ancillary actors – faces numerous challenges as it attempts to ensure public safety and promote the fair and even-handed administration of justice. Encounters between police and minorities frequently end in unnecessary fatalities. Prosecutors, under pressure to move cases through a clogged system prefer plea bargains to jury trials, occasionally compromising justice in the process. The system sometimes relies on questionable science to win convictions. Many of those processed by the system are minorities who end up in jail or prison, often for non-violent offenses. The resultant mass incarceration not only strains governmental budgets, it exacts a heavy toll on inmates, their families, and the larger community. Offenders supervised in the community can get sent to prison for minor infractions. This wide array of criminal justice practices, many of which are problematic and unfair, lacks a cohesive theory or strategy. Instead, policymakers tinker with various parts of the system, resulting in piecemeal change with disappointing results. All of this points to the need for a perspective that can undergird sound policy and practice.
