Assignment:
Current Events Journal
. Throughout the course, we will be discussing issues within each component of the criminal justice system. Your task is to find at least one (1) news article, local or national, EACH WEEK of class, beginning January 17th, that depicts a problem that you think is important for the criminal justice system to address. There are many possibilities. Some examples include:
1) Police officer misconduct (e.g., improper use of force; officer-involved shootings; planting evidence)
2) Racial profiling (e.g., stop & frisks disproportionately impact minority men)
3) The overburdened court system (e.g., high rate of plea bargaining)
4) The cash bail system (e.g., impacts indigent or poor defendants most)
5) Lack of reentry efforts (e.g., high rates of recidivism for inmates released from jail/prison)
6) Victimization in prisons (e.g., prison rape)
7) Differential media reporting (e.g., how are black criminals depicted versus white criminals?)
If your news article appears in print (e.g., newspaper or magazine), you must provide the original article (e.g., clip it out). If your news article appears online (e.g., news website), you must print out a copy. For each news article, you will be required to write a brief paragraph (4 to 6 sentences) that answers the following:
1) What is the problem highlighted in the article?
2) What component of the criminal justice system is impacted?
3) How does this article impact the general public's view of the criminal justice system?