Assignment:
Determine if there are special courts that handle certain cases (i.e., drug, domestic violence, mental health, etc) locally. Determine if specialty units, even when faced with the evidence in the text, can provide more for the victim and/or offender and provide support for their stance.
Debate the use of mental institutions or prisons/jails as confinement facilities for those who have mental health issues. Where do students believe those persons should carry out their criminal sentence? Why?
As both banning plea bargains and reforming plea negotiations result in speed and efficiency of cases, which option is more fiscally responsible? Support should be provided.
Given the finality of the death penalty, should those persons on death row be allowed to exhaust all possible appeals or should they be limited in the number of appeals to file? support your opinion (e.g., economics, time and effort of the courts, attempt to decrease frivolousness, the majority are guilty - factually and legally, etc). If applicable, determine the state's stance on death row appeals.
Identify other special populations of victims and what, if any, laws have been implemented on their behalf - local, state, or federal - as well as those listed in the text.
Determine victim/witness assistance programs in the state. Students can interview victims of crime known to them to determine if victims were informed of their rights and what, if any, rights and/or notifications were provided to them, and if they took advantage of the victims' fund, and for what purposes.
While victims are provided a number of rights, notification and implementation are inconsistent, and where victims are kept informed, many victims do not take advantage of their rights, and there is no reduction in crime. Given this information and keeping in mind the resource crisis in the CJS, should victims' rights programs and policies remain or be eliminated?