1.Does institutional racism exists in our criminal justice system?
Select one of the following aspects of our criminal justice system (courts, police, corrections, or probation/parole) and, citing at least two authoritative sources (not the textbook), make the case to support your position on this issue.
Make sure that you consider this question from a legal and ethical point of view, as opposed to an emotional one. Provide support for the position you adopt using credible sources such as statistics and case law. You may also use secondary sources such as media reports.
- In your reading, Souryal has posted a question: To what extent does a morally good end justify an illegal or unethical means to its achievement? Is overstepping authority in order to achieve what one perceives to be a higher good justified?
Consider these questions as they relate to the role of a police officer in our society. In a well developed argument, first take the position that ‘the end justifies the means’ is an ethical approach to policing. Then, in a following argument, take the opposite position.
For each position, select one Master who would support that position and use his theory of ethics to support your argument. In addition, for each approach please include at least one original example to illustrate the position you are arguing.
- In the 1976 case of Estelle v Gamble, 429 US 97 (1976), the US Supreme Court established that prisoners in the US have a “right to healthcare” and that to deny them that right might, in some cases, rise to the level of a violation of the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. But in 2015, that same Court refused to hear a case in which an inmate in Massachusetts sought gender reassignment surgery (GRS), thus leaving in place a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denying the inmate that surgery. In your initial post, please address the following:
Does an ethical obligation exist to provide this surgery to an inmate?
Is the inmate’s sentence a consideration? (For example, in the MA case, the inmate was serving LWOP. Can we ethically consider that in determining if the surgery should be provided?)
Is there a case to be made that the Court’s denial of the appeal in the MA case results in a violation of the inmate’s 8th Amendment rights?
Where does one house an inmate sentenced to LWOP who was born a male but is living as a female, with or without GRS?
4 In recent years there has been a push to reduce our reliance on traditional models of corrections and to embrace community-based corrections, which encompasses pretrial supervision, parole and probation. For this question you will write two persuasive paragraphs.
The first should be a persuasive essay in which you take a “pro” position on community-based corrections.
The second should be an equally persuasive essay in which you will take a “con” position on community-based corrections.
In your arguments provide legal, ethical, and social reform arguments to support your position.
