Criminal Justice System In The American Colonies And During The Reconstruction Era

Abstract

Some of the issues in the American colonies had in the justice system were dealing during 1763 – 1877 were the corrections and rehabilitation facilities. What made them transform into the facilities we have today. Second, how did the law enforcement agencies operate during the time, and what were the legal processes through the justice system. To complete this work, Prater will consult secondary sources. Therefore, this paper will describe the major themes and events about the American criminal justice system in the revolutionary and Civil War eras.

Introduction

The Criminal justice system is one of the most critical tools to America as it allows to deter criminal actions and criminal activity. The early example of this was in early America when colonists from England brought over the “common law,” which would later turn into America’s justice system. The America Justice system can go far back as the 18th century. This report will show how the American justice system changed from the colonial era to the reconstruction era. Second, also significant components of the system, such as correctional facilities, law enforcement, and even the legal system.

Legal System

During the American Revolution, the colonies did not have a legal system. Laws varied between provinces. By the mid-1700s, a reform movement was on the way for a more unified judicial system. The colonist victory over the British gave them independence and the ability to overwrite and develop a new Justice system. For the modern justice system, the colonist wanted protection and rights for its new American citizens. After a few decades of the revolutionary war, it was a time where experimental policies were in place to build a foundation for a modern criminal justice system.

Court System

While the Court systems varied between colonies, some of the underlying policies were the same. The Major figure in the colonial order was called the Magistrate or a judge. The judge would deal with minor crimes in his area. Judges were not professionals but had religious or political roles. Some of the colonies had special courts to hear particular cases from the public, and sometimes appeals would head back to England courts. For example, “In 1763, the legislature of Georgia passed an act to govern suits in small claims. ” These courts would rarely use juries or lawyers, but juries would serve if the death penalty is on the table. During the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Delegates designed the federal government to have three branches of government, including a judicial system separate from the executive and legislative branches. The judges of the federal courts were to serve after being nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Moreover, they could not have their salaries diminished as long as they held the office.

Cruel Punishment

Due to rising populations, the cruel and unusual punishment clause in the bill of rights, the people's opinions of harsh acts such as death and torture were dwindling by the end of the 1700s. Moreover, many people believed that extreme forms of punishment were excellent in small cities but stopped working as the city expanded. While publicly displaying hanging during revolutions, many would say instead of deterring future revolts, showing bad behavior will encourage it. Experts say that “Reformers believed locking up criminals for long periods was more humane and effective as to prevent future crimes. ” Towards the South, Punishments would vary between being whipped, publicly shammed, or put to work in the fields. As time gets closer to the 19th century, Cruel punishments started to get rarer as criminal justice reformers opposed the death penalty and other forms of harsh punishment such as whippings and burning. Although Cruel punishments were going away, the Quakers in Pennsylvania focused on putting the inmates to hard labor, and public humiliation by allowing the public at times to view the prisoners at work.

Judicial Review

On February 13, 1801, Federalist President John Adams signed the Judiciary Act of 1801, bringing back the U. S. federal court system. Before leaving office, Adams appointed 16 judges to preside over new federal district courts created by the Judiciary Act. However, an issue came around when new Anti-Federalist President Thomas Jefferson’s Secretary of State, James Madison refused to deliver official commissions to the judges Adams had appointed. Marbury asked the Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus ordering the commission be in order based on the Judiciary Act of 1789. However, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall ruled that some of the Judiciary Act of 1789, allowing for writs of mandamus, were unconstitutional. By declaring this unconstitutional, it established a precedent of the judicial branch to declare laws unconstitutional. Therefore, it gave the judicial branch more power than the executive and legislative branches. “By asserting the power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional (which the court would not exercise again for more than half a century), Marshall claimed for the court a paramount position as an interpreter of the Constitution. ”

Law Enforcement

History

A large part of the early American policing came from policing in London. Early on, churches in America were heavily involved in crime control, though without a formal criminal justice system. So, people were getting prosecuted without proper due process. People who deviated from normal behavior was banished from the church group. Moreover, When Corporal Punishment was used, it often happened in public to inflict fear on the public. As America began to age, more and more immigrants came into the country and settled in urban areas such as New York City. By the mid- 1800’s, Crime became had so much commonplace in American Cities that gangs formed and contributed to most of the violence in the city. At first, Volunteer Citizens patrolled the City at night, but it could not keep up with the city’s growth. So In 1844, New York City established America’s first Metropolitan Police Department. It was only to patrol in the daylight, leaving the volunteer citizens to keep watching during the nighttime. In an article, it states, “The early New York City force was modeled after London’s Metropolitan Police and consisted of only 16 officers appointed by the mayor. ” As the city grew, The mayor of New York City reorganized the force and added 800 more officers and also divided the city into three districts. By dividing the city into the districts, it eliminated the night watch system but added local courts and station houses. In 1857, the three districts combined into what is known as today's New York City Police Department.

Policing Tactics

Around the Civil war era, In the south, there were slave patrols. Created around the 18th century, Slave patrols were to apprehend runaway slaves and to prevent a Slave revolution. It was mostly composed of volunteer citizens and, more importantly, Wealthy white landowners, and due to that, most of the volunteer's actions went unchecked, such as “handing out justice on the spot,” which mostly includes violence. Although due process was around, slave patrols could enter private homes and look for runaway slaves with or without evidence. However, when the end of the civil war came to an end, so did the Slave Patrols but introduced the idea to the Klu-Klux-Klan to terrorize the African- American Community. As pioneers moved West, the crime problem from the city moves with them out west. More than often, self-protection fueled plenty of violence. Guns, knives, and fists were heavily used to resolve problems in newly established areas. Sheriffs were appointed by town people to provide what little law enforcement was available, but more times than often, they were unreliable. Most times, they worked for both sides of the law, depending on the rewards and opportunities that are offered. As a result of this, frontier communities often formed their possess and vigilante citizen groups to confront any person or group intending on messing with the community safety or ability to work. Overall, It failed, Due to not being able to keep up with the city growth. It was cited in a report that “Organized police forces in early America were born of necessity. A single law enforcement official rapidly became inadequate as populations surged. ”

Agencies

At the point when Texas pronounced its freedom from Mexico in 1836, the Texas Rangers were at that point a built-up law implementation office. As talked about before, they did not start as a state-level association. Their underlying center was protecting the network, be that as it may, they received policing duties after Texas freedom was announced. The early Rangers frequently brought the law into their very own hands and were not as worried about equal treatment and fair treatment as police. In 1789, President George Washington delegated the first 13 U. S. Marshals as per the Judiciary Act. Until the Secret Service was set up in 1865, the U. S. Marshals concentrated their endeavors on catching forgers. Between 1790 and 1870, the marshals were additionally required to take the National Census like clockwork, an obligation that was in the long run moved to the Bureau of Census. While in the nineteenth century, the marshals did everything from capture criminals to reclaiming property that belonged to the confederacy. More than anything, however, in the last piece of the nineteenth century, the marshals and their delegates were answerable for keeping up lawfulness in the Old West. Another new federal law enforcement agency involved U. S. postal inspectors, whose job it was to target crimes committed through the mail examples include mail fraud. In 1865, the Secret Service was founded with the primary objective to stop the spread of counterfeit currency. That responsibility is still active today, along with several others, including protecting the president.

Corrections

History

The Quakers, founded by William Penn, also made Colonial Pennsylvania an exception to the oppressive practices sometimes seen in the other colonies. Colonial Pennsylvania's first criminal code prohibited executions for all but murder offenses, replaced physical punishment with incarceration and hard labor and did not charge inmates for their food and housing. The Auburn Method (New York, 1819) used the Quaker principle of night solitary confinement but used a method of grouping prisoners during the day in a shared workroom. The inmates were unable to speak to each other or look at each other. Any breach of the rules has been met with immediate and strict discipline. That boss had the right to discipline a prisoner who broke the rules. Reformers described the process as cost-effective because a single guard was able to watch a collection of inmates at work. The prisoners ' work would help pay for their maintenance; they would understand the advantages of education and have time to meditate and pray. Both the programs in Pennsylvania and Auburn mandated the segregation of criminals and a disciplined procedure. The Pennsylvania system continued to be followed by European countries, while the majority of American states preferred the Auburn system. In a Journal, it states “At each session of the court there occurred what was called a 'gaol delivery,' when the jail was practically emptied of its inmates, only to be filled again during the interval between the delivery and the next session of the court. ”

Jail Conditions

Jails were used to house prisoners awaiting their trial and punishment or as jails for debtors, but they were not the sentence itself. The Massachusetts Puritans believed that people were deprived naturally, making it easier for some of the colonies and the first states to enforce harsh punishments. The Quakers hoped that solitary confinement would transform prisoners. The criminals would think about their unjust ways in such prisons, confess, and change. For 'hardened and atrocious criminals. ' Pennsylvania built the Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia in 1790. The government eventually built the Western Penitentiary outside of Pittsburgh and outside Philadelphia, the Eastern Penitentiary, around 1829. For separate exercise yards, the cells are segregated prisoners so they can work, read their Bibles, and consider about recovery. The only voice heard by the prisoners on Sunday was that of the chaplain. The reformers believed that solitary confinement not only allowed the offenders to repent but also served as a punishing experience as humans are social by nature. Many prisoners, however, found it very difficult to endure total isolation, and the jails rapidly were becoming overpopulated prisoner warehouses. Because many prison administrators were corrupt, convicts were mistreated and used as cheap labor. Due to the corruption of many jail officials, convicts have been mistreated and used as cheap labor. A growing number of prison reformers have started to believe, though, that the prison system should be more committed to reform. The newly established National Prison Association (which later became the American Correctional Association) met in 1870 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and issued a Principle Statement. The Auburn system's philosophy (fixed sentences, silence, isolation, severe punishment, lockstep work) was seen as degrading and destructive to the human spirit. Some of the examples of the declaration of principal were that prisoners should be trained as free, resourceful citizens capable of functioning in society, not average prisoners, Prisoners should be rewarded for good behavior. In a journal It states, “It wasn't until the late 19th century that America's jails shifted their focus – rather than just being in place to punish prisoners, prisons now set goals for rehabilitating inmates through rehabilitation and skilled labor. ”

Rehabilitation

The superintendent of the Elmira Reformatory in New York, Zebulon Brockway (1827–1920), used some of these theories when New York opened the reformatory in 1876 to male offenders between the ages of 16 and 30. Brockway believed that rehabilitation could be accomplished by training. Inmates who have performed well in both educational and spiritual aspects have received early release by accumulating points. Misbehavior and poor performance on academic courses have extended the punishment of the person. Brockway used this method because the New York legislature had passed a law authorizing indeterminate sentences and the release of prisoners on parole if they proved that they had been modified. Brockway acknowledged that it was difficult to distinguish between those inmates who had changed and those who claimed to be rehabilitated in order to be freed from parole. The way the facilities were designed, the shortage of trained staff, and the guards ' attitudes made it challenging to incorporate Brockway's ideas. Therefore, the implementation of a parole program made it easier for prisoners to rehabilitate from the reformatories.

Notwithstanding this return to order, the reform movement has persisted. The liberals of the early twentieth century assumed that if jails adapted theories of behavioral science to inmates, prisoners could be rehabilitated. The liberals worked to change the social environment from which offenders come and to devise ways to rehabilitate single inmates. While many of the changes had promise, many could not be adequately implemented due to inadequate funds and lack of willingness on the part of prison officials to act. Since each change failed to solve the crime problem, most inmates have become disillusioned.

Conclusion

The American Justice System has existed for centuries. It brings the basic outline from ancient England and French law system. The America justice System remains one of the hardest issues not only in the United States but worldwide. However, it is essential to note that since the nation was founded some 200 years ago, the U. S. law enforcement and criminal justice system has developed tremendously. Although the program defines its roles, disputes have arisen between the departments, each criticizing each other because of ineffectiveness. In summary, the criminal justice system is a critical part of our society and a dynamic combination of the three main components, including law enforcement, courts, and corrections.

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