The Courts in a Fragmented Criminal Justice System

Abstract

The U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson in 1967 outlined a central role for courts in the criminal justice system. That role, however, has been somewhat diminished by the dominance of plea bargaining and the legislative enactment of mandatory minimum sentences that limit judges' discretion. At the same time, judges have become more involved in specialized courts dealing in cases involving drugs and mental illness. A major topic of concern is the lower courts, which in many areas have changed little since the 1960s Commission. In those places, the traditional adversary process is not operating well, with many defendants pleading guilty unnecessarily in a system that may be designed primarily to collect fees. In violent crime cases, the imposition of capital punishment remains a controversial issue for states that is not likely to be resolved by a new national commission. The central court functions of sentencing and overseeing plea bargains are discussed elsewhere in this volume.

Alaska's ban on sentence bargaining

“…1 1 Other critiques of plea bargaining include the observation that it removes the administration of justice away from the judge and jury (Gest, 2018). …”

Progress and Prospects—The 50th Anniversary of the 1967 President's Crime Commission Report in Today's Criminal Justice Environment

“…The evidence on police, courts, and corrections, while still growing, is substantial, enough so that policy makers and practitioners can feel comfortable using that research to make serious decisions. Although some areas of justice are still under‐researched (like mental illness and cybercrime, as Blumstein [] and Gest [, , this issue] discuss), or with difficult and confounding questions (like racial disparities as Fernandes and Crutchfield [, this issue] suggest), we have made great progress, so much so that members of our field are also regularly consolidating existing research, as in the Campbell Collaboration, as MacKenzie and Lattimore (, this issue) point out.…”

“…Some areas of criminal justice remain somewhat unresolved research mysteries. Courts and prosecution, as both Spohn (, this issue) and Gest () discuss, have been much less researched than policing, sentencing, or corrections. Part of this might be related to the lack of focus on automated data collection in these institutions, as well as to the lack of research access in the courts.…”