This chapter of the paper is the longest and usually the most difficult for students. Only two prescribed sections are included in chapter 2 as this presents the students research into what has been written about the topic. Chapter 2 will begin with an introduction and the students strategies to finding literature. The student must give a percentage ratio of his/her sources since 85% of the references in any dissertation must come from peer-reviewed research and 15% may come from other sources. After those two sections, the literature review is written. At the end of this section, you should have at least twenty (20) additional references though in this class (for a total of at least 50 pages, including chapter 1). A summary paragraph should be included at the end, with a transition to chapter 3.
With over two million prisoners in the jails, the united states has the highest number of imprisonments all over the world. This implies that the criminal justice of the united states needs some reformations to minimize the number of prisoners and to ensure that it rehabilitates the lawbreakers instead of imposing harsh punishments of long-term imprisonment. It is time for the government to step up and reform the criminal justice system to ensure that the finances used to sustain the prisoners are used in other developmental activities.
The laws of United States have been created in such a way that minor crimes have high fines and long periods of imprisonments. Statistics show that the prisons are overcrowded with offenders who are charged with minor crimes followed by those who have charges for possession of illegal drugs (Miller, 2015). The main issue is that the American jails were not created to hold this number of offenders and the high numbers of tax dollars to support proper funding. The cost of these prisons is draining the federal governments money to be used in developments and other activities. Research has shown that many of the prisoners are non-violent offenders who are incarcerated due to drug charges which seems unfair. The criminal justice system is to be blamed for this situation. It also shows that the system is ineffective in rehabilitating the offenders since there are high cases of ex-offenders being imprisoned again and again (Walker, 2017). It is therefore necessary for the justice system to develop policies for reducing the number of guilty offenders who are put behind bars for minor crimes.
Research questions
How can the criminal justice system resolve all the issues related to the system which have caused the high rates of imprisonments.
Which reformation measures should be applied to ensure that criminal justice focuses on rehabilitating the criminals instead of punishing them?
How will these reformations help in reducing the criminal activities and the number of prisoners?