The criminal justice system has three institutions that process a case from the beginning until the end. Law enforcement officials begin the case by investigating a crime and gathering as many evidence as they can in order to identify the perpetrator and the gathered evidence against them.
After this, the court system continues with the case and takes into consideration the evidence that’s been gathered to decide whether the defendant is guilty. If the perpetrator is found guilty, the means at the disposal of the corrections system will be put to use in hopes of correcting the offender’s behavior.
In all the above processes, the rights of the accused or convicted are honored by constitutional protections. The protections is needed to balance the investigation and prosecution of criminals with the rights of the accused; they’re innocent until proven guilty.
Here are the three major institutions of a criminal justice system.
Law Enforcement
There are a number of laws that protect the accused from abuses from the officers of law enforcement but the most important are the Miranda advisement. The Miranda advisement is the usual line that you hear in most police dramas that start with “You have the right to remain silent”. Officers of the law are mandated to remind the arrests of their rights.
Law enforcement officers are also restricted from searching and seizing without a warrant until and unless there is an exception. One exception to this is when the officer is in pursuit of a suspect since there is a considerable chance that the evidence may be destroyed.
Court
Just like law enforcement, the court also faces a lot of restrictions in its ability to prosecute a case. These laws include ones right to confront their accuser and the right to a jury trial. All this is done to ensure the trial is fair for the accused.
The defendant can either choose a lawyer of their own or, if the cannot afford one, the court will appoint one for them. The jury is selected in such a way that all the sections of the community is represented so that the trail is fair and unbiased.
Correction system
After the defendant is proven guilty, they will then be convicted and if the charges include jail time, they are sent to a corrections facility to serve their time. This can either be probation or incarceration or both. Probation can be supervised or unsupervised. In a supervised probation, an officer will regularly chin with the offender to see whether the terms of the probation are respected. Unsupervised probation is usually jail time or other punishment if they run into trouble in the future.
Incarceration is the outcome of a much severe criminal trial, and the convict will be housed in a jail or prison; jail is for offenses that aren’t serious, and prison is for serious crimes that involve serious felony offenses.