Respond by Day 5: Identify other events during this period that your colleagues may have not considered. Explain the impact of these events. 5 sentences and question

Thereis no doubt about the fact that the American criminal justice systemwas heavily impacted differently after the civil war. I will discuss twoof those glaring issues that transformed the criminal justice systemvis-a-vis the courts and the prisons. These two factors are theemancipation of black slaves, and population explosion. One of thereasons that lead to the war was the plan of the southern states tocontinue with “slave trade” a move that was resisted by the thenPresident of the United States – Abraham Lincoln. With war againstslavery been won in 1864, blacks who were originally considered slaveswith no rights to get involved in any formal form of litigation overflooded the American courts even to the Supreme Court seeking legalredress for all the atrocities meted out to them in that era.

Blacklitigants not only brought civil cases against white southerners in thehighest level of southern courts throughout the period of 1865 to 1920,they often won these cases. The nature of the legal system and thevaried actions of its participants played an important part in AfricanAmericans’ access to southern courts, while also shaping and limitingthe kinds of cases litigated by African Americans (BlackPast.org, NoDate). In other words, the courts in America gained a new outlook ofbeing accessible to all regardless of race or color.

For thePrison on the other hand, before the 18th century, the notion was thatprisons were places dedicated to the punishment of offenders neverexisted. Offenders were only held in the prisons temporary until adecision is reached on what type of punishment is commensurate withtheir acts. According to Talal Al-Khatib (2015), Political prisoners anddebtors were the only ones who saw any kind of extended stay. Today,the United States is renowned as the highest jailer in the world andthis has been excused with increasing population and low mortalityrates. This population growth put a major strain on the prison system,lacking in both infrastructure and decency. Resource constraints led toovercrowding, which in term led to ineffective and often cruel prisonpolicy, a cycle that would repeat itself throughout U.S. history(Al-Khatib, 2015).

References

Al-Khatib,T. (2015). Doing Time: A History of US Prisons. Retrieved fromhttps://www.seeker.com/doing-time-a-history-of-us-…

BlackPast.org.(No Date). From Slave to Litigant: African Americans in Court in thePost-Civil War South. Retrieved fromhttp://www.blackpast.org/perspectives/slave-litiga…