Each year, the Neal Davis Law Firm sponsors a $1,000 scholarship essay contest to support students pursuing higher education across the U.S.
This year, we asked college students to answer the following prompt in 500 words or less:
What are the 3 largest challenges to the criminal justice system today? With these top issues that law enforcement and prosecutors face nationwide, what can be done to encourage evidence-based solutions?
After reviewing more than 50 submissions, we were especially impressed with an essay from a junior undergraduate student at the University of Arizona. We’re excited to announce that Logan Gomez is this year’s winner!
Here’s his winning essay:
The Three Largest Contemporary Issues Faced by
the Criminal Justice System
Despite being a fundamental part of this nation, the United States criminal justice system faces several issues that prevent it from serving the American people the best it possibly can. Currently, the criminal justice system’s three largest issues are police retention and recruitment, lack of resource parity between prosecution and public defenders, and its public perception.
Currently, police recruitment and retention is arguably the largest problem facing the criminal justice system. According to a 2021 report by the Police Executive Research Forum, the rate of police resignation across police departments of all sizes dramatically increased from 2016 to 2021. The largest increase was from 2020 to 2021, when most officers left the profession before achieving eligibility for full pensions. Hiring rates show similar trends, though only among police departments with over 250 officers. This problem severely reduces law enforcement’s ability to serve the public in as many as 25% of police forces (IACP, 2019). According to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ, 2020) and the IACP, police forces can solve this problem by bettering their public perception while addressing issues that most contribute to officer stress and burnout.
Another large issue facing the criminal justice system is the lack of parity in resources available to prosecution and public defenders. For example, statistics for the State of California show that prosecution received 82% more funding than public defenders in 2018 (Lee, 2022). District Attorney’s offices had more than double the employees of Public Defenders’ offices while respective arrests per attorney were 260 to 372. Louisiana shows a similar trend, with the funding ratio between the District Attorney’s office and the Public Defenders’ office in New Orleans being nearly 5:1 in 2019 (Metzger, 2019). Public defenders simply do not have anywhere near the same amount of resources to defend defendants as prosecutors have to prosecute defendants. Given that the United States houses over 20% of the world’s prisoners despite being 5% of the global population (ACLU, 2017), it may be time to reexamine how the Supreme Court’s Gideon v. Wainwright decision is upheld across the nation. Data from the University of Pennsylvania show that implementation of a novel, resource-intensive legal defense system resulted in a near 24% reduction in sentencing length (Anderson et al., 2018). This system, called holistic defense, has public defenders work in interdisciplinary teams to best serve a client’s needs and life circumstances.
The third largest contemporary issue facing American criminal justice is its waning public trust. While public trust in criminal justice during the year 2021 increased from 2020, the general trend since 2003 has been negative while overall trust has been very low (Marshall, 2021). Psychological studies have shown that a large contributor to trust in criminal justice is whether the public views criminal justice procedures as fair (Tyler, 2015). According to behavioral science, trust should increase if measures are adopted that increase transparency in the criminal justice system (Tyler, 2015). One contributor to the problem may be the use of algorithms in criminal justice decision-making because the average person does not have the education required to understand how they work and may view them as unfair (Street, 2018). Data show that using simple and easily understood rules in place of algorithms may be an effective alternative that increases transparency and public trust (Street, 2018).
References
ACLU. (2017). Mass incarceration. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration
Anderson, J., Buenaventura, M., & Heaton, P. (2018). The effects of holistic justice on criminal defense outcomes. University of Pennsylvania. https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/8282-holisticdefensev201%20-%203
IACP. (2019). The state of recruitment: a crisis for law enforcement. International Association of Chiefs of Police. https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/239416_IACP_RecruitmentBR_HR_0.pdf
Lee, A. (2022). Assessing the provision of criminal indigent defense. Legislative Analyst’s Office. The California Legislature’s Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4623
Marshall, J. (2021, July 18). Gallup’s institutional trust poll. Ethics Alarms. https://ethicsalarms.com/2021/07/18/gallups-institutional-trust-poll/
Metzger, P. (2019, May 22). Equal justice depends on properly funding public defenders. The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/444588-equal-justice-depends-on-properly-funding-public-defenders/
NIJ. (2020, February 12). Chiefs’ panel points to top issues and related innovation needs facing law enforcement. National Institute of Justice; United States Department of Justice. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/chiefs-panel-points-top-issues-and-related-innovation-needs-facing-law-enforcement
Police Executive Research Forum. (2021, June 11). WorkforceSurveyJune2021. www.policeforum.org; Motorola Solutions Foundation. https://www.policeforum.org/workforcesurveyjune2021
Street, R. (2018, April 9). Simple rules could promote more trust in the criminal justice system | Stanford University School of Engineering. Engineering.stanford.edu. https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/simple-rules-could-promote-more-trust-criminal-justice-system
Tyler, T. (2015). How police can regain public trust, according to science. APS Observer, 29. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/effective-policing-depends-on-public-trust-science-shows#:~:text=Drawing%20on%20evidence%20from%20behavioral%20science%2C%20Tyler%20and
About the winner
Logan Gomez is a junior at the University of Arizona, majoring in Psychological Sciences (BS) and Spanish Translation + Interpretation (BA). As a Spanish Translation major, he learned much about the history and importance of translation services in the United States court system. What he learned about the law fascinated him so much that he began to spend his free time listening to law school lectures online or watching live criminal trials.
When he graduates, he hopes to either apply to law school or become a certified court translator. He has always been interested in the law and the criminal justice system and is currently counting down the days until he can finally start his path toward actively participating in our nation’s legal system.
Think you could write a winning essay? Join us for our next scholarship contest!
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s essay contest, and congratulations, Logan, on your winning essay!
If you missed this contest or would like to try again next time, check out our scholarship page for details. Students must be enrolled in college to be eligible. If you have any further questions concerning the contest, essay requirements or selection process, feel free to contact us. Good luck!
