Free Essay. International Crime Witness

Court systems are different in various countries in the world today. In the crime witnessed where a woman was stabbed and her purse stolen, the accused person is likely to be treated differently in the United Kingdom as opposed to other countries. Therefore, this paper analyzes the court system in the United Kingdom by focusing on the crime witnessed.

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Court System of the United Kingdom

Article 6 of the constitution of the United Kingdom provides an accused person with the right to a fair trial (Lakin, 2018). The law ensures that a defendant has access to the court. The defendant is likely to face charges of robbery with violence, which would warrant him to have the right to counsel. It is worth noting that the courts in the United Kingdom are likely to ensure that the victim has a fair trial. As Hansen (2017) argued, a fair trial in the UK consists of four essential facts. They include the fact that the case will be ruled reasonably, publicly, and will be heard by an independent tribunal and at a reasonable duration.

Primarily, the courts in the UK are likely to treat the defendant with the presumption that they are innocent until the prosecution, through the tabled evidence, proves them guilty. Mainly, this means that the perpetrator is not likely to be ill-treated. The judges are likely to view the case with the assumption that he is innocent to allow for a fair review of the evidence provided by the prosecution. In addition to that, the defendant is obliged, under the constitution of the United Kingdom, to appropriate treatment. In this case, the perpetrator will have the chance to defend himself, which means that he has the right not to say anything that would incriminate him regardless of whether or not he is guilty. A fair representation also includes the right to have free legal aid in the event when the perpetrator cannot afford the costs incurred on legal charges (Hansen, 2017). Therefore, the court system in the United Kingdom can be described as fair entities that often make verdicts based on the pieces of evidence brought before the court by the prosecutor.

Prison Systems of the United Kingdom

The prison systems in the United Kingdom are characterized by violence from the inmates and correctional officers. The perpetrator, in this case, could be found guilty and charged with robbery with violence. Mainly, this would land the defendant in the prisons in the country. Some of the possible experiences that the perpetrator is likely to encounter include beating up from the guards and inmates, torture, and deliberate attacks on his human rights. According to Elison, Weston, Davies, Dugdale, and Ward (2016), the United Kingdom has the worst prisons in the world. The author further continued to indicate that the justice committee in the country discussed the issue of the country's prison systems in parliament with topics such as persistence of violence from the inmates and guards being of utmost concern. Similarly, Elison et al. (2016) argued that the number of prisoner deaths increased in the last few years in most of the incarceration centers in the United Kingdom.

Consequently, the defendant is likely to contract a variety of illnesses due to the overcrowding nature of the prisons in the country. As Elison et al. (2016) argued, the United Kingdom incarcerates more people than the prisons could hold. Thus, this leads to increased diseases due to congestion and increased sharing of personal amenities. The issue of increased violence and dirty and poor living conditions could contribute to diseases and mental illnesses such as depression. Depression could result in self-inflicted deaths. As Sondhi, Birch, Lynch, Holloway, and Newbury-Birch (2016) stipulated, self-inflicted deaths have increased in the prison system of the United Kingdom in recent years. With this in mind, it is clear that the defendant is not likely to have a comfortable life while in prison. Life for him could be hard due to the poor conditions of the prisons in the UK.

Ethical Concerns Regarding the Court and Correctional Systems in the UK

In the prison systems, prison violence and suicide are on the rise. In the court systems, courts are increasingly failing due to their integration with political matters. According to Hansen (2017), the rule of law demands justice to be separate from politics. However, this is not the case in the UK. The courts have been overwhelmed by pressure from politicians to take a tough stance on sex issues, domestic violence, rape, and historical abuse cases. In some of the areas, such incidents have increased in courts. Due to the interferences by politicians, the majority of these cases delay leading to delayed justice, which is a violation of human rights.

Another political intervention is in the issue of budget cuts for both the courts and the prison system. According to Hansen (2017), the budget allocated to prisons and courts system in the United Kingdom has been cut by a quarter every year since the year 2010. The cuts in budgets have also harmed the timely completion of cases. In prisons, cuts in budgets have led to poor living conditions, which has increased physical and mental illnesses among the prisoners. Importantly, the poor and hazardous situation in the prison systems and delayed justice in the court systems are a human rights violation and significant ethical concerns.

Recommendation for Change

In prison systems, the issue of security could be managed by reducing the idleness and classification of prisoners. As Sondhi et al. (2016) argued, overcrowded prisons could be challenging to manage. In most cases, such prisons are plagued by increased violence and conflict, as is the case in the UK. Inmates should not be ide. Importantly, active inmates are often not likely to feel stressed and hostile. Also, the prisons could classify prisons based on their levels of risk. Lower risk groups need less security as opposed to higher-risk groups.

Further, the UK should increase the budget allocated to the judiciary. An increase in budget would signify an increase in the number of appointed and qualified judges. The jury in the United Kingdom is comprised of eligible persons. Increasing the number of judges would mean increasing the number of courtrooms, which would help to ensure timely completion of court cases.

Justification for Recommendation

For the first recommendation of the reduction of idleness and classification of prisoners, it is worth noting that inactivity is one of the factors that contribute to increased hostility in incarceration facilities. When people are idle, they tend to occupy their minds with vices such as violence. In addition to that, separating prisoners will help to ensure that increased security from the correctional officers is maintained among high-risk groups. In most situations, members of the high-risk groups attack those of the low-risk groups. Separating the two groups and increasing security among the high-risk groups would reduce prison violence in the country.

In courts, it was mentioned that delayed justice is evident due to the budget cuts that have been placed on the judiciary since the year 2010. Increasing the budget would imply the employment of more judges and an increased number of courtrooms to hear the different cases brought to court by the prosecutor. In effect, this would lead to a significant reduction in delayed justice.

Conclusion

The court system in the United Kingdom can be described as fair, with the only issue being delayed justice. In prison systems, the country needs to work towards preventing the increased hostility that has led to death and suicide. Some recommendations have been proposed, which include increasing the budget allocated to the judiciary and reducing idleness among inmates. Such solutions would likely solve the issues facing the courts and prison systems in the nation.

References

Elison, S., Weston, S., Davies, G., Dugdale, S., & Ward, J. (2016). Findings from mixed-methods feasibility and effectiveness evaluations of the "Breaking Free Online" treatment and recovery programme for substance misuse in prisons. Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy, 23(2), 176-185. doi: 10.3109/09687637.2015.1090397

Hansen, M. A. (2017). Trust in the system? Factors that impact citizens' view of courts in the United Kingdom. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 98(5), 1503-1517. doi.: 10.1111/ssqu.12372

Lakin, S. (2018). The manner and form theory of parliamentary sovereignty: a Nelson's eye view of the UK constitution? Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 38(1), 168-189. doi: 10.1093/ojls/gqy003

Sondhi, A., Birch, J., Lynch, K., Holloway, A., & Newbury-Birch, D. (2016). Exploration of delivering brief interventions in a prison setting: A qualitative study in one English region. Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy, 23(5), 382-387. doi: 10.1080/09687637.2016.1183588