Respond to the below post.
Jessica Myers
TuesdayJun 25 at 12:07am
Manage Discussion Entry
Through my educational background and knowledge, the Criminal Justice System’s main focus is to ensure law and order are maintained throughout our communities. Additionally, the Criminal Justice system ensures there is protection of rights to our nation’s citizens that are upheld by the Constitution. This assists in ensuring that victims and offenders receive fair and just trials. Our criminal justice system has many realms to ensure fairness is provided to our citizens. These areas include law enforcement, corrections, courts and judicial processes, and restorative/rehabilitation programs for the offender population. Each one of these areas plays a pivotal role in the criminal justice system.
Restorative justice focuses on the rehabilitative approach of criminal behavior instead of punishment. Oftentimes, criminals come from subpar backgrounds, where all they know is the “fight or flight” mentality. This type of justice allows offenders a “second chance” at life through community service programs. These programs help with criminal reintegration back into society. 2 Corinthain 5:18-19 states, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (ESV). In a recent analysis performed by Yotam Shem-Tov, it was found that restorative justice can have a positive influence on reducing recidivism. The study was targeted at 143 troubled youth ages from 13-17 facing potential felony charges. The population was assigned into a “Make-it-Right” restorative justice program. Upon completion, it was found that participants of this program decreased their probability of rearrest by 44 percent within the first six months in comparison to troubled youth who did not participate in the program (Yotam Shem-Tov et al., 2024).
I do believe that restorative justice can be better harmonized throughout the criminal justice system if more funding was allocated to this strategy of correcting criminal behavior. Providing more of these programs into our communities and prisons would decrease the likelihood of rearrest once an inmate is released from incarceration. Additionally, I find it more beneficial if these criminal prevention programs were aimed more towards our juvenile population. Providing knowledge resources to adolescents ensures they are set up for success upon entering adulthood. Proverbs 22:6 guides us, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (ESV).
References:
ESV. (n.d.). www.esv.org
