Criminal Justice
Bob Botsch
Copyright 2012
Extent to which criminal justice is
decentralized, and “police powers”
• Decentralized nationally b/c of fear of too strong
a central govt—goes back to British experience
• Most investigations are at local level, not state
(SLED) or national (FBI)  much variation in
enforcement sensitive to local values; election of
sheriffs reinforces this tendency
• Tenth Amendment interpreted to give “police
powers” to states, and they pass it down further
to local government
• Police Powers include most matters concerning
public health and safety
How the office of Sheriff has
evolved, current and past
problems?
•
•
•
•
•
Medieval England—office of “shire-reeve” who
collected taxes for king—later shire evolved
into county
Elected every 4 years independent of other
county officials  fragmentation in budgets &
personnel
Wide variety of duties
No formal qualifications—uneven quality
mitigated by required attendance to SC
Criminal Justice Academy
Keeping qualified Deputy Sheriffs a problem
A) How police departments
different than sheriff’s departments
• Appointed rather than elected
• So more integrated in with other city
departments, less fragmented
• Vary in size much more, from tiny one
person departments to urban departments
larger than some county sheriff
departments
B) Three Alternative Styles of Law
Enforcement
1. Watchman—maintain order, overlook
some infractions, treatment depends on
social status
2. Legalistic—more professional in terms of
equal treatment, aggressively pursue
lawbreakers
3. Service—see selves as working for
citizens and helping settle disputes—get
“cats out of trees”
C) Community Policing and D)
Major Problem facing all depts
• Community Policing
– Permanent patrol areas
– Usually on foot, also horse and bike
– Get to know people and community, develop
rapport and relationships
• Major problem—turnover b/c of low pay
Major Entities Involved in Law
Enforcement at State Level
• Highway Patrol—most visible—under
Cabinet Department of Public Safety—
traffic laws and drug interdiction
• State Transport Police—trucking
regulations on weight and safety
• SLED—state version of FBI—
technological support of local police and
investigations or major crimes
Solicitor: Structure, Selection,
Duties, and Pressures
• Elected in each of 16 judicial circuits for 4 year
terms—serve as district attorney
• Include asst, investigator, and secretary plus
additional staff if allowed by county—salaries of
basic personnel paid by state
• Maximize “win margin” by plea bargaining
• Have much discretion in charging and in which
crimes to pursue—sensitive to public pressure
• Handle Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) program
Defense Counsel for the Indigent
• Only pertains to criminal proceedings, not civil
cases
• Guaranteed basic tools: expert witnesses,
psychiatric exams, forensics, perhaps DNA tests
• Done in SC in two basic ways
– Public Defender Corporations—often organized by
local bar associations and paid out of state Indigent
Defense Fund—underfunded
– Court appointed private attorneys, who may resent
appointment
Local Detention facilities
• Overnight Lockup—holding cells in police
departments for up to 48 hours
• County Jail—operated by sheriff’s dept or
separate county unit, vary in size—those
awaiting trial
• County Prison—house prisoners with sentences
of 90 days or less or near release inmates from
SCDC and low-risk, often do public works jobs
• Standards improved after Nelson v. Leeke
(1985) and federal oversight
•
•
•
•
•
Kinds of State Prisons, Inmates,
Cost, Comparisons, and Major
Problem
Level 1-A: minimum security, pre-release
Level 1-B: short sentences, approaching release
Level 2: medium, security
Level 3: high security
94% male; about 2/3’s A-A; mean age of 33;
almost half under 30
• Cost about $40/day or $15k/yr
• One of the highest incarceration rates in nation,
but little increase in recent years
• Major problem is low salary and high turnover of
correctional officers—getting worse!
Probation and Parole
• Probation—considered limited confinement in
which one serves by giving back to community,
typically 1st offenders for minor offenses or those
with extenuating circumstances
• Parole—after hard time a period of conditional
supervised release
• Both administered by Dept of Probation, Parole,
and Pardon Services agents—can be sent to
prison if violate condition of parole/probation
Issues and Controversies
• Blue laws—declining as culture changes
• Prison privatization—fears of the old
convict lease system that amounted to
legal slavery for profit
• Violent crimes and high incarceration rates
• Capital punishment
• Racial profiling and bias
• Alternative forms of punishment for
nonviolent offenders, especially drug
possession