by ShortyGU12

Created on: February 25, 2008   Last Updated: February 02, 2009

Most of the people in an *American* prison are first time drug offenders - not homeless people committing crimes. It's not unusual for people to commit crimes in desperation however, in the U.S. there are agencies that will help people with money if they actually want the help.

People in foreign countries such as Canada can't really make any sort of judgment call on an American justice system simply because of the fact that 1. If they live in a foreign country such as Canada, they don't know how the American legal system truly works. It's not just about the three federal branches and the criminal justice process but there's an administrative side to the police department as well - such as trying to budget a police department's finances. Who has had to try that? Anyone? I have. Being a U.S. Criminal Justice student meant that I had to look at different aspects of American law - including budgets and how cities are run. I had to re organize an existing real life police department along with the money that it should have.

People outside of the *American* legal field don't understand how *American* police departments work. Even though all of them still follow and enforce federal laws, there are two other levels of laws; state and city - sometimes county as well. Federal laws are the most highest degree of law that one could break such as how many cars a person has stolen or how many people they've murdered and so forth. It's not all laws broken on a federal level but on a more local level as well. Not a lot of people know that police departments in a not so nice looking city will have difficulties sending their police officers to school to receive higher education - even if it's just work related. Police departments are looking for candidates with higher education (i.e. college degrees) to enlist into their police departments because they want their officers to be educated and not just some person who only graduated high school and only know how to walk their beat. Many police departments want their personnel to have more education than just high school so that they can understand society more but the finances aren't always there.

It's rather recent that bigger cities have actually had better crime scene labs installed in their precincts. Some precincts are so old that putting in newer equipment would mean remodeling the building or moving to a new building all together.

Very similar to the educational system, police departments are like schools in depraved areas - finances aren't overflowing with money and therefore they can only work with what they have. Even if someone is in higher ranks in the police force, they aren't likely to have a too comfortable salary either so it's not lining the pockets of higher ups either. Where are the finances of the city going? Easy - big corporations such as Wal-Mart and Section 8 housing.

So definitely, the more money given to the law enforcement agencies, the better. Get the criminals reformed, jailed for life, or executed and the world will be a better place.

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