Colonial Period of Criminal Justice: Essay

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Freedom of speech has been compromised, CCAPA contends; librarians and others who keep public records may be prosecuted if they "tell anyone the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation." The right to legal representation has now been watered down as the Patriot Act allows government to monitor conversations between attorneys and clients in federal prisons "and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes." The constitutionally guaranteed freedom from unreasonable searches (Fourth Amendment) is no longer enforced, according to CCAPA's research, as under the Patriot Act the warrant-less search and seizure of any person records (including phone calls and bank records) may be conducted at the whim of the executive branch. Right to a speed trial: Americans may now be jailed "indefinitely without a trial," according to CCAPA. And further, the presumed right to liberty is also compromised as Americans can be (and have been) jailed "without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them; indeed, "enemy combatants" have been held without specific charges against them, some have been tortured and moved from one remote CIA prison environment to another, according to numerous sources (and not denied by the executive branch).

Patriot act tools misused by bush administration

When the Bush Administration promoted the original passage of the Patriot Act, it sited the need to use this as a "tool" for its "war on terrorism"; but according to an article in the New York Times (Lichtblau 2005) reprinted in the CCAPA Web pages (www.scn.org), the administration is using Patriot Act tools to pursue drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and corrupt foreign leaders…" as well. Critics say the administration's use of the law in areas outside the bounds of terrorism investigations is evidence that Bush and his administration have "sold the American public a false bill of goods."

Within six months of the original passage of the act, the Justice Department was conducting seminars "…on how to stretch the new wiretapping provisions to extend them beyond terror cases," according to Dan Dodson, speaking in behalf of the national Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys and quoted by the Associated Press within the Times article. What the Justice Department has really done, said Elliot Mincberg, an attorney with People for the American Way, is "to get things put into the law that have been on prosecutors' wish lists for years. They have used terrorism as a guise to expand law-enforcement powers in areas that are totally unrelated to terrorism," Mincberg concluded.

The U.S. Criminal Justice System Was Better off Before Bush

One thing that Bush did was allow the Department of Justice to be politicized; the firing of eight Federal Prosecutors (because they didn't adhere to the Republican party line) was illegal. Bush also is responsible for the hiring of Alberto Gonzales (an old political pal of Bush); the wiretaps on citizens without proper warrants; the use of torture on "enemy combatants" against international treaties; and the suspension of the right to a fair trial. All these things are due to the Bush Administration's seizing of power from Congress and telling the America people it would make them safe but the Constitution would have to take a back seat. Yes, things were better before Bush.

Works Cited

Associated Press, Knight-Ridder Newspapers 2003, 'The Patriot Act in a Nutshell',

Concerned Citizens Against the Patriot Act, Retrieved March 30, 2009, from http://www.scn.org/ccapa/pa-meta.html.

Langly, Jennifer Tennile, Munger, Michael, Litteral, Kenneth, & Camper, Stephen.

(2001). The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Retrieved March 30, 2009

from http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/16071783/law.htm.

Spelman, William. (2000). What Recent Studies Do (and Don't) Tell Us About

Imprisonment and Crime. Crime and Justice,…