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Analysis: We Need To Talk About An Injustice

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Bryan Stevenson, an American lawyer, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative gave a ted talk titled “We Need to Talk About an Injustice”. In that talk, he discussed the current condition of the American criminal justice system and the issue of mass incarceration. He stated that “we have a system of justice in this country that treats you much better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. Wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes.” I found this to be a profound quote on the criminal justice system as it seems contrary to everything the rule of law is about. So I considered if this was similar in a Canadian context, if there are any inequalities in the way we administer justice, and criminal law. I found …show more content…
In Canada’s criminal justice system, there is a retributive approach to crime meaning it places an emphasis on penalty, and punishment in an effort to deter crime. This retributive approach to crime is further explained in an article titled “What is Crime?” which found that “deterrence through criminal law varies according to the context, and critics suggest criminal law has failed to prevent people from committing certain crimes.” As a result, the nature of this paper is not to completely change the criminal justice system to a restorative justice system but to bring light to the biases and the issues a punitive approach to crime brings. Plus, implement the tools used in restorative approaches in sentencing, to make the criminal justice system more efficient. Furthermore, it’s important to recognize that not all crimes can fall under restorative such as heinous crimes like homicide and murder. Nonetheless, in circumstances of youth delinquents, first time offenders, summary offences and drug related offences should be approached through a restorative approach in sentencing, with the intention of …show more content…
For instance, the indigenous population in Canada’s prisons system continues to grow and are overly represented in comparison to any other group. In the article written by Patenaude etc. (1992), they found that “Canada’s indigenous peoples are incarcerated in federal and provincial/territorial correctional facilities in number far in excess of their representation in the general population”. Which begs the question why are aboriginals represented at higher rates? I argue systematic biases as well as a punitive approach to crime furthers the issue of the over incarceration of aboriginal people in Canada. For instance, they found that crime rates were not allocated evenly as “it falls disproportionately on the poorer and more vulnerable sections of the population and serves to compound the growing economic and social inequalities which have risen dramatically...” Consequently, simply putting people in jail for certain crimes doesn’t deter crime but rather exacerbates it since it doesn’t account for other factors that affect

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