Texas Criminal Justice System
Texas Government
Paper instructions:
Discuss the Texas Criminal Justice system in an informed opinion essay. This means that you should read up on the topic, discuss it with family, friends and mentors, form an opinion, and communicate that opinion to me with your reasons for those opinions.
Your discussion should revolve around one or more of the following types of things.
Texas has a higher percentage of its citizens incarcerated than any other state (and any other country as well). We have always had a fairly strong “law and order” culture.
Despite these facts, Texas leads the nation in many crime statistics. Why is this so? Is it caused by a failure of the Texas Judicial system? If so, how has it failed?
What is the role of plea bargaining in terms of crime rates? Is it a good thing? Or just a necessary thing? Should judges have discretionary sentencing power or not? What about the death penalty?
A good thing, or not? Quite a few convicts have had their sentences reversed due to advances in forensic science–have we potentially executed an innocent man? What can we do about convictions in error?
This essay should be based on facts, not gossip.