The terms justice, sin, and redemption are complex and their definitions mainly contested. What one person may consider just or a sin is not the same as another individual’s definition. Nonetheless, grounding our human pursuit of justice in the understanding of sin and redemption is a critical starting point towards putting to right all that is perceived wrong. It is through justice that we mend all that criminal activities and other types of sin had broken. This synthesis essay used three sources in comparing and advancing knowledge concerning the concept of sin, justice, and redemption. Other factors within the criminal justice system discussed in the essay include how a person’s social income status or race may influence the court trial outcomes. The criminal justice system is unfair and segregated where the minorities are evidently prejudiced against redemption.
The criminal justice system is prejudiced. A major strength of the “Serial” podcast is its ability to showcase to the world a little more closers of criminal justice system narratives that have been quietly spoken as rumors within the workplaces, as people rest as we commute (Serial Season 1; episode 3). The serial has effectively incorporated the use of third-person narration in drawing intimacy to the US listeners in regard to the states of the criminal justice system. Serial saw the need to dissect and reconsider the criminal justice system, which seems a complex concept yet should be familiar to every person. Individuals mandated to protect and offer justice to the people fairly are corrupted. The first and the second season of the series “Serial” explain the two critical steps involved in a criminal justice system, a scandal that can be explained to be treasonous as well as a small murder case within the town. The purpose of contrasting the two cases in this series is to examine and explain how circumstances within a criminal justice system are in most times challenging to execute especially yin reliably putting all the critical pieces of information together (Serial Season 1; episode 5). The other goal of the first and the second season was to explain to the audiences that individuals who are mandated by the constitution to charge criminals and issue judgments on crime-related cases are not always perfect and on the contrary are highly malleable (Yar 87). For example, there is a case of a judge who openly without fear threatens a plaintiff with racial stereotype by arguing that through increased births, young parents abuse and violates their parole.
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Individuals arrested are mistreated within the cells and some denied fundamental necessities. A case scenario is a station practice where the arrested are held and denied access to a bathroom or even a phone. There is also another case where a young teenage boy is arrested and held together with rival gang members increasingly putting his life at risk. Police brutality is prevalent in the criminal justice system. The series, Serial significantly contributes to the national discourse on the brutality of police even better put in ways that the mainstream media and social media headlines do not put across (Serial Season 1; episode 9). For example, Jesse Nickerson reported police officers who brutally beat him up who was later fired. However, instead of finding peace, Nickerson fears for his life especially harassment from other police officers. Thus, the series explains the palpable vulnerability that individuals experience in their pursuit to get justice. Justice and accountability cannot be accomplished if individuals cannot feel safe because of facing other possible threats to their lives (Yar 85). The serial is informative. It significantly contributes to the audience’s understanding of criminal processes, court procedures and facts in addition to other criminal court system issues that parents might use in ensuring that their children do not fall victim to illegal activities. Justice in the criminal justice system is used to reinstate the equilibrium state of an individual through the concept of an eye for an eye. In the book the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, the theme of justice takes a central place which arguably makes sense since it is in Hell where those who spent their life on Earth in sinful acts are forced to live under hellfire as payment to the sins committed. According to Dante’s deep venture into Hell, we are introduced to Hell’s nine circles of justice where each of the circles is a reserve of a certain criminal act. The main purpose of justice is paying or punishment for crimes committed (Yar 77). Also, every sinner is unique and thus the punishment for each type of sin is different from every individual and based on what sin was committed.
Sin in life is equivalent to the price of punishment in Death. In this argument about justice, Dante talks about counter-penalty an idea where every sin is paid through a penalty. For example, Dante depicts a picture of Pier della Vigna who in the book is said to be a poet. In 2149, he committed suicide. However, he had been imprisoned for something he surely had not committed. Vigna’s death was sad and gruesome. Upon his death by striking his head against the wall, Vigna meets Dante in the seventh circle of Hell. This is where criminals of violent murder were apprehended and condemned throughout their eternal life. The punishment for murderous was being stuck like a plant in one place (Boston University Arts & Sciences Writing Program para 2). Thus, justice for individuals who had committed suicide on earth was served by being stuck and planted into one-stop for forever. In this way, Dante explained that justice to the murderous was served through the restoration of balance, which used the concept of “an eye of an eye” in providing justice. While setting people to justice is crucial in providing fairness to those injured or affected, the criminal justice system does not consider institutional syndrome in setting up their jurisdiction. Institution syndrome points to an abnormality in both the life and social skills of an individual, which develops after the individual has spent much of his or her time in a hospital, prison or any other institution considered remote and lonely (Justice and Law Achieved para 2). Individuals held behind these institutions are in most cases deprived off their responsibility, the sense of being as well as their independence to the extent that then returning to their normal life becomes increasingly challenging (Yar 76). In the Shawshank Redemption film, the concept of the institutional syndrome is present. Andy Dufresne the main actor and a banker is sentenced to a crime of having killed his wife. Upon being sentenced, Andy suffers from several severe beatings by the guards. There are other cases of beatings that the viewer witnesses. In particular, one of a newly arrived inmate whom the prison guards beat up until his death due to lack of better medical care. Throughout Andy’s duration at the prison (Justice and Law Achieved para 4). The guards begin to protect him after one of the prison wardens Samuel Norton lures him to use his money in conducting laundering criminal activities. When his tenure ends, Andy is granted an opportunity to leave the prison. However. His tenure is short-lived and set for failure because he does not receive counseling and later, he finds himself in criminal fix yet again that lands him back to jail.
To conclude, this essay has conducted an in-depth synthesis to show the weaknesses within the criminal justice system. The majority of the trials have been deemed unjust while some favours the rich over the poor minorities. Also, the criminal justice system fails to consider the psychological effect of restricting prisoners and releasing them to the public without giving them counselling ignoring the probability of them being convicted in even worse criminal activities. All these concerns need to be considered as a turning point to creating a favorable and fair justice system. Justice cannot be accomplished if a client cannot argue his or her innocence out because he or she comes from a minority group.
Works Cited
- “Boston University Arts & Sciences Writing Program.” Writing Program Darkness Visible Dantes Clarification of Hell Comments, https://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-2/kameen/.
- “Justice and Law Achieved.” Criminal Justice Ethics: Shawshank Redemption. , Nov. 2019, https://407348468447416992.weebly.com/justice-and-law-achieved.html.
- “Serial.” Stitcher, https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/this-american-life/serial.
- Yar, Majid. 'The Utopian Apocalypse: Crime, Justice and Redemption.' Crime and the Imaginary of Disaster: Post-Apocalyptic Fictions and the Crisis of Social Order. Palgrave Pivot, London, 2015. 76-91.
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