With recent unarmed shootings and final verdicts that society disagreed with, a majority of the people have lost assurance in the criminal justice system that was once put in place to protect and serve the citizens of America. Many individuals do not feel safe and protected when they see a law enforcement officer, but rather terrified and nervous. This is all due to the flaws in the criminal justice system, that has been past due for reformation. The need to reform the justice system is clear due to the prison's population rising exponentially, unarmed shootings resulting in deaths, and riots breaking out in cities over inconsistent data shown in trial. 

During the past four decades, the U.S. prison population has quadrupled even as the crime rate has dropped, which shows that something needs to be fixed within the criminal justice system if the prison population keeps rising and society isn't the problem. Other countries don't have nearly as many prisoners as we do, with the United states having the highest incarceration rate of 469 and Guatemala having the second highest at 117. 46.5% of the prison's population are incarcerated for a nonviolent crime. Instead of worrying about something that cannot harm or affect others the law enforcement should be more focused on seeking out terrorists and burglars rather than teens who are smoking pot in their backyard. Another example that shows the flaws within the criminal justice system is within the court room. When a whole city turns into shambles over a ruling in court shows that change within the criminal justice system is needed.

The criminal justice system sparked my interest when I began watching the news a couple years back during the Casey Anthony trial and saw her walk away not guilty after murdering her daughter when the evidence all pointed to her being the culprit. Bias is apart of everyone, and impacts your opinion which is what distinguishes you from others. The bias imposed on the jury is based off how the prosecutors or defendant can manipulate the evidence in order to support their argument, by attempting to relate to the jury personally. Race has also been seen as a contributing factor to the faulty criminal justice system which could lead to me being targeted by police officers because of my race and potentially detained for something that the officer could let slide for someone of another race. The officer has all the authority in these situations which gives him the power to do what he wants, which can be inconsistent because depending on who he is dealing with can depend on how the person is treated and if he is arrested, given a ticket, or let go with a warning.

The first article that supported my claim was from the New York Times by Adam Benforado, whose central topic revolved around what it would take to achieve true criminal justice in America. He later argues that if we got rid of all the cops that cracked racist jokes and prosecutors who only wanted power, along with lying witnesses, that we would still have innocent women and men sentenced to death. His reasoning for this is that the criminal justice system is based on an inaccurate model of human behavior and that it should be constructed off of scientific facts. 

In the second article I chose, Heuvel addresses the moral and political case for reforming the criminal justice system. Her main points behind her argument is the prison population concerning the "war on drugs" and where each candidate running for office stands on the issue. The author is credible because she is a writer for the Washington Post and has written other posts concerning the political race and news happening in the United States.

The last article I chose to use is informative and provides an overview of the criminal justice system process, beginning from a police report all the way to a court appearance. It is a credible source because the information lines up with information on other credible websites. The research question I chose is arguable because it is a topic that is current in todays society and is seen in the news quite often. Some agreements I found among the sources are that reformation is needed in the criminal justice system along with the reasons why it needs to be reformed, such as talking about the strategies used in the interrogation room as well as the memory of the eyewitness who is trying to identify a suspect.
