The United States is only about 5 percent of the world’s population, but home to 25 per cent of global prisoners. The American criminal justice system presently is broken, and an example of justice run amok. The system has deteriorated to a point whereby innocent people are being imprisoned even with the lack of sufficient evidence. For the real criminals, punishments are often not commensurate with the crime. Consequently, the criminal justice system does more harm than good – destroying lives, shattering dreams and crushing hopes and aspirations for happiness.
The credo of legal jurisprudence in any civilized dispensation is that the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a competent jurisdiction. However, in America, the reverse is the case due to its misguided penal policies spawned by greed and the interplay of politics and business within it. Prosecutors take to the extreme the dangerous human impulse to punish perceived offenders – real or imagined. Stories of prosecutorial abuse run like a horror movie. Reports of unwarranted arrests, police brutality, senseless prosecutions, and mass incarceration are a commonplace to the extent that the country’s legal system is teetering dangerously towards a precipice.
Across the country, the visible signs of pain and anguish can be seen in many families devastated by the imprisonment of a loved one and the so-called respect for human rights can only be thought of in relative terms. The lack of a guilty mind no longer matters in criminal cases in U.S. courts. As a result, the nation has drifted from the core foundations and principles on which the Union was built, which adds up to one concept and one word: freedom. In the context of the nation’s criminal justice system, this “American Creed” lies in tatters.
American Criminal Justice System, Inc: Rogue Criminal Prosecution in an Era of Mass Incarceration, is a product of my experience with the U.S. legal system. It is also a concept of the knowledge I gained from many that I met in prison – guilty and innocent. This book communicates clearly and presents a compelling argument of how government prosecutors and their cronies use crazy laws, plea bargaining system, false witnesses and other unwholesome tactics to oppress its people.
It is my hope that telling my story, alongside the efforts of others, will shed new light into the dark alley of the U.S. legal system. This book will also remind me that every day that I live in freedom, many languish in captivity.
