Where is the Justice We Deserve?
Justice is a term that is defined differently by different people. Over the course of time, we found justice in punishing the foul doers of our society. In the play Twelve Angry Men we are given a sample of twelve people and their views on performing justice. A Ted Talk given by a prosecutor by the name of Adam Foss is a great example on the court system we are currently stuck with and the problems it faces. What we do to prosecute the wrong doers in our society is merely an opinion, however we fear to look past the punishments that we dole out, and the consequences we face for doing so.
In the play Twelve Angry Men we are given many examples on how several jurors view proper punishment on a young man. The third juror is a great example of a pessimistic or negative process of prosecution. Juror number three is a very angry man whom doesn't take outside opinions easily. It's either his way or the highway. Throwing a young man with a future ahead of him into jail is no way to solve the problem. Nor is execution a proper way to make anything better. We are spending loads of money in order to keep millions of people locked up every year. It is almost as if we as a whole society have an issue, and we are just bottling it up and are refusing to actually take care of the problem at hand. A poor choice indeed. To go into further explanation we can take juror number eight into consideration. In the play Twelve Angry Men juror number eight is made out to be more optimistic in most situations. He is more interested in helping this young man instead of locking him up behind bars, or the possible fact of this young man being innocent. Juror number eight is Adam Foss' dream juror/prosecutor. This is what he looks for in a person in the criminal justice system. In terms of the play itself, number eight is very open minded and is clearly invested in clearing this case the most proper way. Fairness is a great term that can be used to describe juror number eight's backbone for almost every decision he makes. This is what Adam Foss tries to explain in his Ted Talk. Fairness is a term that varies in definition as well as justice. What does providing a fair environment mean to you? In the opinion of Adam Foss, fairness would imply giving the defendant a chance to truly show what good they can make in this world. Most defendants have a backstory that is a clear psychological reason for why they act the way they do. Adam Foss explains how much money we as an American society waste on keeping millions of people locked behind bars. Instead of bottling up the issue in order to just get it out of our faces, we should be more concerned on using our money to help those people behind bars make a better future for themselves and our society. The mentally disturbed need to find a proper source of help and support. The criminally abusive folks need proper counseling to move on from their past and to create the proper future that they deserve. Overall our primary objective in society should really be to help those in need to prevent wrong-doings to happen in the first place. Nobody looks to see that it is possible to avoid such problematic situations, all it needs is a little bit of work. According to Adam Foss we are wasting billions of dollars on keeping millions of American citizens locked up in jails all across the country. You would expect that to be enough initiative to try and help the criminally damaged people of society. |
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