So it's a government program that wastes tax dollars, often results in wrongful convictions, doesn't achieve the intended goals (deterrence and justice), is so arbitrarily invoked that it violates the U.S. Constitution and ultimately degrades human life.
Any time we observe people in the criminal justice system receiving arbitrarily different treatment compared to other groups, we have to address the race and class implications, especially when there are serious consequences related to political power and representation.
Equating someone who is protecting herself from domestic violence with a vigilante who arbitrarily metes out "street justice" only serves to embolden the next George Zimmerman.
In the modern age it is an inexact science which commoditises justice, where the price of crime is arbitrarily determined by the state.
Justice Mott was unequivocal: The board had acted "arbitrarily and unjustifiably to imprison petitioner for as long as possible".
In her first appearance before the justice select committee, Truss made clear she would not "arbitrarily" cut the current 85,000 prison population to deal with budget pressures.
Judges, including Supreme Court justices, often act as if they were philosopher-kings, arbitrarily handing down decisions on issues that should be left to the hurly-burly of the political process.
We live in a society where people whose behaviour is considered to deviate from the norm - as determined arbitrarily by that society - answer to the justice system.
SCOTUS has ruled that a punishment is cruel and unusual if any of the following apply: "it is too severe for the crime, it is arbitrarily applied, it offends society's sense of justice or it is not more effective than a less severe penalty".
In line with this assumption, previous studies on predisposing factors and psychosocial needs-assessments of children and adolescents within the juvenile justice system in sub-Sahara Africa, though very few, had arbitrarily viewed them as one and the same without cognizance of their different reasons for contact [ 7, 16- 19].
