Line Justice

Like any branch of government in the criminal justice system there are many flaws and many have to do with the American court system. The American court system deals with a spectrum of problems and inconsistencies. The courts deal with problems such as disparity of sentencing, perjury and jury nullification. However the most consistent and ongoing problem in the criminal justice system is assembly line justice. Assembly line justice is described best by Albany lawyer Warren Redlich:

The biggest problem with our court system is the volume of cases. The volume is so large that the courts have to rely on assembly line justice. It really is an assembly line. The police officer prepares the initial papers and files them with the clerk. The clerk gives the papers to the prosecutor who reviews them and discusses the case with the lawyer or the pro-se defendant (though some prosecutors will not discuss a case with a pro-se defendant). The papers then go back to the clerk, who then hands them to the judge. The judge calls the case. There's a brief discussion at the bench. Then the papers go back to the clerk, who then processes the result (fine notice, schedule next date, etc.).

Think about this: If a court has 100 cases on for a particular session (a typical number for courts like Colonie, Guilderland, Albany, etc), and each case takes 15 minutes, that would take 25 hours. That's not going to work. If each case takes only 5 minutes, it still takes 8 hours, so that's still not going to work. Most courts end up at about 1-2 minutes per case. That's assembly line justice. (Redlich 2007)

The way that he describes assembly line justice shows that the American court system relies on a quick handed process to get the legal system through all the cases that need to be handled and no one takes the time to process cases based on needs of the people. One reason assembly line justice happens is because there are too many case loads. Public defenders and prosecutors are given far too many cases and cannot process all of them efficiently. Gershowitz and Killinger clarify this in there essay The state never rests: how excessive prosecutor caseloads harm criminal defendants:

Excessive prosecutorial caseloads result in serious problems throughout the criminal justice system. Most obviously,… excessive caseloads harm crime victims who feel ignored by busy prosecutors, and the public at large, which is disserved when overwhelmed prosecutors lack the time and resources to handle cases against clearly guilty defendants. Less apparent, but even more pernicious, is the harm that excessive prosecutorial caseloads wreaks on criminal defendant. …Overburdening prosecutors results in longer sentences for less culpable offenders, long delays in the dismissal of charges against the innocent, fewer disclosures of exculpatory evidence by prosecutors, and innocent defendants pleading guilty in exchange for sentences of