The three branches of the criminal justice system are law enforcement, courts, and corrections. Each branch is important when it comes to the functioning of the criminal justice system. Law enforcement consists of police officers and oversees things like investigating crimes, issuing citations, searching people or buildings, and making arrests. The courts oversee filing charges, dropping charges, setting bail, accepting pleas, and sentencing. The courts consist of judges, and prosecutors. The next branch is corrections, they assign a convicted person to a correctional facility, protects the public from the offender, makes sure that nobody escapes the correctional facility, provides educational and rehabilitation services to inmates, and they also ensure the safety of inmates while they are incarcerated. For example; what if we didnt have our law enforcement? There wouldnt be anybody to enforce the laws and make arrests. Without anybody to enforce the laws what use would the courts and corrections have. Without the courts people would be arrested and go right to jail without due process, would be a violation of our constitutional rights. Without corrections what is the point of the other two branches? Somebody would get arrested go to court and be told not to do it again and then walk right back out the door of the court house. William Lomax Discussion The three branches of criminal justice are a cognitive system that work together to arrest, convict and sentence an individual that committed a crime. The law enforcement branch is responsible for locating crime, arresting the person who committed the crime, and bringing that criminal to justice. The court’s system is responsible for ensuring the person charged is the actual criminal and if so giving out the correct sentencing. The corrections branch is responsible for carrying out the sentence given by the judge at a designated location provided by the courts. All three branches work in a system to ensure that once the offender is captured that he or she goes through the criminal justice system or process accordingly. All three branches must depend and rely on the other to keep the system working if one were to stop the entire system would collapse. The malfunction of one branch would cause the other two to completely shut down and malfunction as well. The system is a revolving door that requires cooperation from all three branches and the process can only start with law enforcement first. This system repeats itself numerous times a day and ushers convicts all over the United States and in some foreign territories, it is a vital component to the criminal justice system and to the safety of civilization.
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