Overview of US Criminal Justice System

Overview of US Criminal Justice System The Ins and Outs of Corrections As far as I can remember as a child, when I thought of the corrections system, I thought it was doing something bad and going to jail. I never gave thought to how things really work. Little did I know that the process of corrections is comprised of different areas that make up a system known as the Criminal Justice System. The United States criminal justice system is made up of a network at the federal, state and local levels. Federal court jurisdiction is limited to certain types of cases listed in the U.S. Constitution (Comparing). For the most part, federal court jurisdictions only hear cases in which the United States is a party, cases involving violations of the Constitution or federal law, crimes on federal land, and bankruptcy cases. Federal courts also hear cases of disputes between two or more states. While federal courts handle fewer cases than most state courts, the cases heard tend to be of great importance and of great interest to the press and the public. State courts are also known as general jurisdiction (Comparing). They hear cases that are not selected for federal courts. 90% of all cases heard in the American court system happens at the state level. State court systems vary from state to state. Each state gets to make and interpret its own laws as long as they do not violate the constitution and they are all a little different. Some examples of cases heard at the state level are: state tax and law violations, real estate cases, custody and inheritance cases. Local courts are similar to state courts. They handle cases such as divorce, family courts, personal injury, minor drug violations and contract disputes. As with any mechanism, the criminal justice system involves the coordinated functioning of its distinct parts. It is made of three parts that process a case from inception, through trial to punishment. Throughout each stage of the process, constitutional protections exist to ensure that the rights of the accused and convicted re respected. Law Enforcement is the first component of the criminal justice system. It involves police officers, sheriffs, park rangers, federal agents, detectives and other agents that usually make first contact with criminals. These individuals are responsible for upholding the law, investigating crime and apprehending the individuals responsible for committing the crime. In this area is where criminals are read their Miranda rights. Cases are investigated, evidence is collected, witnesses are questioned and the cases are moved on to the courts. Courts make up the second component of the criminal justice system. The courts are a key piece of the puzzle known as the justice system. The courts are made up of judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, bailiffs, jurors and court reporters. The individuals in the courts works to ensure an individuals rights are not violated and a fair trial takes place. Juries and judges play a part in sentencing individuals for crimes committed, but they must each follow guidelines established by state and federal statutes. The third component of criminal justice system is corrections. This component includes probation officers, parole officers and corrections officers. These individuals in the court component work together to ensure that a convicted offender serves his or her sentence as advised by the courts and supervises the convicts as they serve their sentence. Each of these three aspects of the criminal justice system is essential to the effective functioning of the larger system as a whole. Another key component of the criminal justice system that is constantly in the news are the prisons themselves. Prison transformation has been a big news topic in Alabama lately. One thing that has been left out is the system that runs these prisons. Prisons are made up of staff members with specific roles with the same goals. These goals are to provide for the security of the community by incarcerating those who break the law; promoting the smooth and effective functioning of the institution; ensuring that incarceration is secure but humane; and giving inmates the opportunity to develop a positive lifestyle while incarcerated and to gain the personal and employment skills they need for a positive lifestyle after release (Schmalleger 2015). The prisons staff is very extensive. It doesnt consist of warden and officers. The staff are arranged into a hierarchy which consists of: Warden: The chief executive, in charge of the prison, must adhere to programs created by the state and have enormous discretion within their institution. Each institution will also have several associate wardens that preside over specific programs within an institution (Staff). Executive Assistant: The Executive Assistant serves as the Wardens chief sycophant, and is also the only person other than the Warden who has authorization to speak with the media (Staff). Department Heads: A Department Head will oversee the day-to-day operations. Individuals who hold the role of a Department Head will have much more in the way of direct interaction with inmates (Staff). Unit Managers: In many ways, prisons are like communities. In the Bureau of Prisons, institutions hold anywhere from 100 to several thousand people. Administrators make use of a system they call Unit Management to keep a handle on operations. With the Unit Management system, administrators can more effectively keep track of all the people (Staff). These units are broken down into even smaller levels to include: Program staff (psychologists, psychiatrists, medical doctors, nurses, medical aides, teachers, counselors, caseworkers and ministers); Custodial staff (majors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, and correctional officers); Service and maintenance staff (kitchen workers, physical plant personnel and outside contractors); Volunteers (prison ministry, speakers, and other volunteers) (Schmalleger 2015). The American Criminal Justice system is very complex. It has a hierarchy of Court systems that trickles down to smaller systems that have their own hierarchy of systems also. Just like the justice system is made of components of federal, state and local courts, the prison system itself also has components. Every are of the justice system all work together with the same common goals: to enforce the laws, maintain peace and order in the communities and provide their constituencies safety and security. References Comparing Federal State Courts. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from www.us.courts.gov Schmalleger, F., PhD, Smykla, J. O., PhD. (2015). Corrections in the 21st Century (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Staff Hierarchy and Administrative Remedy. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://www.prisonprofessor.com State Court vs Federal Courts. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from www.judiciallearningcenter.org The Difference Between Federal Courts and State/Local Courts. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2017, from www.civilrights.org United States District Court. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from www.us.courts.gov

Automatic Speech Recognition Systems

In addition, the author will evaluate his level of inform in speaking the contents of term paper as opposed to typing one. And lastly, the level of organization required to use speech recognition as opposed to typing. The first automated speech recognition system the author will analyze is produced by a company called Application Technology, or Pupate. Pupate is located in McLean, Virginia, and has been in the Human Language Technology field for over 20 years. Appetites CARS product is called Plainspoken, and is used for speech dictation, broadcast and telephony.This program can do anything from a simple chain of numbers to vocabularies of up to 100,000 words. Plainspoken recognizes continuous speech, offers gender-independent speech recognition, as well as speaker dependent and speaker Independent modes. Opalescence also offers a scalable vocabulary as well as a scalable number of recognized languages. At this time however, the author of this paper was unable to locate a price for t his product on the manufacturers also known as Dragon Naturally Speaking.Nuance offers several different versions from the basic to a more advanced version for legal professionals. Nuance offers several different accent features from Spanish to Southern as well as several vocabulary options. Nuance allows for custom creation of text-to-graphics commands. This software works with PC's as well as multiple types of mobile devices, and is compatible with a multitude of applications. The price range of this product varies from $99 to $1199. (nuance. Com, 2009) The final company and product the author will review is Namespace.Namespace was established in 1996, when Andrew Taylor realized that the Macintosh platform was losing ground in the speech recognition software arena. Like the product from Nuance, Namespace offers several different versions. Their versions vary from a standard dictation version up to a legal reflections version. What is unique about Namespace is that it offers an In ternational version, which supports English, French, German and Italian. The price range is from $195 to $595 for the Namespace program.The drawback here is that this program is primarily written for the Mac computer. (namespace. Com, 2009) Unfortunately, the author was unable to find as much information as he would have liked about the companies and products. If the author had to use this type of product to produce a term paper, I would feel very uncomfortable. I feel I would have lost some aspect of control if I were to use an CARS to produce a term paper. In addition, it would be difficult to Judge the effectiveness and accuracy of an CARS.

Labour Markets, Wages and Industrial Relations

Telecommuting is going to change the landscape of labour for years to come. As a matter of fact, the very notion of a job is going to change. A job will be something one takes home to do in the intervals between football matches and household duties, not an activity that reshapes one’s day. Such changes will trigger changes in other aspects of work. Thus, trade union participation and union power will most probably be reduced. A great part of this influence is based in personal interaction. It is much easier to recruit a person to become a member of the union through direct personal contact than through means such as e-mail. Trade union leaders will turn into virtual figures rather than living beings in flesh and blood, and people will feel less affiliated with the union. Besides, as the authors point out, there are reasons to expect an inflow of workers into labour who have never or seldom had employment before, including single mothers or disabled people. Those may feel isolated from the rest of the workforce and have had no experience with unions. As a result, they will be less willing to participate in union activities and bargain with their employer. Besides, more developing nations will be included in the workforce, and it is more difficult to recruit people there in the union as they live in remote places and as well have little experience with unions. However, trade unions will not go away because of telecommuting. There are factors that even call for an increase in their power. For instance, it will become easier to change jobs since it will not involve looking for a job in exactly the same area and workers will probably not have to go to interviews in person. Rather, they may be able to do some kind of audio- or video-interview via Internet. As a result, employees will have more possibility to defend their rights through trade unions as they will not fear loss of job. Communication with trade union leaders will take place through the same interactive means as communication with supervisors – e-mail, telephone, and videoconferencing. Telecommuting will probably to some extent remove the difference between house prices between capital cities and regions. At the moment, housing is pricey in larger cities since there a lot of people willing to move there because higher salary levels. Those people coming from the regions are prepared to pay a premium on house price as compared to the regions because they know the house price will be offset by gains in wages. As a result, they drive demand up even at higher prices. If differences salary levels are reduced, a probable result of telecommuting, more people will prefer to stay in the regions, and housing there will rise in value against capital cities. This does not mean that housing will cost the same throughout the nation. First, not all jobs will be affected by telecommuting. It will take time before the pay for manual jobs such labourers, nurses, etc., will get to about the same level throughout the country. People in those jobs will then still be attracted to larger cities. Second, there are other factors than salary levels that affect housing prices. For instance, in the same city where one can get the same salary living in a nice or unattractive neighbourhood, housing prices will vary from one district to another. The reason for these variations is the difference in infrastructure, ecological atmosphere (as, for example, when the house faces a busy road or something of the kind), and opportunities for entertainment. Surely in larger cities one can have a much more interesting and varied life thanks to the availability of many cultural establishments, and regions will not soon overcome this difference. That is why people may still be attracted to living in the capital even if wages arrive at about the same level. Besides, formerly the attraction of the remote areas was their cheap prices for everything other than housing, such as food, entertainment, services, etc. A rise in wages will probably change that, making prices go up. In conclusion, housing prices will go up in regions as compared to the province as a result of dwindling difference in wages. However, prices in capital or larger cities will still remain higher. Bibliography Sloman, John & Mark Sutcliffe. Economics for Business. Â  

Research Proposal on Aviation Accidents

Policies, Procedures, Rules and Regulations. The aviation industry in its quest and commitment for providing safe and reliable commercial air transport is constantly coming up with policies, procedures rules and regulations to be followed by all industry players so as to be able to achieve this. The industry prides itself with being one of the safest modes of transport but is also prone to accidents and thus the need for rules and policies that not only applies to workers and air transport providers but to passengers also as the safety of a passenger is paramount. Air transport providers across the board are more or less in agreement over their commitment to passenger safety by striving to achieve the uppermost levels of safety and performance through a systematic and strategic administration of safety issues. Policies and procedures are fundamental components of any organization in achieving its goals and often provide frameworks for implementation of these policies by the concerned parties within the industry. Aviation mishaps are a pilot’s most terrible nightmare or any passenger who has ever been on a plane. Agencies and organizations both state and private mandated with the task of ensuring safer skies, have established bureaus and databases that constantly work on collection of accident reports, investigations, weather reports, and much more information that can aid them in drawing up policies that ensure their commitment to passenger safety. The industry expects its players to identify, evaluate and handle hazards, impacts and threat from aviation actions, by learning form past experiences. Causes of aviation disasters vary to a great extent depending on particular situations and quandary that may come about at some point in the flight course. Aviation in America is overseen by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) which handles a diversity of activities and has to come up with rules, regulations and policies that ensure an efficient and safe travel for passengers. An investigation into each and every accident that takes place is compulsory so as to determine the causes and also facilitate insurance claims and in some instances furnish court cases with evidence. Investigations are usually carried out following an accident to determine the cause. This is carried out by the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) among other related agencies which then come up with recommendations on policies and guidelines so as to avert future incidents from happening. The agencies mainly accountable for supervising the aviation industry are the FAA and NTSB and are mandated with the supervision and investigation of aircraft crashes. They have put in place regulations and policies on safety principles for aircrew conduct, manufacturers, flight operators and other people related to the aviation industry.   A regulation or policy that helps prevent accidents is the compulsory publishing of comprehensive investigation findings and recommendations and ensuring that a follow up to the proposed findings is undertaken and implemented. Airlines are constantly taking their personnel through trainings and upgrading of their skills and equipping them with safety training. This helps keep workers, from pilots, cabin crew, ground handlers to the air traffic controllers in top shape and skilled to handling incidents that keep on changing with the growth of the aviation sector. Apart from the widely known causes of aircraft disasters such as human errors and mechanical failures, natural causes are also turning out to be more and more alarming in the industry due to the fact that they cannot be controlled, thus the constant emphasis on maintaining updated weather forecast databases. In fact human error is the most common cause of accidents in the aviation industry at about 37% of all accidents (1950-2004) and result in the most fatalities recorded. The NTSB and FAA have set up regulations that pilots should adhere to ensure passenger safety. The NTSB facilitates wide-ranging pilot training tailored to make them able to handle different situations as they emerge in-flight. Pilots who constantly make mistakes such as; faulty maneuvers, lack of planning or are just irresponsible, are discontinued from work. Studies reveal that a good number of pilots experience a rise in heart rate during landing and taking off and usually experience great amounts of pressure d uring flying and they are duty bound to ensure both personal safety and passenger safety on board. In case of pilot heart attacks, the air traffic control and flight crew are required to ensure passenger wellbeing. American law also comes into play on determining who can fly a plane and under what conditions. The law prohibits pilots from drinking alcohol eight hours before a flight as they need to be at their best as concentration level needed is very high. The capability of a pilot to stay alert is prejudiced when he or she is inebriated. It also forbids epileptic people from flying planes due to the extreme effects of a seizure on a pilot. The FAA does not issue licenses to people suffering from epilepsy. The NTSB strives for a pro-active deterrence of catastrophes and occurrences by all key industry players where its one and only objective is to advance passenger and airline safety and not to point blame or liability to other parties. This is through the upgrading of air safety by guaranteeing that appropriate data on safety is reported, compiled, stored, protected and circulated among all industry players. Pilots are required to perform an absolute inspection of the aircraft before they take off to ascertain whether it is in good condition and it is safe to be in the air. This preflight check entails checking gauges and instrument panels and the whole plane so as to ensure utmost passenger safety.   Another point to note is that aviation agencies and airline owner’s insistence on training their pilots and crew on managing engine malfunction in-flight. Engine failure can turn catastrophic in just a few minutes an result in air crashes. Air traffic controllers are also required to be alert and vigilant as they are more or less the same with pilots and any slack may cause accidents. Various airlines have gathered weather reports and are constantly updating them on the changes in weather patterns. These reports are made available to pilots before a flight is undertaken and also pre-flight briefings on how to react and solutions to take in case of any eventuality that may occur are conducted. Its extremely essential that pilots stick to stringent safety standards in order to guarantee maximum level of safety for the aircrafts passengers and crew. â€Å"Pilot training standards vary in terms of their specific course outline, but the following is the accepted and accredited template adopted by commercial airlines within the United States: An airline pilot must have a minimum of 1,500 hours of flight time, including at least 250 hours flying as a pilot in command of an aircraft. Pilots must demonstrate their flying skills to an FAA examiner by performing various types of takeoffs and landings, in-flight maneuvers, and emergency procedures, either in an airplane or a simulator. They must pass a written exam testing their knowledge of aircraft operations, meteorology, navigation, radio communication and other subjects important to flying aircraft in commercial service. Pilots also must pass a medical exam, which includes psychological and aptitude tests†. Wolfe NewMyer (1985) The FAA has a list of guidelines for airlines to adhere to and ensure flight safety, this includes: airline are supposed to provide for enough more time to check in passengers, this is due to the high level of security threats; passengers are not allowed to board planes with certain items such as knives, cutting instruments, ice picks, metal scissors, golf clubs, ski poles and hockey sticks. Some of the reasons that led the NTSB, FAA and other agencies to draw, policies, rules and guidelines that regulate the aviation industry is first and foremost, passenger, crew and airplane safety. Others may include: defective aircraft equipment and mechanical breakdowns, design faults on airplanes- manufacturers of aircraft are accountable for an aviation mishap if the structural design of the aircraft is defective, ensuing in plane crashes, sloppy maintenance of aircraft and refueling, air traffic controllers’ inattention in monitoring airways. All this are also common causes of aviatio n accidents. Reference list: Castro, R (1995) Corporate aviation management. New York, NY: SIU Press. Christy, J . Cook, L. A (1994). American Aviation. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional. Federal Aviation Authority, http://www.asias.faa.gov/ Federal Aviation Administration (2008). Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing Inc. Federal Aviation Administration (2010). Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing Inc. National Transport Safety Board, http://www.ntsb.gov/ Wolfe, H.P . NewMyer, D. A (1985). Aviation industry regulation. New York, NY: SIU Press.