The criminal court system in the US seems incredibly unjust and results in the criminalization of many activities which ought to be basic rights. It railroads innocent and completely functioning people into the morally bankrupt prison system where they are put into dehumanizing circumstances and extreme scrutiny that gives prison authorities more excuses to add charges and prison time, continuing the cycle further.
"Defendants" - itself a backwards term in the context of presumption of innocence - are unable to defend themselves using their own brains, knowledge and skills because of the incredibly confusing and non-intuitive procedure and rules in the court. Unless they are a lawyer themselves, they must either hire or be assigned a professional by the court to work on their behalf, but those lawyers often have incentives that stop them from fully embracing the defendant's interests. For example the lawyer knows she must return to the court and work with the same judge and possibly the same prosecutors again, and therefore she wants to make sure she appears professional and makes arguments that are acceptable by court standards. Lawyers will often tell their clients that either the client goes along with the plan set by the law team or they find a new team to represent them, which results in a loss of agency for the client who may be facing decades in jail and never gets a chance to actually voice their opinion.
Judges, lawyers, court staff and police work closely together and form personal bonds that can often work against the defendant. Judges can make sweeping judgements in lower courts and bench trials based on pure opinion. Judges and even juries are legally allowed to be biased against defendants for actions in court that has nothing to do with the charges.
This is just a few things I've noticed from watching trials, but it is difficult to find any other opinions on these topics, at least on the internet, because it seems to be so skewed in favor of the court system. I cannot find much of anything offering the sort of criticisms that I've offered above in printed format. I'm open to the idea that I've just completely misunderstood and that these things are somehow fair, but I'm just not seeing it. Please tell me if you disagree with anything I've said and explain why because I want to understand why this is considered justice.
Have any Marxists written about similar topics? What would a good socialist "justice system" look like? Are there / were there socialist countries that have decent models? What differences would Marxists ideally want to implement to change the criminal court system? Would they abolish it altogether, and if so, what stage of communism would that occur?
Any thoughts you have are appreciated. Thanks
