FAIR COMMENT

U.S. criminal justice system strong enough to stand scrutiny

A State Department official, reacting to a report from Amnesty
International that cites serious abuses in U.S. criminal justice, called
the American system the "envy of the world." The official is correct in
that regard.

However, if U.S. citizens are to remain objects of envy in terms of human
rights, then Americans must be willing to take hard looks at what is wrong
in the system and work to correct shortcomings.

Americans already react with outrage to reports of police brutality and
demand justice for transgressions, proving that the citizens of this
country want their penal system to be fair and respectful of civil and
human rights.

Where the Amnesty report cites a jailhouse disturbance in which guards in a
Brazoria County detention center were videotaped last year kicking, beating
and turning dogs on inmates, it also must be pointed out that four
officials involved eventually were indicted.

Other abuses pointed out in the 150-page report, "Rights for All," also led
wrongdoers to be charged with crimes, fired or otherwise punished,
countering Amnesty's claim that there is little accountability in the
American system.

Not that ours is a perfect system.

No prison inmate, for example, should be subject to beatings and rapes,
especially at the hands of prison guards. That women prisoners in this
country turn up pregnant in prison is an outrage.

And it is fair to question the practice of housing foreign asylum seekers
in prisons with violent convicted felons.

Amnesty International has long opposed the death penalty.

This state and this newspaper happen to disagree with the organization on
that stance. But it is troubling that complaints persist that poor
defendants and defendants from ethnic minority backgrounds tend to receive
inadequate or ineffective counsel and that defendants of means rarely make
it to death row.

Over all, however, the American justice system is a good one, mainly
because whatever injustices exist in the system are rarely government
sanctioned. There are bad police officers, bad prosecutors, bad judges and
bad prison guards (too many of the latter, from all reports). But when our
finely honed sense of fairness is piqued, Americans tend to call the
responsible parties to account.

In the end, this system is strong enough to withstand a bit of criticism
from Amnesty International and possesses the kind of integrity that makes
it intolerant of injustice.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski