Overview of the Criminal Justice System

This training will provide an overview of the criminal justice system in the United States along with a discussion on the great numbers of people it impacts. This training is designed for attendees to learn about the breadth and scope of the criminal justice system, along with learning about many of its key components. Despite having 5% of the world’s population, the United States has approximately 24% of the world’s incarcerated population. There are roughly 2.2 million people incarcerated in the United States, and just under 7 million involved in the criminal justice system when including those incarcerated in prisons and jails, and individuals on community supervision, parole, or probation. This training is suitable for anyone interested in learning about an overview of the criminal justice system by discussing important topics such as its history, shifting philosophies over time, reasons for mass incarceration, and decarceration. Decarceration is the process of decreasing the number of incarcerated individuals.

At the end of this training, trainees will have:

• Knowledge about the current scope of the criminal justice system in the US.
• Knowledge of the history of corrections in the United States
• An understanding of the shifting philosophies of the criminal justice system over time and current perspectives on criminal justice policies, reentry, and rehabilitation
• Knowledge of the era of mass incarceration and why there were such increasing numbers of incarcerated people between 1973 and 2009
• Knowledge of the consequences of the era of mass incarceration and how it currently impacts the US justice system.
• An understanding of decarceration.