Is the Bill of Rights Being Eroded?
Jessica Stilling lives in New York City and is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog.
I do not think I need to start by explaining what the Bill of Rights is or why it was created. Let me assume that if you are reading this you have a basic understanding of the Bill of Rights and a basic understanding of why it exists. The question is, has the Bill of Rights been trampled on in recent, or not so recent, years. If we look at the amendments we can see that in many cases no, the Bill of Rights is very much intact. Troops do not march to the doors of American citizens and demand that they be allowed to stay and states still have the final say on many issues. There are some aspects of the Bill of Rights where their strength is iffy. Freedom of religion? Do we still have that? For the most part we do. Sure, there are certain groups of people who dislike certain religions, but that’s a societal issue and not a legal one. Sure, there are gun laws, but for the most part people who should be allowed to have guns are allowed to have guns.
It’s the rights of prisoners, or those accused of crimes, that I’d like to look at. In the Bill of Rights people are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. In fact, this is what America prides itself on. I remember my teacher in my high school Government class giving a speech about how in France you’re guilty until proven innocent while in America you are always treated like an innocent person. I would like a definition of what being treated like an innocent person is. Is it being locked up in a cell for thirty hours before arraignment? Is it being put in jail without a charge or a phone call for half a day? Is it having to be handcuffed to a group of people while you wait in line to get a mug shot? Is it sitting in a small cell with bright lights on you for all hours while you wait thirty, sometimes forty-five hours for an arraignment? If that’s how innocent people are treated then I’d rather be guilty.
A friend of mine was recently arrested. The reason isn’t important, what got to me was the treatment that he dealt with before he was processed and charged with anything. Before he even had a chance to tell his story, because a police officer suspected him of a crime, he was put in jail, made to wait a day and a half to be arraigned and during all this time no one bothered to ask him for his story.
There is something seriously wrong with a criminal justice system that treats the people whom it arrests this terribly. Sure, some people might be guilty, some might be very, very guilty, but that does not mean they should be stripped of their dignity before a judge or jury has made that determination. Not only that, but holding people for that long, feeding them, guarding them, costs money that most states don’t have right now.
People aren’t thrown in prison without a trial in America, but they are thrown in jail, sometimes just for looking at a cop the wrong way. They are made to experience horrible, sad conditions, even if no one can prove they did anything wrong. While the Bill of Rights may not technically be violated by this treatment, it sure is in spirit.