NationStates

My attempt at a no courts reversal.

[DRAFT] - Implications of the Eternal Recess

[The Issue] - The abolition of the national judiciary has silenced courtrooms across @@NAME@@. It has also obliterated the practice of pretrial release, condemning low-level offenders nationwide to rot away in correctional facilities steadily filling to capacity.

[issuevalidity] - Nation has No Courts. Nation must have prisons.


[Option 1] - "This is unacceptable!" asserts famed humanitarian @@RANDOMNAME@@. "Conditions within our jails are deteriorating by the day, and while I entirely believe serial ticket-dodgers should suffer greatly for their heinous crimes, it's time that we restore order to the justice system. That order is restored only when courts are too. So @@LEADER@@, you know what to do."

[effect] - first-time bread thieves are happy to leave the grain gang on a judge’s order
[policychange] - Removes No Courts


[Option 2] - "We've already burned the bench- done deal," counters Secretary @@RANDOMNAME@@. "I hate to arraign on the humanitarian parade, but it's worth remembering the real problem here. Which is of course, that my department, the Department of Civil and Criminal Mediation, Correction, Justice and Legal Appeals, is dreadfully understaffed and underfunded. With more @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@ and people, we'll be able to quickly slap criminals with their sentences, or send them on their way- time served."

[effect] - an arrest no longer shaves several years off the life of an arrestee


[Option 3] - "I'd lock myself up before trusting the empty platitudes of a government goon," moans former @@CAPITAL@@ Police Chief @@RANDOMNAME@@. "However, I agree that we should act before overcrowding wrecks our big houses. Corrections officers are highly suited to determine which inmates are worth releasing prior to their punishments, given that they work with those misfits every day. Leave it to them to decide who is set free on conditional release."

[effect] - prison panels release puppy-eyed mass murderers on their own recognizance

For probity, going to point out I have a (very different) "no courts" reversal in the issues bank:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=455754

Re: this issue here, my honest opinion is that the premise is very dry. Referencing "pre-trial release" without defining it is likely going to send more people to dismiss than to google. Also, it's very assumptive, as it suggests that the absence of courts is resulting in everyone being put into prison for indeterminate lengths of time.

I would have thought personally that the absence of a judiciary doesn't mean the absence of prison sentences, it just means that these are being handed out without any due process or any trial. A cop / politician points to the alleged criminal, and says "lock him up for 10 years" and that's what happens.

My thinking was that if courts were abolished, the use of pretrial release, meaning bail or bail bonds, or any conditional release program that would ensure a detainee comes to court, would also be eliminated, since you no longer have judges or trials. This means that very low level offenders and petty criminals, that would normally be quickly released, are instead staying behind bars until their sentences are handed to them.

I agree that the draft makes this assumption.

Candensia wrote:My thinking was that if courts were abolished, the use of pretrial release, meaning bail or bail bonds, or any conditional release program that would ensure a detainee comes to court, would also be eliminated, since you no longer have judges or trials. This means that very low level offenders and petty criminals, that would normally be quickly released, are instead staying behind bars until their sentences are handed to them.

On the plus side, without courts, their sentences will likely be handed to them pretty quickly, since there isn't all that tiresome "looking for evidence" or "giving people a chance to defend themselves" stuff to worry about. (Unless you "abolished courts" with one of the options that does still care about evidence, of course.)