PICKING COTTON
Introduction
The justice that a country gives its citizens will determine the criminal justice system of a nation. The book “picking cotton” is a story of Jennifer Thomson and Ronald Cotton, it circulates on a true story on their lives. It happened when the two were at their twenties when Jennifer was raped, ending up identifying Ronald cotton as her attacker. The book emphasizes many themes, which include; forgiveness, overcoming fear, restores of faith in humanity, false accusation and incarceration. All those reflect on what the society entails as seen through the book picking cotton.
Book summary
The book is based on the story of the two; Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cottons. Jennifer was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her house while she was sleeping. Jennifer was able to escape from the house and then reported the case to the police department (Henson & R. E, 2018). Through photograph and crime investigation evidence, Jennifer identifies Ronald as the man who attacker her and rapes her in her house. Ronald turns to deny these false accusations, he proclaims he was mistaken because he is innocent.
Ronald is taken to prison because the police think he is guilty of rape. He serves in prison for more than a decade for the rape case, later he is released that he is innocent after the correct DNA test is carried out between the two(Henson & R. E, 2018). After staying eleven years in prison Ronald finally finds his freedom, two years later Ronald and Jennifer met face to face (Cotton & V. P, 2014). The meeting merges a fake friendship which later changes their own lives by learning a lot on the justice system of the county Ronald forgives Jennifer on what happens to him and causing him to be behind bars for many years while he was innocent.
Injustice from the book
The book emphasizes on the social injustice of the government system (Henson & R. E, 2018). Ronald is imprisoned without proper investigation on the rape case, which in turns waste his time while he was innocent. The system is rotten without proper investigative channels for proper justice to citizens who are accused, the false identification of the wrong suspects brings hope finally that the criminal justice system can work at large.
The criminal justice system must be strengthened and innovates new ways by which the innocent jailed suspects can be set free after knowing the main course of their false imprisonment (Cotton & V. P, 2014). Ronald spent almost twelve years in prison for the mistake he didn’t commit, by having a good criminal system such mistakes might not occur (Henson & R. E, 2018). Despite many attempts of Ronald storing his innocence to Jennifer, still, he is an old captive of the crime he didn’t commit. The amazing thing is he walked out, not only an innocent man but also a strong.
Reflection on injustice
I believe that we are currently living in one of the interesting eras in humankind. The court system has eased a lot of things in real life of human being since the law of land applies in every crime. Criminal justice can be now applied in every case brought before the court system. Putting suspects in courts process must go through several processes. Nowadays, which ensures justice is achieved in the long run. By strengthening the court’s system in the county the problem of false imprisonment can.
Many suspects have been imprisoning without adequate truth in their cases. With hurdles come the hidden truth on the court’s systems in the country, I come to discover the course of many false imprisonments which includes; corruption by judges and police offices. Even if the criminal justice system have improved in quality of the services they offer to the citizen, a lot must be done to ensure justice become paramount in the country. Justice is important to everybody in the society, it makes the accused and the offended to have their right expressed and judged accordingly by the law of the land (Henson & R. E, 2018).
Conclusion
Injustice has been one of the main reason why our court system can’t thrive to their best. The criminal justice system must be improved to help in improving the process of finding suspects guilty or not guilty before taking them to imprisonment. The evidence must be investigated and prove to be correct, as in the case of Ronald and Jennifer, Ronald ends up in prison because of false allegation from unclear evidence, making him be imprisoned for more than eleven years for a crime he didn’t commit. The system must come up with the best solutions and ways to avoid the problem of false imprisonment which have been rising in the country for the past’s decades. Injustice must be fought out of the court system to make room for the application of rules and law of land in any case before the court.
Reference
Henson, R. E. (2018). Picking Cotton for Pennies: An Exploration into the Law’s Modern Endorsement of a Free-Prison Workforce. Bus. Entrepreneurship & Tax L. Rev., 2, 193.
Cotton, V. P. (2014).Task 3 Rough Draft/Reflection.