Any discussions about reforming the state of our legal system must necessarily include our system of civil justice. The civil justice system exists not to keep society safe from physical harm, but rather to allow individuals a place for solving disputes that do not rise to the level of criminal behavior, whether they involve private […]

The final element of criminal justice reform rests in ensuring that our legal code is both just and enforceable. Too much has been written into criminal law that endeavors to regulate behavior which has no overriding social need to be regulated. Individual actions that result in no physical or financial harm to others or their […]

An important yet often neglected aspect of our criminal justice system is the effectiveness of our punishment system. Any punishment meted out by our legal system must contain three elements: it must appropriately punish the convicted person, it must act as a deterrent to others, and it must protect society from repeated criminal acts. Without […]

The reforms I suggested in Criminal Justice Reformed offer the possibilities of more effective and fiscally prudent law enforcement practices and clearly defined areas of responsibility for investigating and prosecuting criminal behavior. Those reforms, while worthwhile in and of themselves, are not enough to reduce the criminal element in society. To better the chances of […]

In my last essay, I talked about the restructuring of our Criminal Justice system by changing the jurisdiction of criminal acts from the current system that is based primarily upon location to one based primarily upon the criminal act itself. I briefly outlined a three-tiered division of jurisdiction that assigns the most serious crimes to […]

In my last essay, I offered the opinion that our system of justice had broken down to the point that it no longer served the purpose for which it was intended, namely keeping the general public safe from harm, punishing those who do harm to others, providing timely redress in civil (non-criminal) actions, and maintaining […]

I’ve previously discussed ways in which we can begin to change our government through individual involvement and the abandonment of the political parties. Now it is time to move on to the more specific problems facing us today and apply the principals of Common Sense to finding some solutions. One of the first tasks of […]