Why and how has the justice system changed?

Answer 1

The first and largest change to the US Justice system is the elimination of Corpus Delicti - meaning "Body of the Crime" and the inclusion of "Breaking the Law" as a crime in and of itself.

In older law forms you must show three elements to prove a crime, the first being "Injury in Fact" (quoting Blackstone): "As examples; In Arson a house burnt, Larceny property missing, and Homicide a person deceased." The other two parts of this element remain in modern law, what has changed is this first part. In Modern US Law you do not have to now be convicted under this first element, as examples: A Traffic Ticket (and its related arrest; all traffic stops are Terry Arrests per US Supreme Court ruling) does not meet the first element test of Corpus Delicti another example is Drug Usage, again there is no victim (The state cannot claim to be a victim absent a contract; Hale vs Henkel - 201 US 43, US Supreme Court).

In each of these two examples only the "State" can attempt to claim that the public itself is injured by the action - there is no real victim to testify against you as required by the Constitution (the state can only represent those who are deceased or incapacitated, in rare cases).

The next part is parole, probation and lighter sentencing. Most of these things can be attributed to overcrowding of the US Prison system (including state prisons) by non-violent offenders (drug sentences make up 75%+ of prison population - see US Senate report below). Thereby allowing violent offenders to make parole more often, more so when the US has passed mandatory sentencing guidelines for some of these non-violent offenses. Also since these laws have been passed, the Prison industry in America (now privatized, ran by corporations) is a $200 Billion Dollar a year industry (2005).

Caveat: I'm sure that someone will reply to this and state that such drug usage leads to other forms of crime, and that is true given that society has made these people criminals by refusing them the ability to work, making them felons, and drugs are not regulated like alcohol. However these types of replies always fail when you take real law into question. The law (even a long time ago) said that stealing will put you in jail; so instead of thinking they may steal because of drugs, ignore them till they do, then throw them in jail for the full sentence when they do. IE: Punish the CRIME not the COMPANY that "May" lead to it.