Crime rates of previous decades continue to have a large impact on how the criminal justice system functions today. Proactive policing strategies such as “drug-free zone” laws and “stop-and frisk” were implemented with the best of intentions, but critics say they are not working, and are in fact causing more hardship – for the community and the state’s taxpayers – filling up prisons and infringing on civil rights. What can be done to repair the public’s trust in the system?
