8th Amendment

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The Eighth Amendment
The eighth amendment of the United States prohibits unusual and cruel punishment of criminals. It prohibits the punishment of criminals beyond what they deserve. The words used in the eighth amendment form part of the open texture of the United States Constitution, the open texture allows the constitution to be adapted to various situations to the ever changing social and political environment. The price paid by Americans is an identified ambiguity and imprecision of the language in which constitutional protections and prohibitions are outlined. The phrase “unusual and cruel” is just one of the various incidences in which the constitutional language gives little guidance on its clear interpretation. The American Supreme Court has, in an extended series of eighth amended cases, identified the language ambiguity (Schwartz, N.p). However, in some other instances, the eighth amendment is utilized as a means of guaranteeing the least level of dignity, decency, and humanity for each and every individual, with no consideration to individual responsibility of criminals. Cases of the conditions in prisons have the reasoning of the eighth amendment and the belief that certain punishments, like quartering and drawing, torture, and crucifixion are not fathomed in the eighth amendment, irrespective of how heinous the offense or the criminal.
Over the past years, the number of Americans in jails and prisons has increased.

Statistics indicate that more than one out of one hundred Americans are in prison. Correctional institutions in America are overcrowded and face understaffing, with detainees congested in dormitories or paired in small cells designed for one individual, in instances that increase violence risk and volatility while leading to a reduction of the influence prison officials have in correctional facilities. Rape and other sexual harassment forms are common, and the health of inmates is deteriorated to the extent that avoidable death and suffering of prisoners has become normal. The serious threat to the safety and health of inmates posed by the current conditions in the correctional facilities is questionable (Lee, N.p). In summary, the government, when it imprisons individuals, it puts them in potentially more dangerous status and denies them the chance to take care and protect themselves. Therefore, the government has a responsibility to defend prisoners from extreme psychological and physical harm; this among other reasons led to the enactment of the eighth amendment.
The state’s burden of imprisoning individuals is the price its citizens pay for the resolution to imprison offenders who have been convicted. When the Constitution of America was initially formalized by the government, it had no bill of rights, and neither did the Constitution illegalize unusual and cruel punishments. The constitution proposed after the eighth amendment made the state more influential than before. One of the most remarkable authorities of this new Constitution was the autonomy to come up with federal crimes punishments against offenders. Constitution opposes developed the fear that the new authority by the Congress would enable the use of cruel punishment as an oppression tool. The criteria to be utilized by the law courts to make a decision on the unconstitutionality of punishment is still not clear. The question on whether the court should deploy the eighth amendment standards created in 1971, or view the opinion of the public on the case to make a conclusive verdict still lingers. Furthermore, the courts are also undecided on the idea of exercising their moral judgment, irrespective of the general support from the society or to use some other reasoning basis to decide on a case remains contemplative. Additionally, the eighth amendment raises the question on whether unusual and cruel punishment clause only illegalizes barbaric punishment methods, or whether the clause disregards punishments that are not proportionate to the criminal offense committed (Dolovich, 1-35). The unusual and cruel punishment clause has no clear stand on the death penalty on offenders. Most people make the argument that capital punishment has failed to account for any public good, and that it is outdated and should be dealt away with.
The eighth amendment has been very controversial, the United States justice system faces challenges in applying the statute to court cases. Most judges make decisions on criminal offenses with a divided mind on the specific cases to apply the eighth amendment. However, the eighth amendment has considerably led to a reduction in the number of convicts. The courts have tried to relate punishment with the offense leading to reduced sentencing periods. Furthermore, the amendment continues to create an ambiguity on case verdicts as judges ponder on the decision of which verdicts form part of the unusual and cruel punishment. The amendment has created a consideration among the judges when deciding cases and minimized court cruelty on criminals. Criminal justice has been enhanced as verdicts put into consideration the presented evidence and provide sentencing based on the trials. Personal judgments resulting from emotional attachment of judges to cases has been resolved by the eighth amendment and as such criminals are assured of fair trials regardless of the feelings aroused by a case. Conclusively, the eighth amendment has helped the United States to resolve the issue of congested correctional facilities thereby enhancing criminal justice and safety.
Work Cited
Dolovich, Sharon. Cruelty, Prison Conditions, And The Eighth Amendment. 1st ed. Georgetown University Law Center: N.p., 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.
Lee, Youngjae. DESERT AND THE EIGHTH AMENDMENT. 1st ed. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.
Schwartz, Charles Walter. Eighth Amendment Proportionality Analysis And The Compelling Case Of William Rummel. 1st ed. 1980. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.