America is famous for its history, winning freedom from Great Britain, establishing a strong government, and writing the Constitution. It is this same constitution that guarantees the American people their rights.

One of the most notable of these rights is the right to a fair trial. It says this in the constitution “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed”. Therefore we are all entitled to equal protection under the law. However, not everyone gets a fair, speedy trial. Why is this? A simple reason: inadequate funding. As said by John Adams “Justice delayed is justice denied.” If that is the case, then countless people are being denied justice every day.

All courts cases should be heard as soon as possible. Other, many potential innocent will spend a long time awaiting their verdict; away from their families and friends. For example: Brenton Butler spent six months in jail waiting for his trial. To be honest, I don’t think keeping a teenage boy in jail for half a year constitutes a “speedy trial”.

Take the example of the two infants girls in New Hampshire. Their parents left them with their grandparents for a short while, and when they returned the grandparents refused to give the children back. The parents went to court, however time and time the case was delayed. Why? Inadequate funding. By the time that the trial was heard, the children were five and six years old. That simply is not justice. Keeping a family apart for nearly five years is not justice, and the fact that this happened in our justice system means that something is very wrong. It is completely unacceptable.

So, how much funding does our court system get? Well, assuming someone paid one hundred dollars in taxes in 2010, only one dollar and twenty cents would go towards the court system. We spent more money paying the legislative and executive branches salaries. (About two dollars and ten cents out of the one hundred dollars). We spent more on jails/prisons! However, if we had a better court system with more funding, it would deter potential lawbreakers, so we wouldn’t need to spend so much on punishing people who had broken the law.
It is extremely simple: we need to spend more money on the court systems. My solution would be to just take some of the taxes away from military spending and redirect that much needed money to the United States court systems.

The premise of this country was equal treatment for all. However, if not everyone is getting a fair trial, then obviously that premise is severely compromised.