2.4: The United States Court System- A Dual Court System
The Federal System
There are over twenty specialized federal law enforcement agencies, most of which are in the Departments of Justice and Treasury, and now in the Department of Homeland Security. The most prominent federal law enforcement agencies are the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Secret Service, and the Customs Service. These agencies are located in Washington, D.C., with field offices around the United States, and in some cases, abroad. Federal prosecutors, called “U.S. attorneys,” are appointed by the president for each of ninety-four judicial districts in the United States. They prosecute only federal crimes in federal courts. As presidential appointees. attorneys have a great deal of independence, but they are accountable to the U.S. attorney general, who heads the Department of Justice and who is a member of the president’s cabinet.
The Department of Justice’s criminal division in Washington, D.C. provides assistance, expertise, and some guidance and supervision to U.S. attorneys. The Department of Justice’s central office also includes special prosecutorial units with nationwide authority in such matters as organized crime, war crimes, antitrust and international drug trafficking; these units usually work in cooperation with U.S. attorneys.
Federal offenders are incarcerated in prisons administered by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, an agency within the Department of Justice. These prisons are located throughout the United States; a defendant convicted in federal court may be incarcerated in any federal prison. However, less than 10 percent of all U.S. prisoners are held in federal prisons.
State and Local Level Courts
Most criminal justice activity is conducted under the auspices of state and local governments. Law enforcement at the state level is mostly decentralized to the counties, cities, and towns. The state police exercise authority over the major state highways and over unincorporated rural areas. They often have other limited functions, including the maintenance of criminal records. State attorneys general, unlike the U.S. attorney general, usually have little or no prosecutorial authority, although they may be responsible for arguing criminal appeals and defending post-conviction petitions. The prosecution is a county-level function. Most prosecutors, called district attorneys (DAs), are elected. Each county has a jail that holds defendants awaiting trial as well as defendants convicted of minor crimes called “misdemeanors” (crimes punishable by a maximum jail term of one year). Probation departments are usually organized at the county level as well. There are more than 20,000 independent police departments that belong to local governments. Most of these departments serve small towns and have fewer than 20 officers. In contrast, big-city police departments are huge. For example, the New York City Police Department, the nation’s largest, has approximately 38,000 officers. Defendants in state court who are convicted of felonies and sentenced to imprisonment are incarcerated in state-operated prison systems, usually called the “department of corrections.”