Final Paper Instructions and Guidelines
“Picking Cotton” Writing Assignment
“Picking Cotton” illustrates many elements of the criminal justice system from the crime victim’s perspective, as well as the defendant’s perspective. The book begins with the crime itself and then highlights situations involving police procedures, court procedures and correctional procedures and experiences. Choose two criminal justice system legal procedures or issues that are described in the book. Organize your paper so that each procedure or issue is discussed separately (3 full pages each) and include the pages where it is discussed in the book. Provide a summary of the facts (one paragraph each). Describe the situation, how it occurred and what you think the procedure or issue is that is important to discuss. How is this procedure or issue significant to the criminal justice system? Should the procedure or issue have been handled differently? Give support using examples from what we discussed in class and from the multi-touch textbook (iBook). You can do additional research, but make sure you connect your research to our discussions. You can also use your experiences from the jail and courtroom class trip and from the police ride-alongs. Identify whether the procedure or issue is a function of the police, courts, or corrections. How do these components of the criminal justice system work together (or not)? What did you learn about the criminal justice system? Give your concluding thoughts or reflection.
General Paper Requirements:
• Each procedure/issue should be 3 pages & begin on a separate page.
• State the procedure or issue in the title at the beginning of the page in bold and include all relevant page numbers
• There should be one APA cover page and one reference page
• The completed paper should be 6 full pages (excluding cover page and reference page).
• Use 12 point and 1-inch margins; no right justification; no extra spaces in between paragraphs
• Use APA style for cover page, citations in the text, and in the reference section
• Do not write an introduction
• Do not write one long paragraph; there should be several paragraphs. All paragraphs should be indented.
• Write a separate paragraph for the conclusion on each procedure/issue. Give your concluding thoughts about the criminal justice system or anything you learned from the class or iBook.
• Follow the rubric and make certain you respond to each section.
Suggested Final Paper Issues/Procedures
(Think how they relate to Police, Courts, and Corrections individually & together)
• Rape Kit
• Photo ID
• Line-up
• Preliminary Hearing
• Arraignment
• Bail/Bond
• Voir Dire/Jury Selection: Challenges for Cause
• Role of Defense Attorney (Public Defender) & tactics during trial
• Alibi
• Trial: any stages
• Jury Deliberations: Polling jury
• Sentencing: (Allocution, consecutive v. concurrent)
• Miranda Rights; speaking to cops without an attorney
• Booking
• Prison Life (shower, fresh meat, fighting v. punk, subrosaeconomy, contraband: shanks,
• Jail House Lawyers
• Appeals (pro bono attorneys)
• Trial #2
• DNA evidence
• Exoneration
• Transporting inmates
• Pardon of Innocence
• Compensation for wrongful imprisonment
• Eyewitness Identification
• Unconscious Transference
Thompson-Cannino, J., Cotton R., & Torneo, E. (2009). Picking Cotton: Our memoir of
injustice and redemption. St. Martin’s Press.
2. Here is the in-text citation to the Cotton book:
(Thompson-Cannino et al., 2009).
3. Include the page number if a direct quote.
(Thompson-Cannino et al., 2009, p. 45).
4. Omit the date after you have already cited it the first time:
(Thompson-Cannino et al., p. 45).
5. If multiple pages, include pp.
(Thompson-Cannino et al., pp. 45-47). Or (Thompson-Cannino et al., pp. 45, 51).
6. For purposes of this paper, you can just include the page number on additional citations when referring to the facts in the Cotton book (even if not a direct quote). (p. 45) or (45).
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