Despite what is written in the preamble to this category, the truth is very different. From the police to the Court system and on to what happens after sentence the Justice system in England is deeply flawed and Kristian's case shows up all of those flaws.
The police are overseen in any investigation where a complaint has been made against an officer by the IPCC. The problem is that this is not always the case as the lines are blurred. The local Police authority has the right to investigate complaints about senior officers and is the body responsible for the actions of the Chief Officer. In normal practice, especially outside London, the Police authority is very closely linked to the police and acts for the police and not the public who, supposedly put them there. In any event, the police are investigated by the police.
Solicitors are overseen by the Solicitors Regulatory authority and the Legal Complaints Service. If you are unhappy with their answers then you can go to the Legal; Services Ombudsman. The problem is that like the police these organisations are mainly set up and run by lawyers whose first loyalty is to lawyers.
Barristers are under the authority of their chambers and the Bar Standards Council which is set up and run by barristers.
If you also include the probation service and the social services as well as the prison service, any complaints about these organisations go back to the organisations themselves and they always take the word of their own before they will take yours.
Why is this a bad thing? Well if the people investigating any part of the Justice system are unwilling to properly investigate their own part of that system, then the system deteriorates and miscarriages of justice are ever more likely. If bad practices are not stamped out then they will flourish and become the norm so that the whole arena of justice becomes ever more corrupt. The problem of nepotism is rife amongst legal circles with ever more jobs going to family members as well as access to the legal system becoming limited to those who went to private schools. That means a shared educational experience and a limiting of the vision of barristers and solicitors as to their view or experience of society.