Does our legal system have racist tendencies? In a perfect world, people would be punished for the crimes of which they are guilty, and all punishments would be fair. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. Racism is still at large.…
The Sentencing Project also illustrates that the black community is intentionally targeted through mass incarceration. Their article, entitled “The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons” states that in sixteen states, black people are more than seven times more likely to get imprisoned than their white counterparts (“The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State…
During slavery and the Jim Crow error, the justice system was beyond biased. I don’t believe that the justice system is racist today. If you're willing to do the crime than you're willing to do the time. Heather Mac Donald states,” a 1987 analysis of Georgia felony convictions, for example, found that blacks frequently received more lenient punishment.” Here it says that blacks get a longer sentence for the committed crime as too other races. In the last paragraph Heather Mac Donald says,” the evidence is clear: black prison rates result from crime, not racism.” The justice system looks at their offenses as well as criminal records. The longer your record, the longer your sentence.…
The article, No, Justice is not Colorblind, explains studies and statistics on how black individuals are treated biasedly and unfairly in today's justice system, citing specific studies that showcase the unproportionate amount of arrests and convictions on the same counts. Firstly, both authors agree that the system is set up unfairly and convicts black individuals far more often. This idea is seen similarly in the article in which a graph shows that while black people had nearly 5,000 stops by police officers, white people only had about 800. This is is explained in the book where it states that “The Supreme Court has indicated that in policing, race can be used as a factor in discretionary decision making”(Alexander, 130) specifically talking…
In our society, ethnicity does have major effects on our judicial practices and courtroom proceedings do to The Sentencing Project research. It has also affected several different places where we live. For example, Poverty stricken areas has more of a possibility to experience much more crime than a place that is more fruitful employment and has maintained wealth. The issues with both class and race are more likely to impact on the likelihood of involvement with the treatment within the system and the criminal justice system. As long as society keeps racial tension in existence within the court system it will always exist.…
Nowadays, if a white man commits the same crime than a black man, the white man might get a lighter sentence or punishment compared to the one the black man gets. Although they did the same crime, their sentences are different due to their race. Basically, the justice system disproportionately affects…
However, various people in the 13 would most likely disagree with that statement. In fact, New Jersey Senator, Cory Booker, said that “Right now, we have more African-Americans under criminal supervision that all the slaves back in the 1850s.” Booker’s point is that while African Americans have equal rights,but the justice system is full of racism and discrimination which separates whites from blacks. Another quote that reinforces the idea of racism in our justice system comes professor and writer Michelle Alexander. She says that, “So many aspects of the old Jim Crows are suddenly legal again once you’ve been a branded felon.” What she means by this is that once you’ve been convicted as a felon you suddenly lose may rights as a U.S.…
There are statistics that show that a large amount of incarcerated are African Americans. “According to data collected every year from the FBI’s Crime Report shows that blacks account for 28 percent of arrest, even though they are only 12 percent of the nation’s population.” (Schaefer, Robert “African Americans Today” Racial and Ethnic Groups Ed 14 2014 pg. 198) This gives you a bit of an insight as to them being characterized unfairly due to them…
There are several forms of racism. The biggest form of racism is racial profiling. Racial profiling is defined in the dictionary as “the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting of having committed an offense.” Why are there so many controversial issues regarding racial profiling? Why is it more likely for colored folks to get pulled over? Are they getting pulled over for a legit reason or just because? It is said that police are more likely to pull over and frisk colored people that the whites. “Thus, African Americans (and some other minorities) are trapped in what some have labeled the ‘joint frustration’ syndrome: African Americans, who are far more often the victims of crime, are simultaneously the most dependent upon and the…
I totally agree with your post. I believe when we look at the disparity of inmates in prison show us the real fact of our correctional system. In term of racism is this country, it has gradually decreased and in the current society people are segregated by class and that fact will never change no matter how many time we debate about that topic. Because if we look at other countries, where there is no racial discrimination exists, there is a bias towards the rich and the poor, but apparently will never change, because it is the divide line in every…
In 2010, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that African Americans receive 10% longer sentences than whites through the federal system for the same crimes.…
Black people face a tremendous amount of injustice in the criminal justice system. White and Black people use drugs at similar rates, however Black people are jailed on drug charges ten times more often than White people are. (Hinger) In addition, Black Men sentences are on average 10% longer than those of their white peers for the same crime. (Kahn) From initial charging decisions to plea bargaining, to sentencing African Americans are treated more harshly when they are the defendants. (Death)…
It seems that more minorities are incarcerated as opposed to the majority; looking at the facts as they stand, a person’s ethnic background really has bearings on whether he/she is incarcerated, because more than 60% of those incarcerated are of a minority background. To say that our judicial system is not biased due to race would very much be false. There have been numerous studies performed on the said topic and they all point to our judicial system having a biased nature. Our American prisons have a disparity of minority inmate population.…
The authors expose the myth of American meritocracy by informing us of all the ways that we maybe never paid attention to, such as how many black leaders there are in the sports arena’s such as coaches. They also expose the racial realist to the point that everything is not race based. Racial hierarchies are shown in ways that show us that American meritocracy is a myth by where blacks live. If blacks live in white neighborhoods how some would feel uncomfortable, or would even move out of the neighborhood. If racism was a thing of the past then we would no longer need affirmative action. Racism still exists and will forever exist in the world because the history it has of getting here.…
In the book “The New Jim Crow” author Michelle Alexander talks about numerous issues of racial inequality in our criminal justice system. Alexander’s book is something every person who even has an interest in the criminal justice field should read, as it really looks beyond the color of a person’s skin. Alexander points out the vast majority of the problems our criminal justice system faces in racial inequality and discrimination. These problems have really formed our country to what it is to this day. Most people feel that society as a whole is past discrimination and that it is no longer a problem anymore. In reality, it is still a major problem in many aspects of our criminal justice system as well as the everyday lives of Americans. In all honesty I was one of them, but “The New Jim Crow” really opened my eyes on the discrimination that occurs within minorities in the United States. Reflecting back on this issue I had realized that I have witnessed this first hand with one of my close friends who is an African American male. I will get into more detail about this later on in my paper, but for now I am going to address some of the issues of racial inequality in the criminal justice system that Alexander mentioned.…