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Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system
Disparity in sentencing in regard to race
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Though the drug war is carried out in an officially colorblind way, race is a huge component. A statement by Alexander “In the drug war, the enemy is racially defined” (98). She agreed that the communities where people of color live are the ones most heavily policed; their young people are the ones stopped and frisked. The sentences given to black people are much more punitive than those given to whites, and they probably did not have a jury of their peers either. The statistics are utterly damning but people prefer to believe that black and brown people are just more prone to crime. Race and crime are now so linked in our heads that when asked to picture a criminal, most of those surveyed thought of a black person. Alexander claims that “Virtually
This has unfortunately become a viscous cycle because the war on drugs are so strict its become a slavery or cast system that has taken so much of the black race and incarcerated them for drug crimes for as long as murder crimes. This system is dehumanizing and should be looked over and lifted. Every race uses and sells drugs, it is unjust to use drug laws just to control the black race under imprisonment for small crimes.
Human rights experts have reported that in the 70s, African Americans in the U.S were already being overrepresented in drug arrests, with twice as many arrests as Caucasians (Fellner, 2009). Since the war on drugs began, African
With everything in life, we can work to fix injustices and a problem in society, but trying to fix what was wrong not only takes time, but also may be imperfect. As mentioned previously race played and still does play a large role in how crime is treated in the United States. This article explains how the racial disparity is not a coincidence and the article provides facts of the disparity, and what the Fair Sentencing Act does. The author begins the article by chronologically exploring the details of how the disparity began. The Anti- Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which was introduced in the Reagan-era, was responsible for the disparity. The Act stated that 1 gram of cocaine was equal to 100 grams of crack (Davis 2011). An extremely large difference. She ends the article explaining that despite the fact that there is a decrease in the ratio, it is still unfair. The Fair Sentencing Act only works to reduce the disparity and does not eliminate it completely (Davis 2011). While the ratio was once 100-1(crack to cocaine), the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 brought it down to 18-1.
The past quarter century of American history has been profoundly impacted by the “war on drugs.” Ever since the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 was passed by President Richard Nixon, the number of yearly incarcerations for drug violations has grown exponentially. America’s drug policies have cost billions of dollars and imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Americans, yet rates of drug, property, and violent crime have failed to decrease. Yassaman Saadatmand summates the consequences of Nixon’s policies: “Not only has the drug war failed to reduce violent and property crime, but it has also shifted criminal justice resources (the police, courts, prisons, probation officers, etc.) away from directly fighting violent and property crime.” The issue is further complicated by racial inequalities in the rates of drug use and crime. Whereas Whites consist the majority of the population of any state, they are outnumbered by African-Americans in both state and federal prisons (E. Ann Carson 2013). This incongruity is paralleled with many other races, such as an overrepresentation of Native Americans and an underrepresentation of Asians in rates of drug use. What causes this imbalance? What purpose do the higher rates of incarceration for certain minorities serve? As this topic is explored, it becomes evident that the racial disparity in drug crime is perpetuated by America’s legacy of bigotry and racism, capitalism, and a cycle of poverty.
The war on drugs has been a big problem for years, a lot of years. The number of African Americans in prison has also been a big problem in the United States. Both of these problematic issues have come together, bigger than ever. A lot of African Americans are in jail because of drugs. Michelle Alexander wrote a book named, The New Jim Crow, that she talks about how the Jim Crow era and how it never left. Today, in this country, we still have a lot of segregation and discrimination happening. In her chapter called Color of Justice, we read a lot about how in the Drug War, your skin color counts. I will also talk about the Netflix documentary named 13th directed by Ava DuVernay, which explains the thirteenth amendment stops slavery from occurring. In this paper, I will connect the chapter called Color of Justice by Michelle Alexander to the documentary called 13th which shows the illustration of the war on drugs and the unfair consequences toward people of color.
As described in novel The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference the course of any trend, movement, social behavior, and even the spread of a virus has a general trend line that in essence resemble a parabola with 3 main critical points. Any trend line first starts from zero, grows until it crosses the first tipping point, and then spreads like wildfire. Afterwards, the trend skyrockets to its carrying capacity (Galdwell, 2000). Then the trend gradually declines before it reaches the next tipping and suddenly falls out of favor and out of memory. Gladwell defines tipping points as the “magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire” (Gladwell, 2000).
Mass Incarceration: The New Jim Crow is the direct consequence of the War on Drugs. That aims to reduce, prevent and eradicate drug use in America through punitive means. The effect of the war on drug policies returned de jure discrimination, denied African Americans justice and undermined the rule of law by altering the criminal justice system in ways that deprive African Americans civil rights and citizenship. In the “New Jim Crow” Alexandra argues that the effects of the drug war policies are not unattended consequences but coordinated by designed to deny African Americans opportunity to gain wealth, be excluded from gaining employment and exercise civil rights through mass incarceration and felony conviction. The war on drugs not only changes the structure of the criminal justice system, it also changes the ways that police officers, prosecutors and judges do their jobs.
One, the drug war is aimed at eliminating big-time drug dealers. Two, the war on drugs is eradicating dangerous drugs. Throughout the book, Alexander refuted both of these common misconceptions about the war on drugs. According to study conducted by Ryan King and Marc Meur, they found 80 percent of drug arrest in the 1990s was for marijuana. While it is arguable marijuana is far less harmful than tobacco and alcohol, is it is illegal and people should not do it. However, what is interesting about marijuana is the stigma associated with it. According to Alexander, marijuana was seen as a fearsome drug when associated with African-Americans and Latinos but was less stigmatizing when associated with Caucasians. According to book titled Unequal Under Law: Race and the War on Drugs, author Doris Marie Provine said “punishment becomes more severe when drug use is associated with people of color but softens when it is associated with whites.” An example of crime that becomes “softer” when associated with whites is drunk driving. According to The Crack Attack: America’s Latest Scare, drunk drivers accounted for 22,000 deaths in 1989. In addition to that, about 100,000 alcohol-related deaths occurred that same year. The author, Craig Reinarman, compared that statistic to the number of deaths from AIDS, drug overdose and violence associated with illegal drug trade and all three accounted for only 21,000 deaths. Drunk driving crimes are usually committed primarily by white males. According to the book, The Crack Attack: America’s Latest Scare, 78 percent of drunk drivers during 1990 were white males. During 1990, new mandatory minimums charges were created where drivers could either receive fines, license suspension, complete community service or sentenced to only two days in jail for their first offense. While on the other hand individuals who had crack cocaine, which is seen as a
Kids start being introduced to drugs at a very young age because the first interaction with them is being told not to do any of them. Most kids have no idea what drugs are until this program is introduced in elementary schools telling kids not to do drugs. In “There’s No Justice in the War on Drugs”, Milton Friedman talks about the injustice of drugs and the harsh reality of being addicted to drugs, and the causes or side effects that come along with them. The author clearly argues the “war on drugs” and uses analysis and data to prove his argument. The author agrees that the use of government to keep kids away from drugs should be enforced, but the use of government to keep adults away from drugs, should not be enforced. The author has a clear side of his argument and the audience can clearly see that. He argues against the “war on drugs” claim that President Richard M. Nixon made twenty-five years ago, he adds ethos, logos, and pathos to defend his argument, and uses a toulmin
Racial disparity in drug-related convictions has been a widespread problem in the United States since the War on Drugs in the early 1980s. It was prevalent before that time, but minorities became the target of drug-related crimes in startling numbers at this time. There are several hypotheses for this alarming situation, but the bottom line remains that racism is the leading cause of racial disparity in drug-related convictions. Minorities from inner cities, with low-incomes and socioeconomic statuses who get caught in a downward spiral, are the easiest targets for the government to point the finger at for drug problems in the United States. The statistics show that while more White people use illicit drugs in the United States, more African Americans and other minorities will be convicted, and more harshly than their White counterparts, for the same crimes.
Since the Reagan officials tried harder to stop the Drug Enforcement Administration from exposing the illegal activities that were taking place, the more violence was being caused in these inner city neighborhoods, which lead to more arrests for possession. Now, Michelle explains how the War on Drugs has the most impact on African Americans in these inner city neighborhoods. Within the past three decades, US incarceration increase has been due to drug convictions, mainly. She states that, “the US is unparalleled in the world in focusing enforcement of federal drug laws on racial and ethnic minorities.”(Alexander2016). The percentile of African American men with some sort of criminal record is about 80% in some of our major US cities(Paul Street, The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs, and Community in Chicago, Illinois, and the Nation (Chicago Urban League, Department of Research and Planning, 2002). MIchelle referred to these becoming marginalized and calls them “ growing and permanent undercaste.” (Alexander2016, pp
A person’s social class plays a big role in determining who and for how long a convicted felon spends in prison. For example, a white kid from an influential family, convicted for the same crime as a kid from Projects may serve a fraction of the time in prison, simply because of his financial status. Another major issue within our current prison system is how illegal drugs are classified by the Justice Department and the level of punishment associated with these drugs. According to “Facts about the Prison System in the U.S,” how we classify illegal drugs and the punishment can be extremely unfair. For example, a person arrested with having five grams crack cocaine may receive the same charge or conviction as a person found with five hundred grams of powder cocaine. I believe, no matter how much or what type of cocaine you are caught with, the charge should be consistently applied. The bigger issue is with how the unfair and unjust laws are written. Many of today’s laws are written by people who are rich and they have little consideration for the people who will be affected by racially and culturally biased laws. Consequently, the people who are hit hardest by these laws are generally poor and minorities. In other words, African- Americans and minorities are discriminated against within the criminal justice system and the proof lies in the number of minorities incarcerated. For example, according to “Facts about the Prison System in the U.S,” African-Americans make up fourteen percent of the drug users within the United States; however, African-Americans make-up thirty-seven percent of the prison population, which has been convicted and sentenced to prison for using or having illegal drugs. This demonstrates that African-Americans are stereotyped as criminals, treated unequally, and much more likely to be arrested, convicted, and sent to
Separate studies conducted between 1993 through 2014 reveal that there are racial bias undertones that result in black defendants being sentenced to the death penalty more often when the victim is white, than vice versa. Given the racial stereotypes surrounding African-Americans in regards to drugs, and the now known ungrounded “War on Drugs” subjecting those who traffic in large quantities of drugs to the death penalty would be an egregious misuse of the judicial system with its variety of
The argument over drug reform and the current prohibition has been going on for years. It seems to be an argument between a wise parent and a young teenager, but as generations change more and more of the parents seem to switch sides. While prohibitionists say the mainstream drugs like cocaine, heroin, LSD, and marijuana are harmful and immoral, legalizers argue the opposite (Rachels 223). While they are both valid and interesting arguments the drugs named above still remain illegal. Many organizations and respected citizens have come to America’s attention in their support for drug reform or complete legalization of certain drugs. These people range from normal citizens who support the recreational use of marijuana to judges and ex- law enforcement agents who say the war on drugs has been a failure. The drug issue in the United States of America has been going on for years with the counterculture of the sixties up until the more recent medicinal marijuana debates today, and it seems that it is not going to go away anytime soon.
The world has many different issues, and without them the world would be a perfect place. An issue that causes a lot of controversy is drug abuse. Though the world can never be a perfect place, humans still need to do our best to make in inhabitable as possible, and drugs cause a lot of harm towards humans. Therefore, it is my belief that the first thing that needs to be fixed should be drugs and their abuse. Many possible solutions to this problem exist.