The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution provide United States citizens with two basic rights—that “no person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law” (Amendment V) and that “no state shall…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law” (Amendment XIV). However, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 created a clearly unequal weight on the sentencing of powder cocaine versus crack cocaine. The mandatory minimum sentence for someone with one gram of crack was the same as the mandatory minimum for someone with one hundred grams of powder cocaine. In the 1970s, cocaine soared in popularity and was praised as a recreational drug, a perception that persisted until the introduction of crack cocaine in 1985 (Edward, Jill, David, & David). Crack cocaine, a mix of baking soda, water, and powder cocaine, became the less expensive way to use cocaine; thus, the drug rose in popularity especially in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. Thus, it became consequently popular with the working class and minorities, namely African Americans. Because of the popularity of crack in poorer neighborhoods in a society where socioeconomic status and race overlap often, arrest numbers for African Americans caught with crack sky rocketed. A special report of the US Sentencing Commission stated that “while there is no evidence of a racial bias behind…this federal sentencing law, nearly 90 percent of the offenders convicted in federal court for crack cocaine distribution are African American while the majority of crack cocaine users is white. Thus, the sentences appear to be harsher…for racial minorities…[which] results in a perception of unfairness” (USSC 1997). The special report also...
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...al Courts Took the" Fair" Out of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010”. Penn St. L. Rev., 117, 503-1337.
United States Sentencing Commission (USSC, 2011). Memorandum, May 20, 2011. Washing- ton, D.C. Retrieved 2/25/14 (http://www.ussc.gov/Research/Retroactivity_Analyses/Fair_Sentencing_Act/20110520_ Crack_Retroactivity_Analysis.pdf)
“Public Law 111-220: Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.” (124 Stat. 2372; Date: 8/3/2010). Text from: United States Public Law. Available from: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW 111publ220/html/PLAW-111publ220.htm. Retrieved: 2/25/14.
U.S. Congress. U.S. Sentencing Commission. 1997. Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy. http://www.ussc.gov/Legislative_and_Public_Affairs/Congressional_Testimony_and_Reports/Drug_Topics/19970429_RtC_Cocaine_Sentencing_Policy.PDF Vance, Lawrence. http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/drugsentencing-disparities/
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
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
“Just Say No!” A statement that takes us deep into yet another decade in the history of the United States which was excited by controversies, social issues, and drug abuse. The topic of this statement is fueled by the growing abuse of cocaine in the mid 1980s. I shall discuss the effects of the crack cocaine epidemic of the mid 1980s from a cultural and social stand point because on that decade this country moved to the rhythms and the pace of this uncanny drug. Cocaine took its told on American society by in the 1980s; it ravaged with every social group, race, class, etc. It reigned over the United States without any prejudices. Crack cocaine was the way into urban society, because of its affordability in contrast to the powdered form. In society the minorities were the ones most affected by the growing excess of crime and drug abuse, especially African Americans; so the question was “Why was nearly everybody convicted in California federal court of crack cocaine trafficking black?” (Webb: Day 3). The growing hysteria brought forth many questions which might seem to have concrete answers, but the fact of the matter is they are all but conspiracy in the end, even though it does not take away the ambiguity and doubt. I will take on only a few topics from the vast array of events and effects this period in time had tended to. Where and who this epidemic seemed to affect more notably, and perhaps how the drugs came about such territories and people. What actions this countries authority took to restore moral sanity, and how it affected people gender wise.
Drug policies stemming from the War on Drugs are to blame, more specifically, the mandatory minimum sentencing mandates on petty drug charges that have imprisoned millions of non-violent offenders in the last three decades. Since this declaration of war, the percentage of drug arrests that result in prison sentences (rather than probation, dismissal, or community service) has quadrupled, resulting in an unprecedented prison-building boom (Wyler, 2014). There are three main reasons mandatory minimum sentencing laws must be reformed: (1) They impose unduly harsh punishments on relatively low level offenders, leading to the mass incarceration epidemic. (2) They have proven to be cost ineffective fiscally and in crime and drug use reduction. (3) They perpetuate a racially segregated criminal justice system that destroys communities and discourages trust
stated his hope that "the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities" (King 980-981). Unfortunately, upon analysis of the drug war, it is found that those dark clouds remain suspended above America,and that fog is as blinding as ever. Research into drug usage and selling has found that "drug use and selling are comparable across racial lines" (DPA). In light of this fact, it logically follows that arrest rates would be fairly even across racial lines, however, this is not the case. In fact, "African Americans represent 12% of the total population of drug users, but 38% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for a drug offense" (NAACP). There are many contributing factors that lead to these statistics, but the most prominent among them is the heavy scrutiny of poor, mostly minority neighborhoods. To make matters worse, sentencing for drug crimes also has a high racial discrepancy. According to the Sentencing Project, "African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months)"(NAACP). Another example of this is the disparity in sentencing is the comparison of those caught with powder cocaine and those caught with crack cocaine. Despite being essentially the same substance, "federal penalties for
Let’s talk about how fair these laws are. Many say that these laws are used to profile African Americans and inner-city minorities primarily by the sentencing difference in rock and powder cocaine. There is a difference in the two forms and how they’re sold. Cocaine can be bought and sold as powder or rocks, also known as crack or crack cocaine. The effects of each are essentially the same. People will get the same effects with powder as w...
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.
Racial disparity in drug related convictions has been a wide spread 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 will 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.
This essay will be focusing on the incarceration and war on drug of black community and minority in the United State. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander discuss who the war on drug effect minority in American. What will be discuss in this paper or the question I will be answering are How has the War in Drugs impacted low-income people and communities of color, particularly African Americans? How has the Drug War disenfranchised a large segment of the American population? How have race and class influenced the functioning of the criminal justice system, especially in relation to policing, the enforcement of drug laws, and sentencing? Do you agree or disagree with Alexander’s contention that the current criminal justice system has resulted in a “New Jim Crow”? Why or why not?
...versus powder cocaine were aimed at creating even more racially disparate outcomes. The sentencing difference between the two was 100:1; the harsher punishment being placed upon the users of crack cocaine. The possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine held the very same 5 year prison sentence as the possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine. (Investigating Differences, pp.107). The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 has been the most recent attempt and addressing and leveling this sentencing disparity. The Fair Sentencing Act included provisions to the drug statutes such as the leveling of the sentencing disparity from the 100:1 ratio to 18:1. Though some headway has been made, the sentencing still disproportionately favors the powder cocaine…..or white….drug users.
Elliott Currie, a professor in criminology and law, suggests that building more prisons, imposing longer sentences, and harsh punishment will not lower the incarceration rate. In his chapter on “Assessing the Prison Experiment”, he explained that the increase of crime rate is not the sole reason that mass incarceration occurs, it was also because courts and legislature did indeed get ‘tougher” on offenders (Currie 14). Under the circumstance of the war on drugs, which was launched by President Richard Nixon, the incarceration rate and sentence longevity were increased dramatically as Currie discussed in his chapter. Currie also pointed out that the war on drugs had a huge influence on the incarceration rate of African American inmates, “ between 1985 and 1995, the number of black state prison inmates sentenced for drug offences rose by more than 700 percent” (Currie 13). Some of these offenders were sentenced more than ten years without parole, which releases prisoners before the completion of their sentences. The government should reconsider the current sentencing laws and reform the correctional system to solve our current mass incarceration
“More than half of federal prisoners are incarcerated for drug crimes…” (Branson, 2012). Nonviolent drug offenses in America are unrightly over punished, causing more harm than good to those charged and all American citizens. Drug arrests and imprisonments are far too common and are taking focus off of more important crimes. The sentences for nonviolent drug crimes are far too long and harsh for the crime. Punishment against nonviolent drug crimes are not working and is causing more harm than good. The harsh punishment for nonviolent drug offenses might not seem like a problem at first, but it causes a huge toll on everyone involved. A simple nonviolent drug arrest could ruin an otherwise law abiding citizens’ life. The war on drugs is damaging
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
Discrimination and racial disparities are a part of every stage within the U.S. criminal justice system, from policing to trial to sentencing. The United States is the world’s leading jailer with 2.2 million people behind bars. Perhaps no single reason has contributed more to racial disparities in the criminal justice system than the so-called “War on Drugs” which many people believe was a thinly disguise veil for racism on African-American. Even though racial and other ethnic groups use and sell drugs at roughly the same rate, Blacks and Hispanics are punished more and harshly by the system forming 62 percent of those in state prisons for first drug offenses, and 72.1 percent of all persons sentenced for federal drug trafficking offenses
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