Citation:
Brodbeck, Tom. "69% increase in black population in federal prisons." Winnipeg Sun 11 Mar. 2013, sec. Opinion Columnist: 1. Winnipeg Sun. Web. 28 Dec. 2013.
Key Points
• Black Canadians are being incarcerated at a faster rate than aboriginals in federal prisons.
• There has been a 69% increase over the past 10 years for black’s prisoners, the highest rate of any racial group in Canada. According to figures from Canada’s prison watchdog
• In 2000-2001, the number of black convicts in federal prisons was 766. The number jumped to 1294 by 2010-2011 according to Sapers’ annual report.
• Black people make up 2.5% of the Canadian population, yet they represent 10% of the federal prison population.
• The majority of black people are incarcerated in Ontario – 60%, followed by Quebec – 18%.
• The number of aboriginals incarcerated on federal prisons has jumped 37% over the past 10 years.
• Aboriginals make up only 4% of the population in Canada, but represent 21.5% of those serving in federal prisons, meaning serving 2 years or more.
• Aboriginal high rates of incarceration are “linked to systemic discrimination and attitudes based on racial or cultural prejudice.”
• Aboriginal prisoner issues get so much more political attention than the black prisoners.
• “There seems to be no national outcry over the increase of blacks in prison compared to the over-representation of aboriginals in federal institutions”
• “It’s far more politically fashionable to take up the cause of aboriginal offenders in this country [Canada] than it is to advocate for black inmates.”
• The problem is that our justice system and its critics focus on race when setting and debating public policy.
• They start picking winners and losers based on ethnicity...
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...ks to be poorer than whites.
• Blacks were more in need of social services because they were less fortunate. Black poor people where pressured to group together within the limits of the city to get access to these social services. This eventually led to the formation of ghettos. Ghettos used different forms of violence which created the image that blacks are associated with violence and crime, although today blacks are employed.
Analysis
Through this source, the main points of why incarceration by race occurs throughout our society from the point of view of the social forces: psychology, anthropology and sociology are highlighted. It is understood that society, feelings, and culture all play a role in race related incarceration.
This helped me answer my question: what are the anthropologist, psychologist, and sociologist point of view on incarceration and race.
Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall. The Justice System and Aboriginal People: Child Welfare. n.d. - n.d. - n.d. The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission. Retrieved December 12, 2013, from http://www.ajic.mb.ca/volumel/chapter14.html.
Prison Activist Resource Center, (No date). Racism Fact Sheets: African-Americans and the criminal injustice system, Retrieved fromhttp://www.prisonactivist.org/factsheets/racism.pdf
The idea that indigenous Australian communities are underprivileged and do not receive the same justice that the white community accrues is represented through Jay Swan and his interactions with the corrupt white police officers and the indigenous locals of the town. My empathetic response to the text as a whole was influenced directly by way the text constructs these ideas as well as my knowledge of the way indigenous Australians are represented in the mainstream media and the behaviour of the police force as an institution. These contextual factors and the way Sen has constructed ideas influenced me to empathise with the indigenous
During the late sixteen century, when the first fleet arrived to Australia and discovered the free settlers or known as Australian Indigenous inheritors (The Aborigines), the community of aboriginal inhabitants since then have experienced vast levels of discrimination and racism against their gender, race, colour and ethnicity. The term over representations refers to the presents of minority or disproportionate ethnic aboriginal groups represented in the criminal justice system (CJS). This essay will further explain the relationship between aboriginal communities and policing discussed in Blagg (2008) and Cunneen (2007, the three major sources of concern in association to aboriginal over representation in CJS which include; systematic bias,
the Canadian justice system(Brizinski,1993,395) it has over and over again been stated that the present justice system has and is failing Aboriginal people. It is not suited for their cultural needs and does nothing to rehabilitate offenders but rather does the offender more harm then good. It does not address the underlying conditions causing criminal behavior or in assessing what specific needs must be addressed to rehabilitate.
In the wake of President Obama’s election, the United States seems to be progressing towards a post-racial society. However, the rates of mass incarceration of black males in America deem this to be otherwise. Understanding mass incarceration as a modern racial caste system will reveal the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy America. The history of social control in the United States dates back to the first racial caste systems: slavery and the Jim Crow Laws. Although these caste systems were outlawed by the 13th amendment and Civil Rights Act respectively, they are given new life and tailored to the needs of the time.In other words, racial caste in America has not ended but has merely been redesigned in the shape of mass incarceration. Once again, the fact that more than half of the young black men in many large American cities are under the control of the criminal justice system show evidence of a new racial caste system at work. The structure of the criminal justice system brings a disproportionate number of young black males into prisons, relegating them to a permanent second-class status, and ensuring there chances of freedom are slim. Even when minorities are released from prisons, they are discriminated against and most usually end up back in prisons . The role of race in criminal justice system is set up to discriminate, arrest, and imprison a mass number of minority men. From stopping, searching, and arresting, to plea bargaining and sentencing it is apparent that in every phases of the criminal justice system race plays a huge factor. Race and structure of Criminal Justice System, also, inhibit the integration of ex offenders into society and instead of freedom, relea...
Despite the decreasing inequalities between men and women in both private and public spheres, aboriginal women continue to be oppressed and discriminated against in both. Aboriginal people in Canada are the indigenous group of people that were residing in Canada prior to the European colonization. The term First Nations, Indian and indigenous are used interchangeably when referring to aboriginal people. Prior to the colonization, aboriginal communities used to be matrilineal and the power between men and women were equally balanced. When the European came in contact with the aboriginal, there came a shift in gender role and power control leading towards discrimination against the women. As a consequence of the colonization, the aboriginal women are a dominant group that are constantly subordinated and ignored by the government system of Canada. Thus today, aboriginal women experiences double jeopardy as they belong to more than one disadvantaged group i.e. being women and belonging to aboriginal group. In contemporary world, there are not much of a difference between Aboriginal people and the other minority groups as they face the similar challenges such as gender discrimination, victimization, and experiences injustice towards them. Although aboriginal people are not considered as visible minorities, this population continues to struggle for their existence like any other visible minorities group. Although both aboriginal men and women are being discriminated in our society, the women tends to experience more discrimination in public and private sphere and are constantly the targeted for violence, abuse and are victimized. In addition, many of the problems and violence faced by aborigin...
Canada likes to paint an image of peace, justice and equality for all, when, in reality, the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in our country has been anything but. Laden with incomprehensible assimilation and destruction, the history of Canada is a shameful story of dismantlement of Indian rights, of blatant lies and mistrust, and of complete lack of interest in the well-being of First Nations peoples. Though some breakthroughs were made over the years, the overall arching story fits into Cardinal’s description exactly. “Clearly something must be done,” states Murray Sinclair (p. 184, 1994). And that ‘something’ he refers to is drastic change. It is evident, therefore, that Harold Cardinal’s statement is an accurate summarization of the Indigenous/non-Indigenous relationship in
African-Americans are the predominant race in prisons in the United States of America (Rushton). Aboriginals are the predominant race in prisons in Canada (Wortley). The majority of both of these nations are whites. Does this show that minorities commit criminal offences more than the majority population? There have been different theories t...
Statistical accounts show consistent accord in that African Americans are disproportionately arrested over whites. What is much less lucid, however, is the real reason for this disparity. Both criminologists and political scientists alike have expounded remarkably polarized explanations for this phenomenon. Exemplary of this are two arguments as developed as they are diametrically opposed, that of William Wilbanks and that of Samuel Walker, Cassia Spohn and Miriam DeLone.
We can conclude with her analyses that the criminal justice in America is biased an even though I don’t agree with the suggestion Alexander has heard from other people that mass incarceration is a “conspiracy to put blacks back in their place” (p.5). It is clear that the justice system in the US is not completely fair, and that collective action must arise to struggle it.
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...ional Centre for Prison Studies’ Roy Walmsley compiled global prison data which demonstrates the enormity of United States’ prison population compared to other developed countries. The data shows the United States with a prison population of 716 per 100,000 people; larger than China and Russia (Walmsley).
The statistics say that African Americans are twelve percent of the U.S. population, but are 43 percent of the prisoners on death row. Although blacks make up 50 percent of all murder victims, 83 percent of the victims in death penalty cases are white. Since 1976, only ten executions have involved a white defendant who killed a black victim.... ... middle of paper ...
The relationship between Indigenous Australians and the law is an issue of widespread concern. For years, indisputably Indigenous Australians have been well over-represented within the criminal justice system, more than any other social group as both offenders and victims. Despite accounting for less than three per cent (3%) of the overall population of Australia, Indigenous Australians make up forty per cent (40%) of those imprisoned (Australian Institute of Criminology. (2015). pp.1). Data on police litigation against offenders demonstrated that Indigenous Australians are approximately fourteen times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous people, with Indigenous Australians offending at a significantly higher rate of 1 in 10 (The