Essay On Criminal Justice And Inequality

Inequality has been present in society for ages. Yet, where inequality has impacted humanity, the most is within the criminal justice system. Released on October 7, 2016, and directed by Ava DuVernay, 13TH, tells the story of America and how its criminal justice system has impeded society, especially the lives of African Americans, through inequality. As expressed within the film, inequality has produced the idea of the criminal justice system as a method of oppression. How the persecution of the criminal justice system has been portrayed to showcase the problems they create is through media publicity, faulty policies, mass incarceration, and racial bias. It is within the paper that the topic of inequality, from how it is discussed within the

One change that was created from the movement was the policy of "get tough" on crime. According to Pressbooks (n.d.), the "get tough" on crime policy created harsher sentences for criminals, and thus increased the number of people incarcerated. This policy can be considered a social construction of reality in criminal justice. Why? According to Pressbooks (n.d.), the underlying reason that the "get tough" was created was to not only give harsher punishments for criminals, but to inevitably win the votes of the whites by linking crime to African Americans and incarcerating them, as created by the Republican party. It is within 13TH that the "get tough" on crime policy is discussed in connection to wanting to win the votes of rights by forcing to think that African Americans are criminals and should be incarcerated. According to Netflix (2020), President Richard Nixon was the one who started the police to "get tough" to enforce "law and order" within society. The theory of the policy was by imposing harsher punishments on criminals to deter crime was a good idea, however, the actual prejudice and discriminatory practices were not. Law and order cannot be imposed into society if the law is trying to order people to discriminate against others and incarcerate them for being African

As discussed within 13TH and according to Pressbooks (n.d.), since the implication of the "get tough" on crime policy, which started in the 1970s, people have questioned whether the policy has reduced crime and its cost. While the "get tough" on crime policy was intended to increase harsher punishments, it ultimately led to higher and more costly incarceration rates. The policy, according to Pressbooks (n.d.), had done more harm than good as mass incarceration rates skyrocketed. Not only were the rates and cost of policy an issue, but people's rights and liberties, specifically African Americans, were being infringed as their sentences were cruel and unusually long. According to Pressbooks (n.d.), the situation of the "get tough" on crime policy became so bad that upon examining the effects of the policy, advocacy groups were created to call attention to the unjust policy and to showcase to the state and federal legislators the urge of needing to reform the sentencing practices to help inmates and those being introduced into the system. If one is trying to improve crime rates, that individual should look at the bigger picture, which is society, than targeting a minority group and casting the blame onto them that they are the cause of