In 2009 Robert H. Richards IV a white father and heir to DuPont a chemical company, was arrested for sexual abuse of his wife, and raping his beloved 3-year old daughter. Instead of getting sentenced to jail like any other person that fails to meet the law requirements, he was put on probation because the judge thought he wouldn 't fit right in prison. Meanwhile Sanesha Taylor a, homeless black mother was arrested for leaving her two children, aged 6 months and 2 years in the car, so she can attend her job interview. She wasn 't as lucky as Mr. Richards though. She had her life turned upside down just because she was poor AND a minority. Taylor not the first victim. This problem has been occurring for past few years, where the U.S justice …show more content…
Social status is not the only thing giving the rich power over the poor, it 's also the color of their skin. In the comic Goldman Sacks Settlement by Adam Zyglis illustrates this same topic. The picture shows two type of pictures. One picture is of a group of rich white businessmen celebrating the fact that they can afford a 5 billion dollar settlement so they won 't have to go to jail. While on the other side shows a group of black men behind bars labeled as “non-violent drug offenders(Zyglis).” mostly for petty crime they were punished for. In fact, black people “make up more than 60 percent of the prison population”, according to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group for prison reform. “One in every three black men will likely go to prison in his lifetime, compared to one in 17 white men(Pratchett)”. Not to mention that the U.S. has the largest prison population in the world. People say we live in a post-racial society, but somehow, racism is bigger than individuals. Racism is systemic, and it has infected everybody from our systems of education to incarceration.
CONCLUSION
In every way, the criminal justice system is weighted to favor the wealthy. While someone of means slide through the system and experience some minor inconvenience, while the less fortunate will go through the process of their life destroyed. Skin color and financial status shouldn’t be the deciding factors in whether someone is a prisoner. The only thing that should be considered is if the crime the person committed was intentional, or we are going to continue having an overcrowded jail system that we will one day lose control over. The system keeps saying too much money is being invested to keep prisoners