Racial Profiling In Prisons

In 2005, however, Supreme Court, granted to review the Ninth Circuit ruling and as a result overturned the Ninth Circuit ruling and ruled that California’s policy of assigning inmates to racially segregated cells constitutionally suspect and the Court dismissed the “separate but equal” policy (Grumberger, 274). Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, “We rejected the notion that separate can ever be equal.. 50 years ago in Brown v. Board of Education, and we refuse to resurrect it today,” As a result the court ruled that policies that create race-based classifications are subject to strict scrutiny (Noll, 849). Strict scrutiny is the level of review used when a fundamental constitutional right is infringed, or when the government action involves

California state penitentiaries who for years managed prisons without court interference were now in a constitutional bind. Those in favor of California policy system argue that segregation by race invariably resulted in the prison system especially among inmates affiliated with gangs and to put different gang members of different races into the same cell would result in violence. In order to stop interracial violence, many prisons in California adopted the system of assigning race-based cells. State penitentiary would argue that they implemented this system not because they believe in racial segregation but for the safety of all inmates. Those in favor of this system also argued that the 2005 Supreme Court ruling jeopardized the safety of inmates, especially newcomers. Inmates in prison tend to organize themselves into races, each individual within a race looks after the other (Walsh). This was a form of protection and for newcomers, those who help them adjust and not make irrational mistakes were the ones who were from the same race (Walsh). When same raced cells were eliminated the protection of returning or new inmates were eliminated and in order to find protection they usually found a gang (Walsh). For these reasons many Californian penitentiaries carry out this highly segregated