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Racism In The Judicial System

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The Color of Justice There are countless injustices in America’s judicial system because of racism, whether it be subconscious or completely conscious. The racism deeply embedded within the American Judicial System needs to be radically reconstructed. Racism has to be recognized and then legally obliterated in order for African American men and women to ever receive a fair treatment by our justice system. The same subconscious racism that results in unfair and prejudicial treatment by judges and juries starts young, at home and in schools. Being acutely aware of how all Americans participate in all acts of racism is the key to liberating us all. Racism essentially starts with children, and in America, we’re doing just this, whether it be …show more content…

First, in 2010, “African Americans accounted for more than a third of the arrests for violent crimes.” In 2010, according to the Census Bureau, African Americans only made up 13% of the population. In contrast, in 2010, whites made up about 73% of the population, and they accounted for about 60% of violent crimes according to the FBI. There is a clear discrepancy here. How do we know this is because of racial discrimination? The source goes on to say that “[t]he percentage of victims who say their perpetrator was black closely matches the percentage of African Americans arrested” (Costly, Andrew). This means that nearly every time there is a black perpetrator, said perpetrator is arrested. Even though white people make up more of those arrested for violent crimes, there are many more whites in the U.S. than African Americans. Furthermore, African Americans are only 14% of illegal monthly drug users and are 37% of those arrested for drugs (Quigley, Bill). From the U.S. Census Bureau and the NSDUH (the National Survey on Drug Use and Health), for every African American that has used drugs there are six white people that have used drugs. Then how are 37% of drug arrests African American? The only explanation for this would be a racial discrepancy. Michelle Alexander, civil rights advocate, professor at the Union Theological Seminary, and the author of New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of …show more content…

He was a 24-year-old man who was sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. In 2012, Chatman broke and entered to steal a $120 television. He got a harsh sentence of five years’ probation. Chatman was a model citizen. He attended every meeting, finished his community service, paid his restitution, and even kept his job. Later, in 2014, behind his back, Chatman was identified as a suspect in a convenience store robbery. Chatman was not arrested for the robbery. In 2015, he found out that he had been accused, so he turned himself in, because he knew he was innocent. Chatman wanted to enter an “Alford plea”, where the defendant pleads guilty but is still innocent. The judge didn’t take the offer, and he took Chatman to trial. There was no evidence for the case. There was no recovered money, no weapon, no video. Chatman was only identified a year after the crime was committed on facebook. The jury found Chatman guilty of all charges, but the judge, Jack Niedrach, wanted to send Chatman to jail, so he did. He revoked Chatman’s probation and sent him to jail until 2022 (Harriot, Michael). So Chatman is now in jail for a crime that he didn’t commit, wasting away his life behind bars. Chatman’s story clearly exhibits the racism in the American Judicial System. Even if you legally comply with everything that America’s laws require you to do, you can still be convicted for

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African Americans are more likely to be searched than a Caucasia due to racial bias from Caucasian officers. To most officers, a Caucasian does not look as suspicious as an African American which makes them more susceptible to searches. Even if a Caucasian is searched and caught for having illegal drugs, the consequences are usually not as bad for them. In fact, in Chicago alone, “White drug offenders are rarely arrested” and when they are caught and brought to court “they are treated more favorably at every stage of the criminal justice process” (189). All across the nation, African Americans are filling up our county jails at a higher rate than any other race in the United States, which is better known as mass incarceration.

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Meanwhile, black people are often barred from serving on juries as a result of bizarre (yet ostensibly race-neutral) rules, meaning that many African Americans are tried by all-white juries. The deep racism of mass incarceration has been instituted through two broad steps: first, by giving law enforcement “extraordinary discretion” in who and how they approach, and second, by refusing to accept any charges of racism that do not identify a particular racist individual as the source of the problem. Alexander points out that anti-drug policy is particularly likely to be racially discriminatory because drugs are handled in a manner unlike any other crime. When an ordinary crime takes place, the victim (or someone acting on the victim’s behalf) alerts the authorities—the first step in the process of achieving justice. In the case of drugs, there isn’t a victim as such; both the buyer and seller of drugs have no incentive to call the police.

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The author’s studies indicate that the criminal justice system choose majority of their targets and suspects predominantly by race. According to studies conducted by the U. S Department of Justice, the imprisonment rate by race per 100,000 residents over 3,000 black males were imprisoned in the year 2000 compared to white males imprisonment rate of less than 500. This shows that conviction of crime, robbery, murder, and other violence and drug related crimes has a clear discrepancy across racial groups.

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Is it fair that an African American man is sentenced up to life in prison for possession of drugs when Brock Turner is sentenced to only 14 years, later to be reduced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious women. The judiciary system are believed to have a high african american incarceration rate as a result of discrimination. At a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama said that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences… for the same crime.” Hillary Clinton said the “disgrace of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates so many more african americans proportionately than whites.”

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There is no difference between whites and blacks using or dealing drugs, however blacks are four to eleven times more likely to be arrested for drug offenses, according to the Human Rights Watch. This is a repetition of history, as African American communities are yet again disproportionally

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Like it is mentioned in the movie 13th “The so called war on drugs was a war on communities of color”. So, now black people are being arrested much more than White people even though the drug use is close to the same as Angela F. Chan points out in her article for the Huffington Post. “Even though Black people use drugs at the same rate as White people, they are incarcerated for drug crimes at 20 to 50 times the rate of White people in some states”. A law that was passed during the war on drugs was mandatory sentencing.

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The Huffington Post says, “The U.S. incarcerates nearly seven times as many people, measured as a share of population, as Canada does. People of color are disproportionately represented in the American prison population and are typically punished more severely than white peers for the same crimes” (Daniel Marans). Racism against people of color has caused them to be represented poorly in society as potential criminals, especially black. MIT informs its viewers that “according to the United States census Bureau, blacks are twice as likely to be poor compared to other races, and eight times as likely to be imprisoned. Blacks are also three times more likely to be convicted of drug violations than whites.

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“ 55% of robbery arrest in 2012”. Those are all statistics which shows its not a black or white problem its an American problem and shows how the system is developed. “In Louisiana a study found that a person is 97% more likely to be sentenced for death for murdering a white person then a black person”.

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According to the Bureau of Justice, weapon arrests are 5 times greater for blacks compared to whites; numbers reading 69 for whites and 430 for blacks. Progressives will argue that the disparity reflects on the institutional racism in the criminal justice system. Others say the disparity is due to the fact that black people are disproportionately more likely to commit such crimes. There 's truth to both, yet there 's no disputing the figures. Much of it comes down to professional discretion.

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To explain, 41 percent of black female felony drug offenders on average are sentenced to prison, as compared to 24 percent of white females. Similar to drug offenses, violent crimes typically boast a 74 percentile of black male convicted felons serve prison time, whereas approximately 60 percent of white male convicted felons do time. And finally, with respect to all

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Racism is defined as the poor treatment of people based on color. For as long as humans lived, millions of people have been treated poorly because of their skin color. Racism has carried throughout the many years of American history. Since the abolishment of slavery, a huge spike of racial discrimination flourished the United States and it still does. Stereotypes, racial profiling, and discrimination are signs of racism that still are shown to many people today.

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