...In today’s society, incarceration has been the medium by which justice is addressed. However, within this medium, exists inconsistencies that have caused a massive population of incarceration. The most obvious inconsistency is that the majority of the prison population is composed of minorities. Furthermore, the main reason for this mass incarceration is due to the inequalities that minorities face in this country. In this literature review, an attempt is made to take a more in depth look into different elements of inequality through the views of various authors. It will include how inequality exists in employment, education, and the justice system, while identifying the link between these elements and incarceration. In addition, it will also...
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...Unfair Incarceration: Minorities’ Plight in the U.S. Judicial System DeVry University Cultural Diversity in the Professions SOCS 350N Spring 2013 Abstract The United States is well known as the Land of Opportunity, but if you’re a minority that opportunity maybe a greater chance of being incarcerated in the state and federal penal systems. Civil rights battles have raged for the greater part of the last century in this country. With milestone victories in the early and mid 1960’s equality under the law seemed to be a foregone conclusion. There are numerous laws, policies and even a Constitutional Amendment that address the matter that race should never be a factor. With this is all in play and in mind, you would think that statistics of the U.S. penal systems racial analysis has to be completed with a huge margin in error because it is not near equality. In a cursory search of this topic one can find a deluge of graphs, tables, and statistical analysis. The one thing you cannot find is a quantitative or qualitative consensus of why this has occurred or why it is still occurring. A preponderance of the evidence is anecdotal and offers suggestions of policies and attitudes that have led to this epidemic in contemporary American society. In this review, an endeavor to gather the gist of the issue and attempt to answer why or how this came about and the numerical extent. Followed by the consequences to the affected groups and the whole of society. Finally...
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...especially against African Americans. Kevin Kruse’s “Traffic” and Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” offer important perspectives on how. Historically, seemingly beneficial laws have excluded African Americans, and increased segregation and economic disparity. Kruse reveals how creating the US interstate highway system, to expand economic growth, disrupted black communities and restricted their access to better jobs, healthcare, and education. Furthermore, Alexander’s...
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...that homicide in return for homicide is barbaric as it resembles eye for an eye and tooth for tooth justice of medieval times and uncivilized. France and Germany have completely done away with death penalty and reported lesser crime rates. Many studys' conducted in US and some other countries where death penalty is still in force have proved that, it doesn';t have a deterrent effect on crime rate and more than death penalty, it's rigorous imprisonment for life that has more deterrent effect than death penalty. Incarceration for life proved to be more effective in preventing repetition of the same or other crimes by the same convicts than that of death penalty. In countries, where death penalty has been abolished less crime rates have been reported. Apart from incarceration for life, solitary confinement and shaming the person through social boycott etc are other options. For crimes of rape and acid attacks also, incarceration for life and the above two suggested alternatives could be considered as viable alternatives to death penalty in addition to confiscating the entire property of the criminal and paying it as compensation to their victims. Educating the guilty regarding the barbaric and heinous nature of their crimes and making them feel ashamed for their crimes and their crimes' lethal and traumatic impact on the minds, limbs and lives of their victims through reformist approach and making them truly...
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...Criminal Justice System Professor: DD Jona Jones Devry University ] I. Criminal Justice System II. Introduction Incarceration is a kind of punishment in which criminals are held in prison, because they have committed a crime. People are usually incarcerated because they are involved in illegal activities various jurisdictions in different nations have devise different laws and regulations to govern the function of incarceration (Mauer, 1999) III. Body of the paper A. Prevalence 1. Statistics regarding incarceration 2. Statistics regarding race (Kennedy, 1997) 3. Racial disparity in prison sentence 4. Racial disparity in duration of sentence (Kennedy, 1997) This explains and illustrates the various incidents and statistics of African American, Hispanic and the white people. This elaborates that ethical discrimination occurs is the entire criminal justice process. The minorities and ethnic groups are given more harsh punishments as compared to white. B. Causes 1. Reasons behind African American in jail 2. Disparities in ways African American communities are policed (Huffing Post). 3. In adequate allocation of resources 4. Racial profiling (Wall Street Journal). This section describes the various reasons and causes due to which most of the African Americans have to go to jails once in their life time. It will also show how lack of resources contributes to the problem. C. Consequences 1. The impact on individual...
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...In the book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander—a Ohio State University professor, director of Racial Justice Project at ACLU of Northern California, and director of the Civil Rights Clinics at Stanford Law School—was the uncovering research about the system of mass incarceration, which are rules, policies, and laws that helped control the amount of criminals entering and leaving prisons. The author begins with slavery and continues to explain the Jim Crow segregation, which both represent mass incarcerations. Mass incarceration prevents discrimination towards groups of people. For example, the author states, “After the death of slavery, the idea of race lives on.” (26) This specific example...
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...residential homes for the elderly and handicapped." Violation of these laws would often result in imprisonment or forced labor. The implementation of the segregationist Jim Crow laws would further intensify the extreme oppression of African Americans. These laws mandated racial separation in public spaces, restrictions on housing, and segregation on public transportation. Furthermore, interracial relationships were prohibited by law, further augmenting racial divisions. Rather than providing support or protection for newly integrated black individuals, the American justice system actively and intentionally contributed to the oppression of African Americans, effectively intensifying their struggle for equality and justice. Despite the extraordinary progress America has made toward racial equality, racially motivated violence is not yet a thing of the past. In recent years, racial violence has become increasingly linked to law enforcement. Incidents of police brutality have become frequent in recent years as a result of continuing racial profiling. This is exemplified in the case of George Floyd. Floyd was unarmed and nonthreatening at the time of his death in police custody. An employee had accused him at a nearby store of paying for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, and the police were called. Upon their arrival, Floyd was approached by four officers and subsequently pinned to the ground for nine unending minutes by Derek Chauvin, a white arresting officer. After...
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...Both Alexander and Taylor suggested many solutions and methods to solve the problem of Mass Incarceration. These are necessary transformations in the American society and policing system in order to create democracy and freedom in the country. Alexander described how the racial caste system created an overwhelming imprisonment and on the other hand Taylor talked about the modern policing state that also led to mass incarceration. Alexander describes what she thinks is necessary to be challenged in order to solve the problem of mass incarceration. She argues that we need to end the War on Drugs, in order to transform the law enforcement of culture, we need better drug treatment services, because cultural traits are more responsible for racial...
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...The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander I believe to be a wakeup call for the truly “blind” in today’s mass incarceration of black people. Alexander brings light to how the Civil Rights Movement brought upon a new implementation of racial separation. Her understanding of how Mass Incarceration is the opening to a New Jim Crow of how black people in particular lack any real rights of citizenship. Her book seems to overview the typical media covered topics of people being arrested for use and selling of drugs, rulings in the Supreme Court, and struggles of ex-convicts but of course not to the extent that is required. As the media coverage is not about the true facts but rather embellished and or...
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...Laws are designed to be impartial and objective standards applied uniformly to all individuals within a given legal jurisdiction. Public entities, as well as courts and tribunals, are required to treat all people equally when applying the law. It also requires that the laws themselves provide equal protection for everyone (your right to recognition and equality before the law). Since laws are designed to be impartial, mental health concerns receive treatment within the legal system, receiving the same rights and assistance as any other citizen. In conclusion, equality before the law ensures that every individual, regardless of their circumstances, receives fair treatment and protection under the law, including those with mental health issues. Additionally, another reason why mental illnesses do not justify criminal activity is the reduction of stigma. Individuals with mental illness are more likely to experience multiple arrests and incarcerations (Preventing and Reducing Stigma in Criminal...
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...Prisons have seen an increase in population largely due to the War on drugs (Austin, et al., 2001). The highest majority have been males, however the female population has increased as well. Nearly 1.5 million children have a least one parent incarcerate ( Austin, et al. ,2001). Incarceration rates have risen steadily since the 1980's. Many of the reasons stated are income equality, low levels of trust and legitimacy, weak welfare states, politicized criminal justice system and conflict in the criminal culture. ( Bohm and Haley, 2011). The number of inmates has been increasing steadily in prisons from 329,821 inmates at the end of 1980 to over 126% increase in the early 1990's. Also in local community jails the number of inmates increased 89% from 1982 to June 2009 ( Bohm and Haley, 2011)....
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...It argues that federal drug policy unfairly targets communities of color, keeping millions of young, black men in a cycle of poverty and behind bars. The book begins by challenging claims that racism is dead. Those who believe that full equality been achieved would do well to notice many African Americans' reality today. An extraordinary amount of blacks are still barred from voting because in nearly every state, as convicted felons cannot vote. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans have served time in prison as a result of drug convictions and are branded felons for life. Voting is also barred for those currently incarcerated. Alexander uncovers the system of mass incarceration: a system comprised of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control criminals both in and out of prison. The greatest instigator of mass incarceration is the War on Drugs. Rather than combat drug activity, the War on Drugs has served as a deliberate strategy to control people of color and remove them from the political process, which is racist in both application and design. Alexander suggests that the War on Drugs and mass incarceration constitute a "rebirth of caste" in America. Beginning with slavery and continuing with Jim Crow segregation, mass incarceration places entire groups of people into discriminatory positions in society, permanently. The War on Drugs began in earnest in the mid-1980s, training local law enforcement agencies with the means to increase crackdowns on communities in search...
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...prisons, and more than 5 million Americans were under other forms of custodial supervision, including probation and parole, for a total of 7.2 million Americans-3.2 percent of the US population-under some form of custodial of supervisory control of the criminal justice system (120).” African American men make up a majority of the US prison population. This is bad being that some African American men are look down upon. It was mentioned that all African Americans men that are incarcerated is about 5 percent compared to the 1 percent white men that are incarcerated. This means that African Americans men are 10 times more like to be incarnated then white men. Thesis: The purpose of this essay is to analyze the causes to African American incarceration such as racial profiling, sentencing disparities, and exonerations; having a life is not what they have....
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...system for over thirty years. Many of these inmates are serving long sentences with rigid probation and parole policies that many believe are designed as a set-up for failure and re-offense. The result of this influx of offenders is a growing racial disparity, as shown by Bobo & Thompson: In 2004. for example, black males constituted 43.3 percent of those incarcerated in state, federal, and local prisons or jails, though only 13 percent of the total population. Whites on the other hand represented 35.7 percent of the male inmate population in 2004, well under their 75 percent of the total male population (Bobo & Thompson, 2006). (p. 451) This ballooning disparity has become a trend of increasing concern among proponents of racial equality. Many view this trend as another cog in the wheel of covert institutional racism, even labeling it “The New Jim Crow”. Among the men and women of color now residing in U.S. prisons are the potential business owners, educators and leaders of communities that sorely need them. Immediate and results-oriented attention to the racial disparity in U.S. prisons will do much to repair the damaged, needful communities of color throughout the country. BLACK CRIME: CRIMINAL OR CULTURAL? “Black people and crime go hand-in-hand”, is an often debated stereotype that African-Americans have endured since slavery. Contributing factors perpetuating this stereotype include, economic, educational and familial shortcomings that have continually challenged...
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...I have learned a lot by attending this speech of “Civil Liberties and War, Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of Korematsu v. United States.” It is presented by Nihonmachi Outreach Committee(NOC). In the speech, there are three parts. They talked about community program, candlelight procession and reception. I was surprised that, it is really crowded. Most of the people are kind of old. However, I learned a lot by hearing this speech. Firstly, I learned about Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC). It is a progressive organization based in the San Jose Japanese American community that is dedicated to educating the public about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and as a consequence, is committed to defending all people on issues of civil rights, equality, justice, tolerance and peace. And one of this main activities of NOC continues to be the annual Day of Remembrance(DOR) commemorating Executive Order9066 which ordered 120,000 Japanese Americans to concentration camps during World War II. From the first event in 1981, DOR has come to present some of the defining issues facing the Japanese- American community and a time to reflect on our history in the United States. Staring with the debate over redress/reparations to support for American Muslims today. DOR has provided a forum for the San Jose Japanese American community to come together to remember the lessons of the past and define the future. However, I have also learned about the Campaign...
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