The inmates had no interest in reading the books in the library because they were old and torn. So Andy starts to write letters for six years to the state asking for new books and money to renovate the library. He succeeds on getting new books but he still needs funds. He continued to write more letters to the state until they send him an annual fee of 500 dollars or renovations.
and while race issues are still prevalent they have become better. Segregation is no longer widespread and common and while it can still happen it is usually unintentional. Criminal justice is the “new” way to target the minority races and segregate them from the white. Blacks are sentenced to 10% longer sentences than their white counterparts based on the same crime. 12.6% of the U.S. population is African American, but in prison they make up 37.1% of the inmate population.
African Americans feel targeted in today’s society because so many innocent African Americans are being incarcerated, shot, and killed. Since 2001, it is 6.1 times likelier to be incarcerated as a black man than a white man. This is all because of skin color. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was a group created to raise awareness for the heinous acts the have presented itself to the black community
Depending on state laws, it can be for life or for a few years. According to Allard, about 3.9 million Americans, or one in fifty adults, have lost their ability to vote because of felony charges. More than one third of the total disenfranchised population are African American men (Allard 2000). There has been litigation in many different states to combat disenfranchisement, but there are still many hoops to jump through for an ex-felon to re-attain their voting rights. For example, in Virginia, an ex-felon can restore their voting privileges after a five to seven year waiting period (Allard 2000).
Racism has always been a major social issue ever since the Colonial Era; we need to bring awareness to this crack in our social relationship that slowly crumbles our bright future ahead of us. What is racism you might ask? The definition of racism is the act of prejudice directed against someone of a different race based believing that one’s race is more superior. An example of racism would be a man of Asian race saying that they don’t like cooperating with people of a Hispanic race. To know just how bad racism can be these days, talk about monthly wages.
People of color have accounted for a disproportionate 43 % of total executions since 1976 and 55 % of those currently awaiting execution. A moratorium of the death penalty is necessary to address the blatant prejudice in our application of the death penalty. One can also notice the death penalty is disproportionately directed towards racial minorities and in many jurisdictions African Americans are subjected to Capital Punishment at a rate of 38% higher than all others (Ruts-Terrian). It can be argued when looking at the actual numbers of how many white people are on death row they outnumber the amount of black people on death row. However, when you look at the population density and how many people there actually are of each race in the United States African American people are disproportionately represented on death row.
For decades, immigration has been a problem for the United States. Due to the people traveling from their native lands to the United States seeking a better life for themselves, and more primarily for the family that has come with them. Immigration is the action of settling into a country of which one is not native. Despite the many legal immigrants not every immigrant enters the country with legal documents and most of these illegal immigrants are poor and uneducated. Some undocumented immigrants commit crimes such as drug smuggling, or terrorism.
There are so many minor crimes committed that do not deserve sentencing. Such as "hunters who mess with a guns muzzle break, folding stock, or imported rifle can be defined as a criminal street gang and face a mandatory minimum sentence for 5 years" (Sullum). Tax payers should not
In 1997 a little less than half of prisoners had committed a part 1 crime (murder, assault, and robbery). An average of “60% of Federal prisoners were serving time for drug crimes serving around 40 months in prison” (Pettit 152). This number seems very high but people in the 1900’s did not commit as many crimes because it was unlawful and people were more respectful. The thought of murder was so rare and did not occur as often as it does today.
Or even more strikingly, nearly half of all hate crimes committed in America have to do with race.(FBI, 2016). As we can see, although there is no obviously racism like massacre happens nowadays, the racial discrimination phenomena is like a dirty mud which has split to many tiny pieces hiding in the corner of our
There were similar decreases in the percentages of elected black officials in all Southern states. They employed disfranchisement devices such as poll taxes, property tests, literacy tests, and all-white primaries to prevent African Americans from voting. On the surface, such laws discriminated on the basis of education and property ownership other than race, but their practical and intended effect was to block African Americans from the
The reformed Rockefeller Drug Laws worked to eliminate mandatory prison sentencing for first and second drug felony offenders as well as establishing statewide judicial diversion programs for certain felony offenders (Kluger & Rempel, 2013). This reform also gave previously convicted offenders the opportunity to apply for resentencing. This allowed people like Cheri O’Donoghue’s son to question their previous sentences to get a more just retrial and a sentence that was more fitting to his low-level offence. This does not include individuals with Class A felonies, limiting them to alternative sentences and increases prison time (Parsons, Wei, Henrichson, Drucker, & Trone, 2015).
Regardless which side of the political compass a person lies, Americans agree that too many individuals are imprisoned in the United States. In fact, the United States holds about 5% of the world population, but nearly 25% of the prison population (Ye Hee Lee 2015). The advent of dog-whistle politics combined with implicit racial bias has allowed for casual observers and social scientists alike to notice how minorities disproportionately make up the composition of prisons since the 1970s. While no single policy exists that can fix this "New Jim Crow," getting rid of private prisons offers the easiest first step toward mending contemporary racism. Simply put, policy that eradicates private prisons in the United States proves practical as they
To begin, much of the Latino population in the United States are either in jail or living in unsafe neighborhoods. With the stereotypes given to minorities by those in an American society; minorities are likelier to be looked at suspiciously. Minorities are labeled, and in the case of Latinos they are often stopped and frisked unfairly. Police who feel the need to stop a hispanic person in their own neighborhood just help enforce these stereotypes. With this said, it is no question as to why: white Latino men are much more likely than White men, but only half as likely as Black men, to serve time in prison.
In the US, incarceration rates disproportionately affect men of color. 1 in 3 black men will go to prison sometime in their life. For every 15 African American men, 1 is imprisoned, while only 1 in every 106 white men is incarcerated. With the 13th amendment to the Constitution, slavery was abolished, but with one condition.