Racism In The Criminal Justice System Essay

In America, criminal justice has been an issue for generations. People are convicted of crimes and their convictions are oftentimes based on their race and/or social status. Unfortunately, it is a reality that the criminal justice system privileges those who are “rich and guilty rather than if they are poor and innocent. Many African American men and women have suffered due to this. In the book Just Mercy and the movie 13th, both sources give great examples of how the criminal justice system continues to overlook the truth to keep black Americans incarcerated.

This article critically examines the racial disparities in sentencing during the late 20th century and highlights how biased judgments influenced judges' decision making processes. "Just Mercy" aligns with these findings by emphasizing how racial bias affects sentencing outcomes. The author Bryan Stevenson explores implicit bias and cultural stereotypes illustrating their impact on judges' perceptions and judgments of African American defendants. Through concrete examples. "Just Mercy" vividly exposes instances of racial bias within the criminal justice system and reveals the unjust consequences faced by people of color.

Kamalu, Ngozi Caleb, Margery Coulson-Clark, and Nkechi Margaret Kamalu. " Racial Disparities in Sentencing: Implications for the Criminal Justice System and the African American Community." African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies: AJCJS 4.1 (2010): 1-31. ProQuest.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.

Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.

According to a report by the state of Washington, the answer seems to be no. For those convicted in trafficking drugs, offenders are almost always charged with the most serious (in the case of multiple charges). Usually, in order to facilitate a plea, the charges will be reduced. Whether or not the defendant pleads guilty at the trial is one of the most important elements in sentencing. Circumstances of the arrest are just as important.

Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.

But one problem that African Americans still face is the unfairness of the American prison and criminal justice system. The United States holds the title as the highest prisoner population in the world. With African Americans account for less than 12% of the United States, they still make up a large portion of the U.S prison population. Black people are incarcerated at higher rates than whites, despite being equally susceptible to committing crimes as whites. The American prison and criminal justice system has a long history of racial discrimination towards African Americans which can be supported through examples of unjust laws, disproportionate incarceration rates among different races, the and cases of African Americans being unfairly persecuted for crimes they didn’t commit.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander published in 2012, is a 261 page book detailing how mass incarceration has become the new form of legalized discrimination. BACKGROUND A large cause for the writing of this book is that there is currently not much research or call for a criminal justice reform. According to Alexander the main goal of the book is to “stimulate a much-needed conversation about the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy in the United States” (2012:16).

Racial disparities concerning sentencing have an adverse effect on the African American community. Racial profiling and plea bargaining are contributing factors that lead to overrepresentation of minorities in the judicial system. Data and statistics support the assumption that African Americans are disproportionately subjected to racial profiling, traffic stops which leads to searches and seizures that lead to minor offenses which can also lead to incarceration, rather than probation or rehabilitation (Kamalu, Coulson-Clark, & Kamalu, 2010). The existence of racial prejudice exists when African American defendants are more likely to be convicted and given harsher charges than their white counterparts that have received the same charge, but

Race is “A social category defined on the basis of physical characteristics” (Yetman, p.3). Race is a abstract concept that society has constructed to group people based on their physical appearance. Institutional racism is an covert form of discrimination, but historically institutional racism was overt. My focus is on the Muslim and black community in America, because I relate to these two groups since I am muslim and black.

Courts are a major evaluative stage of the criminal justice system and we rely on these courts to determine our outcomes based on the crime that was committed. Today, there is more diversity of leadership in the court system but, race still plays a role in the outcome of the offender. This could range from petty crimes being committed like traffic infractions or facing the death penalty based on the race of the offender or victim. This paper will examine the three types of disparities that cause biased sentencing in the courts. The three types of disparities are race, social class, and gender and these all play a huge factor when making a decision based off an offender.

Racial inequality is an American tradition. Relative to whites, blacks earn twenty-four percent less, live five fewer years, and are six times more likely to be incarcerated on a given day. Hispanics earn twenty-five percent less than whites and are three times more likely to incarcerated.1 At the end of the 1990s, there were one-third more black men under the jurisdiction of the corrections system than there were enrolled in colleges or universities (Ziedenberg and Schiraldi,

Injustice in The Criminal Justice System Due to several injustices within the American justice system, society has become more divided. The criminal justice system in the United States has been criticized for being a race-based establishment Institutions where minorities are subjected to more strenuous punishments than their white counterparts. Nonetheless, it goes without any debate that racism exists in the justice system. Are these realities the errors of a moral justice system, or does it prove that the criminal bias organization is working as expected? Is the criminal justice system utilized to regulate and manage the minority population?

On September 26,2016 the first presidential debate commences between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. One of the topics that was extensively debated on was the Criminal Justice system and the issue of systemic racism in this country. Donald Trump took the stance of Law and Order in order to solve the issue that are prevalent in our society today. In contrast, Hillary Clinton approach was one of Criminal Justice Reform. By analyzing the candidate’s responses in relation to outside reliable sources we can the verify which running mate is truthful.