Racial Difference in the Corrections Sytsem
Racial Differences in the Corrections System
“According to Black Star Project Executive Director, Phillip Jackson, in 2007 there were 321 African American men enrolled at Northwestern University (1.7 percent of the student body) but four times that number – 1,207- imprisoned at Western Illinois Correctional Center (60 percent of the prison population)” (Walker, Spohn & Delone, 2012). This is only one example of the astounding percentage of young black men currently serving jail time as opposed to pursuing a college education. Something must be vitally wrong with our criminal justice system, since it allows these staggering numbers to hold truth. Overall the total percentage of young African American males is almost five times more than that of their young white or Hispanic male counterparts. I find this statistic very disturbing and chose to research the why and how this is occurring. There are many possible reasons such as limited access to public health clinics, racial profiling, unfair judicial systems, racial differences in judges, lawyers, and law makers, poverty, and parental upbringing; to name a few. How do these young men get sucked into a life of crime, do they have an alternative or a role model to seek counsel form? The numbers do not lie and there must be sound reasons behind them. In this paper I will research and discuss the various reasons why young African American males are grossly over represented in the criminal justice and corrections facilities. While the overall white population is higher than the African American population, 10.4 percent of African American men between the ages of 25-29 can expect to spend time in jail, compared with 2.4 percent of Hispanics and 1.2 percent of white men. Throughout this paper I will discuss not only the staggering numbers but also the reasoning behind them and possible solutions or at the very least a starting point to help fix the problem at hand. “…People of color are disproportionately involved in
“According to Black Star Project Executive Director, Phillip Jackson, in 2007 there were 321 African American men enrolled at Northwestern University (1.7 percent of the student body) but four times that number – 1,207- imprisoned at Western Illinois Correctional Center (60 percent of the prison population)” (Walker, Spohn & Delone, 2012). This is only one example of the astounding percentage of young black men currently serving jail time as opposed to pursuing a college education. Something must be vitally wrong with our criminal justice system, since it allows these staggering numbers to hold truth. Overall the total percentage of young African American males is almost five times more than that of their young white or Hispanic male counterparts. I find this statistic very disturbing and chose to research the why and how this is occurring. There are many possible reasons such as limited access to public health clinics, racial profiling, unfair judicial systems, racial differences in judges, lawyers, and law makers, poverty, and parental upbringing; to name a few. How do these young men get sucked into a life of crime, do they have an alternative or a role model to seek counsel form? The numbers do not lie and there must be sound reasons behind them. In this paper I will research and discuss the various reasons why young African American males are grossly over represented in the criminal justice and corrections facilities. While the overall white population is higher than the African American population, 10.4 percent of African American men between the ages of 25-29 can expect to spend time in jail, compared with 2.4 percent of Hispanics and 1.2 percent of white men. Throughout this paper I will discuss not only the staggering numbers but also the reasoning behind them and possible solutions or at the very least a starting point to help fix the problem at hand. “…People of color are disproportionately involved in
References: Bush, L. (2004). How black mothers participate in the development of manhood and masculinity: What do we know about black mothers and their sons? The Journal Hammond, S. National Conference of State Legislatures, (2007). Mental health needs of juvenile offenders (1-58024-XXX-X). Retrieved from website: http://www.ncsl.org/print/cj/mentaljjneeds.pdf Hill, R., & Lee, T Kansal, T. (2005, January). Racial disparity in sentencing: A review of the literature. Retrieved from http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/sp/disparity.pdf Levy, C Mauer, M., & King, R. (2007, July). Uneven justice: State rates of incarceration by race and ethnicity. Retrieved from http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_stateratesofincbyraceandethnicity.pdf Nilsen, S Royce, E. (2009). Poverty & power the problem of strucural inequality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Poverty-Power-Problem-Structural-Inequality/dp/0742564436 Walker, S., Spohn, C., & Delone, M