In today’s day and age, crime is persistent and its effects can be disastrous and telling. After reading, “No Equal Justice: The Color of Punishment” by David Cole it is evident there are huge racial disparities in the US justice system that no one wants to confront. Looking at the crime statistics divvied up by race, Whites and Blacks commit the vast majority of crimes. For the most part, Whites commit a higher percentage in all crimes, except for in the categories Murder & non-negligent manslaughter and robbery. Yet, even with higher percentages in relatively all criminal categories, the sentencing tells another story, especially related to the war on drugs.
When people are convicted for cocaine charges, there are two different sentences. The one for powdered cocaine is less strict on prison sentencing and 45.2% convicted are White, while 20.7% convicted are Black. On the other hand, the prison sentencing for crack cocaine is much stricter, where the sentence is usually from 5 to 10 years. With 92.6 of convictions are Black and only 4.7% are White. The ironic part is 65% of crack users are White and 90% of violation defendants are black. In other words, the statistics do no match the sentencing and that there is a huge racial disparity. According to the Georgia Surpreme Court, these disparities are not meant to harm the blacks, but in reality they do. To judicial system’s defense, crack is suppose to be a far more potent, more accessible drug to low-income people, and associated with more violence. However, even for cocaine users, black people typically receive a longer sentence then white cocaine users. Overall, by sentencing black far more consistently and for longer periods of time, their future is in jeopardy. They are hurt if they want to get a job as their unemployment rates are the highest of any race. The system must be changed. Blacks should not only receive less jail time then they already do, but whites should receive equal punishment for crimes. It is not fair that on average, black offenders receive up to two more years of jail time over whites. No matter what the system says, the disparities are indeed hurting the black community.
At each successive stage of criminal and juvenile processed suggest blacks are singled out most of the time in drug offenses. A lot of researchers point to the fact that blacks commit more serious crimes and use drugs more frequently as to why blacks are disproportionally the victims of the war on drugs. Looking at the juvenile drug offenses pie chart, Blacks commit 53% of the offenses and whites commit 26% of the drug offenses. At this point, not all crimes are sentenced the same way and this hurts minorities, especially blacks, the most. Since minorities get arrested more on drug charges then nonmonorities. What is really ironic is the fact that 74% of all drug users are white. Nevertheless, blacks constitute 74% of all sentences for drug offenses.
Even though the judicial system states there is no racial discrimination in drug sentences, their evidence is not valid. If anything the evidence contradicts their statement. In my opinion, the legal system is utterly discriminatory toward minorities, especially blacks. It is sad because there does not seem much blacks or anyone else can do until there is irreversible information proving there is racial discrimination in the system. The only step I can think of is to create a system where each race, in proportion to their population in the US, must account for a certain percentage of prison sentences. I do not see any critical changes being made to the legal system in the ear future, but our society should reshape the system to aid minorities.
No comments:
Post a Comment