Racial Inequality in the Prison System

This week I want to talk about racial inequality in the prison system. Given that black history month has just recently come to a close, I feel that this is a very prevalent and important topic to discuss. The prison system disproportionately affects African Americans and minorities in general much more than white American.  This issue is tearing apart the fabric of many primarily African American communities.

The basis of the problem lies in the numbers. While about 30% of the country is a minority, they account for about 60% of the prison population. This in itself shows an unjust bias to minorities in the justice system. To break it down by race, a 1 in every 15 African American men are incarcerated at any given time. The same numbers effect Hispanic men by 1 in 36 but white menonly by 1 in 106.

This issue largely in part can be attributed to racial profiling. According to findings by the Department of Justice, African American and Hispanic drivers are three times as likely to be subject to a search when pulled over than white drivers.  African Americans in particular are four times as likely to be subject to the use of force during police encounters. These numbers are a clear indication of racial profiling in the police force.

This discrimination begins early I the lives of young minorities in America. Over 70% of arrests that occur on school property involve an African America or Hispanic student. To further the point, African American and Hispanic youths make up 60% of incarcerated youth in prison today. On top of that, more minority youths are sentenced as adults then white youths. In fact, 58% of incarcerated African American youths are sentenced as adults.

This racial inequality affects women to. The number of incarcerated woman has a whole has grown by 800% in the past three decades and a disproportionate amount of these incarcerated women are minorities. African American woman are three times more likely to go to jail than white women, and Hispanic woman are 69% more likely to go to jail then white women. This proves that these inequalities do not discriminate by age or gender.

Minority offenders are also far more likely to receive longer and more cruel sentences. A study done by the U.S. sentencing commission found that African Americans typically receive sentences 10% longer than white people who commit the same crimes. African Americans are also 20% more likely to be sentenced to jail time and 21% more likely to be subject to mandatory minimums.

So what can we blame for this? How do these inequalities happen? Well the war on drugs has a lot to do with it. African American communities are far more likely to be targeted for drug investigations than white communities. A human rights watch study found that people of color are no more likely to sell drugs then white people. African Americans only represent14% of regular drug users, why are they 37% of drug users arrested? In fact, 1 in 3 adults arrested for a drug related offense is African American.

These injustices also follow minority offenders outside of prison. When they are released there wages tend to be lower than those of white offenders. The wages of both black and white offenders go down after being incarcerated, but it affects African American men and women much more than their white counter parts. Wages grow 21% slower for African American men and women than white men and women.

Felony convictions also prevent 31% of African American men from voting. This is because felony convictions looses you your right to vote, but because a disproportionate amount of African Americans have felony convictions, this law affects far more of the African American community. Many have blamed the election of Donald Trump on the overwhelming number of African Americans unable to vote because of felony convictions.

So what do you think of this issue? Were you aware of this problem prior to reading this? Do any of these number surprise you? A lot of them really shocked me. There is still a lot of work to be done to reach true equality in America.