African American men and the prison system - Research Paper Example

? African American Men and the Prison System The American jail and prison system portrays a racial disparity in the population of incarcerated men, with the incarceration rate of the African American on the rise (ASAALH, 2011). According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report of year 2009, approximately 40% of total jail and prison population comprises of non-Hispanic African Americans. The report also indicates that African Americans have the highest imprisonment rate, about six times that of white American males and three times higher than Hispanic males. Further reports indicate that by 2007, the African American composition in the prison system was 900, 000 of the total 2.2 million population, which suggests that at least on in five African American man has been incarcerated (Alexander, 2011). If the current incarceration trend persists, then at least one in three African Americans will have an incarceration record by 2020 (ASAALH, 2011). The prison system adoption of incarceration policies has produce outstanding results in public safety, but they have had an enormous contribution to the weak informal social controls and family disruptions in the African American communities. African Americans disproportionate rate of incarceration has been documented in the past, but the current figures suggest than there are no active policies to address the issue. While it is true that crime rates have risen over the past thirty years by almost 500%, the increasing number of blacks incarcerated is still not explainable (Clear, Cole, and Reisig, 2011). Different individuals and parties have raised concerns over the issue, notably Michelle Alexander and her book on mass incarceration. According to Alexander, the current population of African Americans in the prison and jail system is greater than that enslaved before the beginning of the Civil War. She further argues that crime rates are at a historical low as compared to the fluctuations over the years. Alexander attributes the increase to the current policies on war on drugs, a war that seems to aim at the poor communities of color exclusively, despite the fact that whites also trade and use illegal drugs at similar or higher levels than African Americans (Alexander, 2011). Reports indicate that at least four of five African American youths living in some black inner-city society expect incarceration at one point in their lives. This leads economic and social disenfranchisement of many great African American, denying them voting rights, educational opportunities, public housing, and excluding them from equal opportunity hiring and legal rights like juries. According to Alexander, these discriminations and disenfranchisement causes more than 70% of these African Americans to return to the system after only two years (Clear, Cole, and Reisig, 2011). Another journalist, Lisa Ling, highlights the problems that face African American males after incarceration. She explores how the imprisonment of black males affects the subsequent and multiple generations of the community, creating a poverty cycle in the African American (Alexander, 2011). Among the difficulties she attributes to incarceration, include aggressive behavior, increased chances of homelessness, future imprisonment, and failure in school. Other challenges that ex-convicts face are reduced chances of getting a job, and lack of experience. Different states in the US exhibit variances in the proportion of black and white incarceration rates, ranging from as a high as 13.6-to-1 in states like Iowa to as low as 1.9-to-1 in Hawaii (Mauer and King, 2007). Interestingly, states that exhibit a high disproportional rate of incarceration are located on the Midwest and Northeast, including Wisconsin, Vermont, New Jersey, Iowa, and Connecticut. However, high disproportional rates between the Hispanic and the white incarceration population also follow similar geographic concentration, with the notable states being New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. The states with high Hispanic or African American incarceration ratios fall into two categories: those like Vermont and Wisconsin with high black incarceration rates and average white incarceration rates, and those like Connecticut and New Jersey with average black incarceration rates and below-average white incarceration rates. Nonetheless, the ratio of race incarceration is still higher than average n both cases. Despite the fact that these overall incarceration rates are high, they do not reflect the incarceration concentration impact of African American men residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods. About 15% of African American men between 25 and 29 years old are currently under incarceration in the criminal justice system (Mauer and King, 2007). Additionally, the uneven distribution of incarceration in colored communities implies that the problem is communal, not individual. According to William Sabol and James Lynch, approximately three percent of a single census block group in Ohio constitutes about 20% of the prison population in that state (Mauer and King, 2007). Such a concentration has long-term profound consequences on the family formation, employment prospects, and the overall quality of life in that neighborhood. Similar to the overall incarceration rates, ethnic and racial incarceration rates also vary significantly with states. The discretion of practitioners and policymakers in decisions on sentencing, conviction, arrest, and statutory punishment severity, as well as crime rates, play an important role in determining the rate of state imprisonment (Boothe, 2007). More essentially, it undermines the importance and relevance of where and what offence the individual is convicted. Examining the African American ratio of incarceration by states, it is evident that the imprisonment of African American is becoming more useful, as well as the disparities produced by regional differences in incarceration policies. The national black-white incarceration rate is about six, but this value shoots to fourteen in Iowa and drops to two in Hawaii (ASAALH, 2011). The states having an African American incarceration rate greater than ten include Wisconsin, Vermont, Iowa, New Jersey, South Dakota, Connecticut, and North Dakota. The ethnic and racial disparities, with emphasis on the African American jail and prison population, are a result of policy issues. The population of incarcerated people in a given state reflects the crimes rate in that state, as well as the policy decision within and outside the justice system. Moreover, these decisions have further implications on the ethnic and racial composition of the prison and jail system of that state. Some of these policies include drug policy, sentencing policy, race neutral policies, and resource allocation (Clear, Cole, and Reisig, 2011). On drug policy, the prosecution and policing initiatives emphasizing policing of colored communities as well as advocating for large-scale drug arrest contribute to the high racial distribution and incarceration rates. These policing and prosecution resources outweigh the drug treatment and diversion programs, which would be more effective in uprooting the drug problem. With emphasis on the empirical evidence demonstrating the efficiency of treatment and prevention programs, state and federal policymakers should revise the drug control strategies currently in place. Additionally, sentencing laws should be redesigned to target high-level distribution as opposed to the current focus on low-level offenders. The prevailing sentencing policies that embrace determinate and mandatory sentencing initiatives have a major contribution to the high rates of African American incarceration. These harsh forms of punishment within the criminal justice system targets particular offences and discretionary decision making, increasing the ethnic and racial disparities in the prison and jail system. There should be amendments to sentencing laws to reflect the evolving national consensus that advocates for treatment and prevention. The sentencing process should reinstate judicial discretion that will allow judges to design sentences that will reflect correctly the circumstances of the offense and defendant, and the charged conduct. Prime examples include policymakers in Mississippi, Delaware, and Louisiana (Mauer and King, 2007). Some of the policies viewed as “race neutral” also contribute heavily to the high levels of African American incarceration rates, whether intentional or not. For instance, the federal crack cocaine sentencing laws have in the past produced significantly high levels of incarceration for low-level offenders, a result of the racially skew sentencing and policing policies. The drug laws on school zone affect the African American population due to the housing pattern, the end being harsh prosecution of too many people of the community for drug offences committed near urban areas, while similar offences in rural communities with large white population face lenient charges (Boothe, 2007). The remedy here is to have a racial impact statement accompany legislations that may have an impact on the population of the prison and jail system in order to identify the potential influence of such policies on the rate of incarceration of African Americans. This does not necessarily mean adoption of new policies, but rather an addition of an essential analysis component in the discussion of legislation. Patterns of resource allocation may reflect the possible effects of limited resources on the high rate of African American incarceration. Limited resources result in disparate outcomes in the criminal justice system, as the effects of class and race overlap to disadvantage the African American community. The disproportionate low-income characteristic of blacks means that they rely on an already overburdened defense system (ASAALH, 2011). Additionally, these black communities live in surroundings that have limited access to alternative sentencing options and treatment. To reduce the black incarceration rates, the policymakers should ensure that binding and enforceable standards for indigent defense exist. This will ensure that all defendants can access quality representation, with emphasis on local and state public defense systems meeting an established criterion set by the American Bar Association (Boothe, 2007). In addition, judges and defense attorneys should undergo training on the use of appropriate options other than incarcerating low-level offenders. Those policies that produce high rates of incarceration among racial minorities, such as the African American, affect the incarcerated individual as well as their communities and families. Among the impact of such policies, include an increasing number of children with incarcerated parents, declining political influence because of huge numbers of felony disenfranchisement, and gender imbalances in the African American communities with extremely high levels of incarceration. Federal and state policymakers should emphasize on reducing the disproportionate incarceration rate while maintaining the consistency of public safety. In fact, it should be an area of interest. All states should adopt such initiatives that incorporate assessing various factors that may be contributing to the high incarceration rates of African Americans, as well as exploring all sentencing options available. References Alexander, M. (2011). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Association for the Study of African American Life and History. (2011). The Journal of African American History, Volume 94. Boothe, D. (2007). Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison? Memphis, TN: Full Surface Publishing. Clear, T., Cole, G., and Reisig, M. (2011). American Corrections. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Mauer, M., and King, R. (2007). Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity. The Sentencing Project. Retrieved on Feb 15, 2012, from http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_stateratesofincbyraceandethnicity.pdf Read More