The Increase in Black Male Incarceration Rates - Research Paper Example

? The Increase in Black Male Incarceration Rates 0 Chapter One Introduction Incarceration refers to the detention of people in prison for the purpose of punishing them because of a crime. This act is common in most nations and is done because of suspicion of committing crime or conviction. Different legal systems are governed by different laws with respect to the incarceration. In most jurisdictions, incarceration serves different purposes which may include but not limited to; punish, deter, isolate or rehabilitate criminals so that they are prevented from committing such crimes again. However, the choice of this mode of punishment differs from one nation to another as well as their modes of punishment as well. It is however different from political imprisonment and others charged with crimes that are not specific and hence the United Nations has described it as distinct and unique (Burdick, 1929). The history has proved that the rate, frequency, severity, duration differs from one nation to the other. However, the idea of incarceration has been highly controversial in the recent times in many nations especially in the United States of America. There is high energized debate on the issue concerning the motives, fairness and the effectiveness of incarceration of men with specific focus on the black male incarceration in the United States of America. Most people believe that this is not the right way to discourage crimes among the criminals or criminal activities. They believe that the best way to discourage crimes is rehabilitate the individual; criminals. In this context, they have pushed for the rejection of this act since it has also been very discriminatory against the blacks. There are also questions about the etiology and nature of the criminal behaviors that are perceived to be discouraged by this act. In the United States of America, incarceration rate is estimated to be the highest in all the nations that practice this act. Statistics has revealed that the level of incarceration in the United States of America is approximately 737 individuals incarcerated among 100, 000 in the year 2005 (Conrad, 1925). Statistics has also confirmed that individuals convicted in the United States of America are likely to be jailed and punished at the rate of 1 in every 100 persons. According to Gilligan (1997), this indicates that the United States of America has twenty five percent of the total world population of the incarcerated individuals and has four percent of all the world population. This statistics indicates that America has the highest number of people locked in jails. Among these individuals, blacks in the U.S. form the highest number of affected victims. This has been influenced very much by the judicial system of the United States of America. The legal system of the USA requires that at least certain part usually half of the sentence has to be served before an individual could benefit from parole. 2.0 Chapter Two Statement of the problem The major objective of this study is to try understanding the problems and issues of the principle of due process in relation to the development of the idea of black male incarceration. Since there is controversy concerning the application of due process and at the same time judges are setting free some convicts who after being released from the prison do commit other offences, it is important to understand these problems so as to know whether to develop incarceration (Zalman, 2007). It is also important because there discrimination of the rights of the people through parole development because other people are not accorded justice as a result of parole development. Purpose of this discussions is therefore to discuss these issues and possible diverse a way forward with regard to the incarceration in the U.S. with regard to the black males that has been increasing. Parole is an early release from jail with conditions after serving in prison for a certain period of time (Gaines, 2009). The prisoner has therefore served his or her portion that is required by the law relating to her offence. This practice assumes that the offender has demonstrated a certain level of conformity to the rules and regulations of that particular prison and therefore can conform completely outside the prison under the supervision of the prison officers. It is believed also that the person has shown abilities to conform to the laws and norms of the society and it is the season as to why he or she is set to leave the prison (Simon, 2001). It is different from incarceration in which the convict is subjected to punishment whose severity depends on the offense. Pardon was first documented in the United States of America where Samuel G. Howe was Accredited a conditional release however prior to that many countries had other conditional pardons that were used for those who had shown conformity to the rules and regulations of the land while they are in the in the prison. Up to date it is still applied in so many countries where presidential pardons are very common. Due process is a principle which states that the government, government law enforcement agencies, organization representing the government must acknowledge and respect all the legal rights of a person according to the law (Burdick, 1929). The due process therefore serves to protect equally the individual citizens from the state and hence when a person is harmed or incurs damages that are directly caused by the government then that is termed as a violation of the due process and hence offends the rule of the law. Due process has most of the times been interpreted as limiting legal proceedings or laws because judges instead of legislators can interpret and guarantee justice, liberty and fairness (Burdick, 1929). However, there are several individual convicts who are punished by incarceration and the problem here is that the rate of black male incarceration is on the rise from time to time thereby threatening the principle of equal justice and protection for all in the United States of America. This interpretation of due process has been greatly controversial to the concepts of procedural justice and natural justice which are usually use in other jurisdictions and most of the lawyers have termed it as a command to the government that it shall never be unfair to its people. Parole as a conditional release is also contradictory to this principle hence raising criticism as to whether it is really possible to accord a conditional pardon while at the same time the government ensures that it protects the rights of its citizens according to the due process principle. The problem here is therefore the process of carrying out all these are faced with discrimination in the United States of America with the black men Suffering Incarceration the most. Chapter Three 3.0 Review of the current literature The problem in this issue as had been mentioned earlier is the fact that the interpretation of due process as a principle is based on the opinion of a judge and not the legislators and at the same time development of the parolee will go against this principle as some people will not be accorded justice required according to the law. In this way some judges are expanding liberty of some people at the expense of other people. It is therefore possible for the parolee to be denied their right of due process in case they commit an offence while they are still in probation (Gilligan, 1997). Due to these powers of the judges they can also extend an offender’s term before he or she actually become eligible for parole. Judges are supposed to extend their authorities in cases that are very serious such that those that involve drug trafficking, violent crimes and or crimes committed by the organized gangs. However, some of them may miss use this to the other minor offenders and hence make them stay in the prisons for a long time before he is actually eligible for parole (Simon, 2001). This indicates that the due process principle that is supposed to protect the rights and ensures justice for these people has been violated. This is a big problem as the legislators cannot do much as the interpretation is based on the opinion of the judge that is presiding on that particular case. In these cases therefore even though the person had started reforming it is difficult to be accorded conditional pardon as required by the law for such people. Another problem is that the probation is governed by the judicial decisions while parole is governed by the administrative parole officers it is possible to revoke the parole before the end of the parole term (Simon, 2001). This is because there are certain conditions that govern the parole process and if these conditions are not met it is possible for the parole to be revoked. It can also be revoked if the offender has committed a new offence before the end of the process. Under these conditions the parolee is forced to face the due process even though he had shown advancing signs of conformity according to the norms of the society (Nelson, 2007). It is therefore difficult to implement the development of parole as other people will be denied the justice according to the principle of the due process as have been witnessed in several revoked parole and probations. In the cases mentioned it is evident that the groups that are affected by the problem are the parolee who has not yet completed their terms in the reform process. This is because they can be taken back and faces the due process. In the process, their right to liberty may be violated by the judges who sometimes may want to favor one side over the other (Bailey, 2007). This has been evidenced in the first case above in which indeed there as violation of the rights of other people and the defendant had to face the due process the judge decided to constitute a council to look into the matter. In the second case the judge ruled on the matter on his opinion. This makes some of the parolees face injustices if the cases are not handled with integrity with all the evidences put on the table. This problem therefore affects both the parole and the judges (Busser, 2009). However, these problems do not apply to ordinary citizens who are not parole or paroles that had completed their full time as a parolee. These groups do not face the problem because they are protected by the due process and therefore third rights are not often violated and therefore liberty is often deliberated to them. Chapter Four 4.0 Theoretical Framework Correction theory is one theory that can be used to explain the problems of freeing individuals and the due process. Correctional theory explains the problems that sometimes occur when correcting individual offenders. Correction system refers to a system of governmental networks that work to administer jurisdictions, prisons and parole system (Gaines & Miller, 2009). The components of this system that is responsible for punishing the criminal offenders through activities such as depriving these offenders, liberty, life or property or sometimes they serve in prison for life sentence. Others may include fines or other penalties that are not desirable to the offenders. The use of these types of sanctions that may either be positive or negative to the offender is the basis criminal theory. These problems can be related to this theory because as there is an attempt to correct these people there is also the element of denying this people especially through incarceration, the right to due process protection (Cole & Smith, 2007). However, incarcerations of the blacks have been on the rise for long and have mainly been based on those who had been convicted earlier. Due process is a principle which states that the government, government law enforcement agencies, organization representing the government must acknowledge and respect all the legal rights of a person according to the law. The due process therefore serves to protect the individual citizens from the state and hence when a person is harmed or incurs damages that are directly caused by the government then that is termed as a violation of the due process and hence offends the rule of the law. However, when we give incarceration to an individual, it does not automatically deliver justice to the offended since what we have done is just to subject an individual to punishment (Dunham, 2009). Most experts also argue that instead of incarceration, convicts should serve life imprisonment doing some constructive work that can be used to compensate the offended because after all the convict will die in prison. However, the black males have been subject of incarceration from different years due to their vulnerability to crimes as well as racial disproportionate. According to Nelson (2007), Incarceration of the male blacks is also related to racism and ethnicity that has rocked the United States of America for quite a long time now. It is important to note that the rates of incarceration of the American blacks is higher not only because of the higher number of blacks in the United States, but also because of the poverty and social life that they live. High levels of poverty and the life in the ghetto make these individuals highly vulnerable to criminal activities and hence their conviction in more than one criminal act is higher leading to their high rate of incarceration. With this regard, they are mainly incarcerated due to their poverty especially those living in the ghettos since they also have very limited opportunity to access governmental resources like the other races in the U.S. According to a study by Dunham (2009), the racially disproportionate war on the drugs plays an important role in the incarceration of the male blacks in the U.S. this idea is very devastating to the male black Americans and also goes against the principle of equal protection for all. As observed by Gilligan (1997), the perception of the blacks as the drug barons in the United States of America is a significant reason for the increasing incarceration of the black male Americans. In this context therefore, the war on drugs has not only exposed but has continued to deepen the racial discrimination and other racial fault lines that have continued from time to time to weaken most of the American institutions. According to Zelman (2007), racial disproportionate is actually undermining faith within all the races in the U.S. and hence, efficacy and fairness in criminal justice has been compromised. This has been seen through the year 2009 when many blacks were incarcerated with conviction of drug trafficking. It is therefore important to note that urgent action should be taken by both the federal and the state governments to address the problem of racial disproportion. Chapter Five 5.0 Discussion It is not debatable that the American Society has the highest number of incarcerated black males in the whole world. Racial disparities and the dormant racism that is still going on in the United States of America is one of the contributing factors to increasing rates of Incarceration of the black males. As observed by Gilligan (1997), the number of Black males who were in the control of the criminal justice system in the United States of America during 1990s. During this time, the rate of conviction of the black males and finally incarcerated was very low. However, due to the increasing number of whites in the same national system, the rate has increased. Some scholars have argued that this is one of the reasons for the increasing incarceration of the black males. This is because the focus on crimes has been directed on black males rather than the criminals in general. As a result, there is no due process and the principle of equality in justice for all is not considered by the government in the process. The war on drugs that is mainly directed towards the blacks has also played an important role in the increment of the incarceration of the black males in the U.S. it is important to note that this racism fight on drugs is a perception that Americans have to fight if they are to keep the principle of equal justice for all. It has increased vulnerability of black males to more than one conviction which results to incarceration. It has been however realized that some of the convicts are innocent but have been prosecuted by the justice system. Racial unproportionate plays an important role here and hence the control of the justice system by the whites has resulted to increasing vulnerability of black male to incarceration. Wrongful convictions of the suspected criminals are another reason we should not accept incarceration in our society (Gainess, 2010). It is evident that some prisoners are wrongfully convicted even before the ruling of the Supreme Court on moratorium. The determination of whether the suspected criminal is actually guilty usually takes a very long time and hence, most of the suspected criminals are executed by the government secretly. Wrongful incarcerations are the most dangerous one because it is a non reversible process (Landy, 2008). It is difficult to deliver justice to someone who was wrongfully incarcerated when you later realize that particular person is actually innocent while if somebody is serving in prison, he can be recalled and compensated when found innocent. Incarceration is therefore not the way to go for the Americans due to racial disproportionate, poverty, lack of employment, war on drug focusing on blacks and racism in American institutions. These have increased vulnerability of black males to more than one conviction and hence increased incarceration of the black males. References Bailey, Jeremy D. (2007). “Thomas Jefferson and Executive Powers.” London Cambridge University press. Burdick, Charles K. (1929). “The law of American constitution its origin and development.” New York: Thickerbocker Press Busser Ells D. (2009). “Data protection in EU and US Criminal Corporation.” Belgium. Maklu Publishers. Cole George F. & Smith Christopher E. 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