Inequalities in the Us Judicial System - Coursework Example

INEQUALITIES IN THE US JUDICIAL SYSTEM Introduction The way of apprehending and punishing lawbreakers is oneof the most important pillars that shape our democracy in the world. Over the past few decades, the United States has in many ways made very significant progress in achieving the goal of ensuring that its legal system treats all citizens equally. However, evidence show that the country has yet long journey to go since racial discriminination is still an accepted fact. The criminal laws are facially very neutral but the means of enforcement is very biased. This article will provide a description of the inequalities that exist in the judicial system of the United States. The racial make up of men in jail The numerous injustices that exist in the judicial system are a threat to our democracy and continue to threaten the progress made over the last fifty years in the fight for civil rights. The number of Blacks arrested and imprisoned is more than that of Whites. The rate of male Blacks imprisonment was around three thousand and seventy four men in every one hundred thousand of the total population (Weich and Angulo 2002). They point out that the rate of incarceration of Blacks is seven times higher than that of Whites. This will finally guarantee that one in every three Blacks Americans must spend some of his time in jail. It is an accepted fact that the largest portion of population of people in jail consists of African Americans as well as Hispanics. It is very surprising and shocking to find that the Whites in the United States make up sixty four percent of the population but only thirty one percent of the population incarcerated in both the state as well as federal prisons. Blacks who make up only fourteen percent of the society make up thirty six percent of the population of prisoners in the country, which is a percentage higher than that of the Whites (Weich and Angulo 2002). Likewise, Hispanics make up only sixteen percent of the population of all citizens in the country but twenty four percent of the prison population (Guerino, Harrison and Sabol, 2011). Despite the fact that less than one in every one hundred Citizens are in prison, the ratio of the population of young Blacks that are in jail is one in every four (Guerino, Harrison and Sabol, 2011). This means that the probability of a young Blacks going to prison is higher than that of getting married or going to college. Despite the idea that the causes for this high level of inequality are complex as well as multicasual, it is very likely that most of the blame should be on the criminal justice system of the United States (Weich and Angulo 2002). There must be loopholes within the system that are contributing to this very shameful phenomenon that continues to undermine our democracy. It is very awkward to believe that Blacks and Hispanics who make up lower portion of the entire population of the country commit more crimes than the Whites and that state and federal prisons fits them more appropriately. Contributing factors There is good evidence that in school, students from African American families receive harsher purnishments than those from White. Students from Blacks as well as Hispanic families constitute more than seventy percent of all the students either arrested or reffered to the law enforcement authorities. Blacks make up fourty percent while Hispanics make up twenty percent of all the youth jailed. According to Snyder and Dillow (2012), African American students make up the largest percentage of the students arrested in schools. During the 2009-2010 academic years, the number of students arrested was ninety six thousand while those reffered to the law enforcement were two hundred and fourty two thousand. Of these students, more than seventy percent came from Blacks and Hispanic families. Very harsh purnishments in school, that include suspensions and arrests, have contributed to the large number of youth from Blacks and Hispanic families to fall in the hands of juvenile system of justice and at a very early age. The rate of juvenile incarceration is higher among the youth from African American families and the probability of receiving jail sentences is much higher compaired with their White classmates (Roberts, 2004). Despite the fact that Blacks juvenile youth account for about only sixteen percent of the overall youth population, thirty seven percent of their cases find their way to the the criminal court. From these courts, around fifty-eight percent of Blacks youth find themselves in adult jails. In addition, other contributing factors relate to the family set up, poor forms of parenting, child abuse as well as family violence. While growing up right from birth, a child needs the attachment and the bonding, care and love from all the two parrents. This is what is responsible for the good growth and development of the child (Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000). Lack of supervision and appropriate displinary methods for children greatly contributes to criminal behavior among children when they grow into adults. In addition, absence of father and poverty are also very risky factors to the escalation of the problem. In the United States, around fifteen percent of the people live below the poverty line with African Americans and the Hispanics exceeding the country’s average (Iceland, 2013). According to this statistics, it is therefore very evident that the Blacks as well as the Hispanics are at a greater risk than their White counterparts are. It is very evident that upon release from prison, Blacks face discrimination in terms of employment opportunities. Despite the fact that all individuals coming from prison face discrimination in employment, the effect is more serious amongst the Blacks compaired with the Whites. Upon release from prison, the rates of employment for Blacks grows at twenty-one percent lower than that of former White inmates. Several states placed bars on individuals with some convictions to offer services in the health industry like nursing, hom health and child care. These are the areas where many Blacks women get their employment opportunities (Weich and Angulo 2002). To continue, it appears that there is very serious discripancy in sentencing individuals on crimes involving drugs. The war of the United States against drugs is mostly war against the Blacks and other minority groups in the country. About sixty-two percent of all Blacks sent to preson come from charges related to drugs, which is a rate that is thirteen times larger than that of Whites. According to the Banton (2012) fouteen million Whites and two million six hundred thousand Blacks consume outlawed drugs but Blacks receive imprisonment at a rate ten times higher than that of Whites. According to Porter (2011), Blacks convicted from charges related to drugs serve longer periods in jail than the Whites. This is irrespective of the similarity of the magnitudes of the crimes committed by all the individuals. The concentration of the war on drugs is higher on the Black communities and therefore more often to see police making arrests in Black communities than seen making attempts to locate drug dealings from White areas. It is therefore obvious that the police will see the drugs only in the areas where they will look for them and in this case, they are most likely going to see them in the members coming from Black communities. According to Weich and Angulo (2002), possibility of law enforcement stopping a Black is nine times higher than that of stopping a White. On the New Jersey Turnpike, studies show that fouty six percent of those stopped by the police are Blacks irrespective of the fact that only around fourteen percent of the vehicles passing had a Black driver or passenger (Weich & Angulo, 2002). This means that there is over-policing for members from Black communities leading to higher rates of conviction. It is very common to see police cars stationed at each block when moving through a community of Blacks while this is very odd to find in White communities. This means that Blacks are more likely to fall in the hands of law inforcement as suspects than the Whites are and hence their higher number in both courts and prisons. The level of policing should therefore be equal if justice is to prevail to all individuals. Upon incarceration, Blacks continue to face more discrimination in both the court system as well as the prison. The jail sentences that Blacks receive can be as long as ten time more compaired with the ones Whites receive. Upon suspected, Blacks mostly find themselves denied their fundamental civil rights from the beginning to the the end of the process. According to Hayward and Swanstrom (2011), Blacks encounter ill treatment during every level of the system of criminal justice. This includes the process of arrest, examination, trial, prosecution, conviction as well as sentencing. In general, Blacks receive a lot of injustice as well as disrespect while in the courts. For example, the Blacks take longer time waiting for trial than the Whites while most of them end up pleading guilty without understanding their basic rights. This is because; the Blacks do not get a good explanation of their basic rights compaired with the Whites. This raises the question about the number of Blacks who plead guilty despite being innocent. There are many cases where the court proves a Black innocent after execution, with some due to mistaken identity. To add on that, in the courts of United States, Blacks and other minority groups have less chances of serving as juries and mostly underrepresented by the lawyers. In fact, out of the one thousand one hundred and twenty nine judges in court, only seventeen are Blacks. The population of lawyers who come from Black communities is just around five percent of all the lawyers serving in the courts of the United States. According to the Weich and Angulo (2002), only one out of twenty-five lawyers come from the Blacks and other minority groups. The discrimination therefore starts right from the time students get admission to join the legal profession. Therefore, the absence of Blacks men in the Country’s legal profession guarantees a very hostile climate as well as lack of trust on the judicial system of the country. This is perhaps the most serious factor that leads to the prosecution as well as the incarceration of Blacks and the other minorities. In addition, there are negative steriotypes that Blacks men are violent, robbers, thieves, less intelligent, aggressive and mostly their activities involve sports and sex (Ward, 2004). This may perhaps explain why there is over-policing on Blacks that leads to higher rates of conviction. This negative steriotyping is largely fueled by the media in the manner it negatively, portrays the Blacks. This is because; the media is very strong and people tend to believe so much in what they see in the media such as the television. Despite the fact that this has constantly been changing, it is very evident that this will take long time to come out of the people minds. The negative steriotypes that people have against the Blacks communities are greatly contributing to the disrespect and commitment of crimes and discrimination against the Blacks. Conclussion Structured inequalities in the judicial system of the United States are mostly going to remain a serious problem and continue to undermine our democracy. Affirmative Action is not playing any significant role and does not exist in the judicial system. This inequality continues to cause suffering and has become a very serious civil right issue that we need to address. The ill treatment is occuring to the guilty minority groups alongside with the ones who are innocent. The Blacks are mostly the ones targeted and receive a lot of humiliation in the courts. The Blacks lose their fundamental rights and appears that the police are at liberty to always point and charge them. It is thus clear that all the progress that the country has made alongside putting laws to ensure justice for all have failed or the judicial system is ignoring them. References Banton, M. (2012). The colour line and the colour scale in the twentieth century. Ethnic and Racial studies, 35(7), 1109-1131. Guerino, P., Harrison, P. M., & Sabol, W. J. (2011). Prisoners in 2010. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington, DC. Hayward, C. R., & Swanstrom, T. (Eds.). (2011). Justice and the American metropolis (Vol. 18). U of Minnesota Press. Iceland, J. (2013). Poverty in America: A handbook. University of California Press. Porter, N. D. (2011). The state of sentencing 2010: Developments in policy and practice. Sentencing Project. Roberts, D. E. (2004). The social and moral cost of mass incarceration in African American communities. Stanford Law Review, 1271-1305. Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D. A. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055. Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2012). Digest of education statistics 2011. National Center for Education Statistics. Ward, L. M. (2004). Wading through the stereotypes: positive and negative associations between media use and Blacks adolescents conceptions of self. Developmental Psychology, 40(2), 284. Weich, R., & Angulo, C. (2002). Racial disparities in the American criminal justice system. Rights at risk: Equality in an age of terrorism, 185-218. Read More