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African-Americans Have 7 Times Greater Chance of Imprisonment
Many factors contribute to the incarceration today of more blacks than whites even though blacks make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population.
These factors go beyond the higher poverty and unemployment rates among black youth and include the higher arrest rate of blacks, judicial and prosecutorial discretion, better deals in plea bargaining for whites, and even differences in what is defined as a crime, writes authority Marc Mauer of the Prison Project of Washington, D.C., who says African-Americans “have a seven times greater chance of being incarcerated than do whites.”
For example, of nearly 250,000 state inmates serving time for drug offenses in 2004, 113,000 (or 45%) were blacks compared to 66,000, (or 26%) whites and 52,000, (or 21%) Hispanics.
In the 1950s, the Boggs Act penalized first-time possession of marijuana or heroin with a sentence of two to five years in prison—a pretty stiff penalty. The perception at the time was that marijuana was largely smoked by African-Americans and Mexicans, and was used frequently by jazz musicians.
However, when college campuses in the Sixties were flooded with youthful pot smokers who were predominantly white, “public attitudes began to change quickly,” Mauer wrote in The Long Term View, published by the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.
“Marijuana came to be seen as a harmless drug, one that was not addictive and did not particularly lead to other criminal behavior,” Mauer noted.
Many states and localities revised their laws and some communities “all but decriminalized possession of small quantities,” he said. Even so, where Milwaukee regarded possession as a misdemeanor many of its suburbs treated it as an ordinance violation, allowing suburban whites to get off with a fine. “As whites became a larger portion of the user population and replaced blacks in the public image of the pot user, public policies changed rapidly in a more understanding and less punitive direction,” Mauer asserted.
“It is far more likely that in the late twentieth century, in contrast to earlier time, patterns of discrimination reflect unconscious biases rather than blatant attempts to oppress African Americans,” he wrote.
The “war on drugs,” though, later dramatically increased the number of drug arrests and made sentencing provisions harsher in most states. Drug possession arrests rose by 88 percent in the 1980-90 period and typical state penalties for drug possession (excluding marijuana) are up to five years for a first offense and up to 10 years for a second offense, Mauer said.
Again, drunk drivers — 78% of who in a 1990 study were white— were “generally charged as misdemeanants and typically receive sentences involving fines, license suspension, and community service,” Mauer said. By contrast, those convicted of drug possession—who are disproportionately low-income, Afro-American, and Hispanic, “are usually charged with felonies and frequently sentenced to incarceration.”
Prosecutors also tend to reduce the charges against whites convicted of felonies more often than against blacks convicted of felonies. A comprehensive examination of 700,000 criminal cases by the San Jose Mercury News, Mauer noted, included that of 71,000 adults with no prior records. In this group, one-third of whites had their felony charges reduced to misdemeanors “while only one quarter of blacks and Hispanics received this disposition.”
Sentencing practices in Western Europe are less harsh for some offenses than in the United States, Mauer pointed out. Many contend the reason for these practices is that Scandinavian societies are more homogeneous. “Precisely! Communities that feel a sense of commitment to their members are able to see the humanity of offenders despite their criminal behaviors and to see the potential for positive change in their lives,” he writes.
Mauer concludes that sentencing policies of recent years “have in fact unfairly affected low-income people and minorities…The toll that all this has taken on the African American community, and increasingly on the Latin community, is now truly staggering,” he concludes.
The Massachusetts School of Law, publisher of The Long Term View, is purposefully dedicated to providing a rigorous, affordable education to students from low-income, minority, and immigrant backgrounds that would otherwise be unable to obtain a legal education. Its tuition is approximately half that of other New England area law schools.
Further information: Sherwood Ross is a media consultant to Massachusetts School of Law.
Reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com
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Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=19282
Posted by Sherwood Ross on Mar 3 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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[...] African-Americans Have 7 Times Greater Chance of Imprisonment … [...]
It is quite un-nerving that nothing you say is a shocker. Discrimination continues to be one of the biggest obstacles that minorities encounter in society, and being Black increases fines and penalties beyond that of most other groups combined. I have witnessed cases where educated Black men and women who have had no prior civil or criminal records, received punishments that violate the 8th amendment especially in cases involving first time offences and otherwise. I myself, have been victimized on multiple occasions in the military and civillian world without any redress for authority figures who overstepped their boundaries. We, as Blacks and minorities either come to accept these behaviors as unavoidable, or fight a seemingly never-ending battle. The color of one’s skin definitely impact the treatment that is handed down by both judicial and criminal justice system. This is a pity because there are so many Blacks who continue to feel defeated in the only home they have ever known, or come to love–The United States. When I first arrived in the US, I was extremely naive and did not see race as an issue because of how I was brought up. I never questioned equality or inequality until I came to witness firsthand, the injustices that took place on a daily basis. I have witnessed family members and friends being treated unjustly by the criminal, civil, and judicial system, and came to realize that the criminal system would prefer to incarcerate any and every Blacks they can instead of noting any positive methods of rehabilitation even in first time violations. Now that I am well learned in American history, I am no longer surprised at the treatments of Blacks because throughout our history, we have built a society based on racial divide with a legal and criminal justice system that was essentially in place to protect Whites. Just like we have softened the blow for Whites using marijuana, so we have reduced the sentences and softened the blow for whites dealing cocaine versus Blacks who deal in crack. In sum, the system was created to protect Whites and still does in most cases. At least, that was the case when police officers and jurors were allowed to protect Whites during and after slavery from the enemy–the Black man. Treatments of Whites compared to the treatments of Blacks and minorities do continue to closely mimic this system whether overtly or covertly. Sadly, nothing much have changed in the ways with which punishment is handed down to Blacks and other minorities. Many in our justice system still hold the view of the “enemy” when dealing with Blacks and minorities. Unless the perspectives of those in the judicial and criminal justice system changes to accommodate racial differences and order punishment across groups justiciably, Blacks will continue to live in this country, but in reality have no place in it.