Marc Maurer, the Executive Director of The Sentencing Project tackles the issue of racial disparity in an article he wrote for a special issue of The Prison Journal, Reforming the Criminal Justice System in the United States. Maurer’s piece Addressing Racial Disparities in Incarceration, provides shocking statistics on the sad state of the U.S. criminal justice system, particularly where African-Americans are concerned. Maurer also offers several recommendations as to how the system can be fixed to provide a ” level playing field “for all.
According to Addressing Racial Disparities in Incarceration:
If current trends continue, 1 of every 3 African American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can 1 of every 6 Latino males, compared to 1 in 17 White males.
For women, the overall figures are considerably lower, but the racial/ethnic disparities are similar: 1 of every 18 African American females, 1 of every 45 Hispanic females, and 1 of every 111 White females can expect to spend time in prison. (Bonczar, 2003).
High rates of criminal justice control can be documented not only by racial/ethnic group but even more so in combination with age, since younger people have higher rates of involvement in the justice system. Thus, 1 in 13 African American males in the age group 30 to 39 is incarcerated in a state or federal prison on any given day and additional numbers are in local jails (West & Sabol, 2010).
African Americans are considerably more likely than Whites to be victims of violent crime. Rates of victimization for African-Americans for robbery are more than three times than those of Whites, as well as double the rate for aggravated assault.
Hispanics are victimized at a rate about 15% higher than Whites but less than African Americans (Truman & Rand, 2010).
An examination of arrest data compiled by the FBI in its annual Uniform Crime Reports (categorized by race, but not ethnicity) reveals that African Americans constituted 30% of persons arrested for a property offense in 2009 and 39% of those arrested for a violent offense (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2009), clearly disproportionate to the 12% Black share of the overall national population.
In the U.S. court system more than 90% of guilty verdicts are a result of a negotiated plea rather than a trial, the influence of the prosecutor on ultimate case outcomes is often far more significant than that of the judge.
A 1991 study of federal mandatory sentencing conducted by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, for example, found that for cases in which case factors suggested that a charge could be brought that carried a mandatory penalty, prosecutors were more likely to offer White defendants a negotiated plea below the mandatory minimum than African American or Latino defendants (United States Sentencing Commission, 1991).
There is strong evidence that race plays a role in the determination of which homicide cases result in a death sentence, whereby cases with White victims are considerably more likely to receive a death sentence (Baldus & Woodworth, 2004).
Racial disparities at the sentencing stage are not necessarily a function of judicial bias but can often result from “race neutral” sentencing policies with skewed racial effects. This can be seen in the experience with many drug policies and habitual offender statutes (Crow & Johnson, 2008).
Studies have consistently shown that persons who kill Whites are about four times as likely to receive a death sentence as those who kill African Americans. These findings are not necessarily a function only of the sentencing decision but may also reflect prosecutorial discretion in how cases are charged. (McCleskey v. Kemp, 1987),
In noncapital cases, a comprehensive review of current research by sentencing scholar Cassia Spohn finds that “… race and ethnicity do play an important role in contemporary sentencing decisions. Black and Hispanic offenders sentenced in State and Federal courts face significantly greater odds of incarceration than similarly situated white offenders. In some jurisdictions, they also may receive longer sentences or differential benefits from guideline departures than their white counterparts.
Maurer offers that certain policies, such as the “War on Drugs” and harsher penalties for drug activities within a school zone have effected the African-American population far more than the White community.
WAR ON DRUGS
The number of drug arrests nearly tripled from a level of 581,000 in 1980 to 1,663,000 by 2009. Along with that came a dramatic escalation in the number of incarcerated drug offenders, rising from about 41,000 persons in prison or jail in 1980 to nearly 500,000 by 2003 (Mauer & King, 2007).
Racial disparities in the prosecution of the drug war can be seen initially in arrest rates. African Americans constituted 21% of drug arrests in 1980, then rose to 36% in 1992 (Mauer, 2006), before declining to 34% by 2009 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2009), but still disproportionate to their share of the national population.
School Zones
School zone drug laws adopted by many states have as their stated objective the goal of deterring drug selling to school children and aim to do so by applying enhanced penalties to offenses committed within a certain geographical range—often 500 or 1,000 feet—of a school. As written, though, many of these statutes apply much more broadly, such as including drug salesbetween two adults during nonschool hours. The racial effects of these policies result from the implications of housing patterns. Since urban areas are much more densely populated than rural or suburban areas, it is more likely that any given drug offense will take place within a school zone district. And since persons of color disproportionately reside in urban areas, a drug offense committed by an African American or Latino person will be more likely to incur these enhanced penalties.
Collateral Consequences of the mass incarceration of African-Americans
Extreme racial disparities in the use of imprisonment result in communities of color being disproportionately affected by the collateral effects of incarceration. These include family stress and dissolution, neighborhoods experiencing high mobility of residents cycling in and out of prison, and growing numbers of people with limited employment prospects. Incarceration has been demonstrated to reduce African American male wage earnings by 44% by the age of 48. (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010).
In order to correct the problem of racial disparity , Maurer offers several recommendations:
Level the playing field: By providing credible sentencing options for the courts, greater numbers of defendants could be sentenced to community supervision, thereby avoiding costly incarceration while permitting offenders to maintain ties with family and community.
Invest in high school completion: Research by Bruce Western and Becky Pettit shows that 68% of African American male high school dropouts had served time in prison by the age of 34. (Western & Pettit, 2010) Promoting high school completion is the significant impact such outcomes can produce in helping to reduce disproportionate rates of imprisonment, which is critical as well.
Adopt racial impact statement legislation: As utilized in Connecticut and Iowa, legislators are provided with an assessment of the racial/ethnic impact of proposed sentencing legislation (Mauer, 2009a). If the analysis indicates that the policy would produce a disproportionate effect, policy makers are not precluded from adopting the legislation but have the opportunity to consider alternative means of achieving public safety goals without exacerbating racial disparities.
Reorient the “war on drugs”.: Some of the problems in the criminal justice system include: limited community-based options for treatment; mandatory sentencing laws that result in excessive prison terms for lower-level cases; and the failure of some drug court programs to target prison-bound offenders. Reversing these policies and adopting harm reduction models would produce more compassionate, and less costly, outcomes.
Adopt and implement racial fairness policy goals and commissions: Promote racial and ethnic fairness in the criminal justice system.
Examine policy and practice decisions for undue racial impact.
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