Racial Disparity in the Correctional PopulationEssay title: Racial Disparity in the Correctional PopulationRunning head: RACIAL DISPARITYRacial Disparity in the Correctional PopulationChristina KabaUniversity of Phoenix OnlineCultural Diversity in Criminal Justice CJA 420Kevin MooreApril 12, 2005Racial Disparity in the Correctional PopulationRacial disparity in the correctional population refers to the difference in the number of minorities versus whites represented inside institutions. “The American Correctional Association acknowledges that racial disparity exists within adult and juvenile detention and correctional systems. This contributes to the perception of unfairness and injustice in the justice system (“ACA Policies and,” 2004).” “Blacks comprise 13% of the national population, but 30% of people arrested, 41% of people in jail, and 49% of those in prison. Nationwide, blacks are incarcerated at 8.2 times the rate of whites (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” This difference in proportionality does not necessarily involve direct discrimination; it can be explained by a number of combined factors.
Correctional agencies do not control the number of minorities who enter their facilities. Therefore, the disparity must come from decisions made earlier in the criminal justice process. Law enforcement, court pre-sentencing policies and procedures, and sentencing all have a direct affect on the overrepresentation of minorities in the correctional population. The prospect of a racially discriminatory process violates the ideals of equal treatment under law under which the system is premised (Kansal, 2005).
Law enforcement, as the frontline of the criminal justice system has a great deal to do with who ends up being incarcerated. Law enforcement personnel are the initiating beings who start the path to incarceration for individuals they come in contact with. Their decision in terms of making a stop, making a report, making an arrest and so on determines if and how that individual will enter the criminal justice system.
One discriminating practice used by police officers is racial profiling. This is the police practice of stopping, questioning, and searching potential criminal suspects in vehicles or on the street based solely on their racial appearance (Human Rights Watch, 2000). This type of profiling has contributed to racially disproportionate drug arrests, as well as, arrests for other crimes. It makes sense that the more individuals police stop, question and search, the more people they will find with reason for arrest. So, if the majority of these types of stop and frisk searches are done on a certain race then it makes sense that that race would have a higher arrest rate. This is the problem that racial profiling creates and it is most obvious in drug arrests.
The “War on Drugs” established that the impact of incarceration would be used as a weapon to combat the illegal drug problem in this country. Unfortunately, this war against drugs has fallen disproportionately on black Americans. “Blacks constitute 62.6% of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons in 1996, whereas whites constituted 36.7%. The drug offender admissions rate for black men ranges from 60 to an astonishing 1,146 per 100,000 black men. In contrast, the white rate begins at 6 and rises no higher than 139 per 100,000 white men. Drug offenses accounted for nearly two out of five of all black admissions to state prisons (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” The disproportionate rates at which black drug offenders are sent to prison originate in racially disproportionate rates of arrest.
This brings up the question; do blacks use drugs more than whites? Contrary to public belief, the higher arrest rates of black drug offenders do not reflect higher rates of drug law violations. Whites, actually, commit more drug crimes than blacks. “By 1988, with national anti-drug efforts in full force, blacks were arrested on drug charges at five times the rate of whites. Statistical as well as anecdotal evidence indicate drug possession and drug selling cut across all racial, socio-economic and geographic lines. But, because drug law enforcement resources have been concentrated in low-income, predominantly minority urban areas, drug offending whites have been disproportionately free from arrest compared to blacks (Human Rights Watch, 2000).”
The incarceration of black males is a significant and growing public issue. A national survey conducted in 1984 by Harvard University found that the percentage of African-American males arrested for drug possession or sale and sales increased 11% to 43% within 10 years. An FBI study also found a 15-percent increase in conviction rates for blacks for their alleged roles in black drug crimes in the 1980s and 1990s. Since 1985, though, the number of Americans arrested for drug possession or sales has fallen from 29% and 36% in 1980 to 20% and 48% in 1991 to 16% in 1992, respectively. According to a study of the arrest rates for blacks on non-drug charges published by the American Civil Liberties Union in 1993, blacks had become “a national majority” since the 1980s (Cleveland v. Alabama, supra, 757 A.2d, at 478–479, 692 A.2d, 2-3). In 1991 there was also a 43% increase in imprisonment rates, from 9-month imprisonment to 25.3- to 27.5-year imprisonment for possession and sale of methamphetamines (United States Department of Justice, 1989).
The same study also found that blacks have often been forced to sell methamphetamine while driving; however, as recently as 1983, when federal law prohibited such sales, it was reported that blacks were a second less likely to be issued criminal penalties than whites for such sales; these data provide ample evidence of the disparities in incarceration of black and Hispanic whites. Furthermore, as recently as 2008, the Journal of the American Law Institute showed that nearly four out of every five Americans were arrested for narcotics possession or possession each year.
Some data provide the clearest explanation for the disparity in federal penalties for blacks and whites for drugs use. In an October 2009 national poll conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over half (52%) of all noncitizens arrested for drug possession or sale received a criminal sanction.
The recent spate of arrests for other crimes by African Americans for nonpayment of fines or other punitive penalties indicates some growing distrust regarding the criminal justice system. In January 2014, the Black Community Task Force, a political advocacy group within the NAACP, sent out a letter to the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office expressing concern about the current situation relating to “racial disparities in criminal justice in America.” In a press release issued last month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said that, if the DOJ finds “no clear disparity in the frequency of arrests and sentences received, the DOJ will pursue the forfeiture of all felony drug convictions.” A federal criminal forfeiture program was established by the Obama administration after the deaths of three police officers killed in the line of duty by a felonous drug offender (US Department of Justice, 2014). However, the Justice Department also cited several state attorneys general (Washington, DC, 2009) as witnesses to support its concern that the lack
“According to the most recent National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) survey, in 1998 there were an estimated 9.9 million whites (72% of all users) and 2.0 million blacks (15%) who were current illicit drug users in 1998. There were almost five times as many