The document discusses racial disparities in the US criminal justice system. It notes that incarceration rates have increased significantly since the 1970s, with the US now incarcerating about 7 times more of its population than Western European countries. While disparities exist for all minorities compared to whites, African American men are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. They are incarcerated at rates 6-8 times higher than whites and comprise nearly 40% of the prison population despite being only 15% of the total US population. Racial disparities stem from a number of factors including discriminatory drug laws, socioeconomic inequality, lack of access to education, and implicit racial biases.
There are challenges in everything and every day in life. Some of these challenges can make or break someone. There are many challenges within this subject and different ways that they would be resolved today. The big challenges in this theory of the New Jim Crow vary from many different things. They are racism, slavery, lawmakers, Jim Crow, stereotypes, and law enforcement.
References Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow, Pfaff's Locked In, the Marshall Project, Vox, Common Justice, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), and more.
The 2016 United States elections will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. During this presidential election year, the President of the United States and Vice President will be elected. In addition, elections will be held for all 435 voting-member seats in the United States House of Representatives (as well as all 6 non-voting delegate seats) and 34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate. Twelve state governorships, two territorial governorships, and numerous other state and local elections will also be contested.
The United States presidential election of 2016 will be the 58th quadrennial U.S. presidential election. The current electoral vote distribution was determined by the 2010 census. Presidential electors who will elect the President and Vice President of the United States will be chosen; a simple majority (270) of the 538 electoral votes are required to win the election. The incumbent president, Democrat Barack Obama, is ineligible to be elected to a third term due to term limits established by the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution. There are numerous potential candidates in the Republican Party, Democratic Party, and among third parties. Assuming Barack Obama serves out his full term, the winner of this election will become the 45th President of the United States.
Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz (born December 22, 1970) is the junior United States Senator from Texas. Elected in 2012, he is the first Cuban American or Latino to hold the office of US Senator from Texas. Cruz is a member of the Republican Party. He served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 to May 2008, after being appointed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Between 1999 and 2003, Cruz served as the director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice, and as Domestic Policy Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. Cruz was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, where he taught U.S. Supreme Court litigation, from 2004 to 2009.
He was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, the youngest Solicitor General of Texas, and the longest-serving Solicitor General in Texas’ history. Cruz is one of three Latinos in the Senate; the others — also Americans of Cuban ancestry — are fellow Republican Marco Rubio of Florida and Democrat Bob Menendez of New Jersey.
Jeff Kottkamp for Attorney General of FLorida/REPUBLICANjenkan04
Jeff KottKamp on the issues for Attorney General of Florida
Candidates personal History
Presented by The Highlands Tea Party http://thehighlandsteaparty.com /
Prepared by John Nelson
Al Green (politician) wikipedia (highlighted)VogelDenise
17 USC § 107 Limitations on Exclusive Rights – FAIR USE
Al Green's Bio and/or Biography – Do you know this HOUSE NEGRO?
In our pursuit of the OVERTHROW of the United States’ DESPOTISM Government Regime, we intend to seek the PROSECUTION of these House Negroes (i.e. some of which are LAWYERS). Please NOTE “HOW Many” were EDUCATED under WHITE INSTITUTIONS!
While the AGE REQUIREMENT is 25 Years Old to serve as a United States SENATOR and/or REPRESENTATIVE, as of 2017, the AGE RANGE for the House Negroes Serving is BETWEEN 40 – 88 Years Old!
This is SIGNIFICANT because the House Negroes Placed in the United States Congress are those who GREW UP in the Heart of the CIVIL RIGHTS Movement and EXPERIENCED the BRUTAL Murders/Killings of Civil Rights Leaders as Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Therefore, MAKING them EASY PREY to be CONTROLLED by THREATS and FEAR on their Lives and their Family Members MADE by WHITE Jews/Zionists and WHITE Supremacists!
Help BRING these HOUSE NEGROES to JUSTICE for the ROLES they have PLAYED in the TERRORIST/RACIST/DISCRIMINATORY Practices of the United States’ DESPOTISM Government Regime!
This House Negro had a DUTY and OBLIGATION to NOTIFY the Public/World of the Illegal/Unlawful Occupation of the DESPOT presently CONTROLLING and RUNNING the United States’ DESPOTISM Government Regime!
Moreover, the THREATS made (if any) by WHITE Jews/Zionists and WHITE Supremacists AGAINST them and/or their Family Members, Friends, etc.
There are challenges in everything and every day in life. Some of these challenges can make or break someone. There are many challenges within this subject and different ways that they would be resolved today. The big challenges in this theory of the New Jim Crow vary from many different things. They are racism, slavery, lawmakers, Jim Crow, stereotypes, and law enforcement.
References Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow, Pfaff's Locked In, the Marshall Project, Vox, Common Justice, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), and more.
The 2016 United States elections will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. During this presidential election year, the President of the United States and Vice President will be elected. In addition, elections will be held for all 435 voting-member seats in the United States House of Representatives (as well as all 6 non-voting delegate seats) and 34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate. Twelve state governorships, two territorial governorships, and numerous other state and local elections will also be contested.
The United States presidential election of 2016 will be the 58th quadrennial U.S. presidential election. The current electoral vote distribution was determined by the 2010 census. Presidential electors who will elect the President and Vice President of the United States will be chosen; a simple majority (270) of the 538 electoral votes are required to win the election. The incumbent president, Democrat Barack Obama, is ineligible to be elected to a third term due to term limits established by the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution. There are numerous potential candidates in the Republican Party, Democratic Party, and among third parties. Assuming Barack Obama serves out his full term, the winner of this election will become the 45th President of the United States.
Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz (born December 22, 1970) is the junior United States Senator from Texas. Elected in 2012, he is the first Cuban American or Latino to hold the office of US Senator from Texas. Cruz is a member of the Republican Party. He served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 to May 2008, after being appointed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Between 1999 and 2003, Cruz served as the director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice, and as Domestic Policy Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. Cruz was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, where he taught U.S. Supreme Court litigation, from 2004 to 2009.
He was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, the youngest Solicitor General of Texas, and the longest-serving Solicitor General in Texas’ history. Cruz is one of three Latinos in the Senate; the others — also Americans of Cuban ancestry — are fellow Republican Marco Rubio of Florida and Democrat Bob Menendez of New Jersey.
Jeff Kottkamp for Attorney General of FLorida/REPUBLICANjenkan04
Jeff KottKamp on the issues for Attorney General of Florida
Candidates personal History
Presented by The Highlands Tea Party http://thehighlandsteaparty.com /
Prepared by John Nelson
Al Green (politician) wikipedia (highlighted)VogelDenise
17 USC § 107 Limitations on Exclusive Rights – FAIR USE
Al Green's Bio and/or Biography – Do you know this HOUSE NEGRO?
In our pursuit of the OVERTHROW of the United States’ DESPOTISM Government Regime, we intend to seek the PROSECUTION of these House Negroes (i.e. some of which are LAWYERS). Please NOTE “HOW Many” were EDUCATED under WHITE INSTITUTIONS!
While the AGE REQUIREMENT is 25 Years Old to serve as a United States SENATOR and/or REPRESENTATIVE, as of 2017, the AGE RANGE for the House Negroes Serving is BETWEEN 40 – 88 Years Old!
This is SIGNIFICANT because the House Negroes Placed in the United States Congress are those who GREW UP in the Heart of the CIVIL RIGHTS Movement and EXPERIENCED the BRUTAL Murders/Killings of Civil Rights Leaders as Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Therefore, MAKING them EASY PREY to be CONTROLLED by THREATS and FEAR on their Lives and their Family Members MADE by WHITE Jews/Zionists and WHITE Supremacists!
Help BRING these HOUSE NEGROES to JUSTICE for the ROLES they have PLAYED in the TERRORIST/RACIST/DISCRIMINATORY Practices of the United States’ DESPOTISM Government Regime!
This House Negro had a DUTY and OBLIGATION to NOTIFY the Public/World of the Illegal/Unlawful Occupation of the DESPOT presently CONTROLLING and RUNNING the United States’ DESPOTISM Government Regime!
Moreover, the THREATS made (if any) by WHITE Jews/Zionists and WHITE Supremacists AGAINST them and/or their Family Members, Friends, etc.
Chem presentation-Natural Food AdditivesWil Sern Ong
A presentation that was done as part of an assignment given by my Chemistry teacher. It was made with the Haiku Deck iPad application. The application was simple and sleek, I was quite happy being able to conjure up an impressive presentation in just half and hour with an iPad.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the pictures in the presentation. All rights and credits of the background images go to the original owners.
Jones 1Jones 7Kyle JonesMatthew ZimmermanEnglish 10222 N.docxpriestmanmable
Jones 1
Jones 7
Kyle Jones
Matthew Zimmerman
English 102
22 November 2014[Title]: [Subtitle]
In 2014, we live in a world with a media saturated culture. This is the era of digital news services, of 24-hour news channels, free newspapers, and even media based applications. For the majority of us, the way in which we learn about the world outside our personal perception is through the consumption of news, mainly still through broadcast or print (OFCOM 2007). Various forms of media has fed the public statistics that created a sense of stereotyping for each particular race. For example, the media and those on film, such as politics and leaders of the government, link together race and crime, which conveys a criminal image of the public’s consumption (St. John & Heald-Moore, 1995). Since race and crime are tied together, when one thinks of a crime, hears about a crime, or when crime is being reported, race is usually associated with it. In the American society, a frequent representation of crime is that it is majorly committed by African- Americans. The view of African Americans has been distorted and twisted by the media. Without question, almost everything that is being covered by the media is believed by most of society and it becomes their actual perceptual reality. Broadcast media and other various forms of media has a history for portraying African Americans in a biased manner, as if they were mostly reported involved in crime, drugs, or acts of violence. This has led to many cases of stereotyping, racial profiling, police brutality, prejudice, inhumane acts and has brain washed most of our society into believing that almost every African American is mischievous or a threat to their well-being. African Americans are unjustly, as well as unrealistically depicted on broadcast news and various other types of mass media. These negative connotations affects more than just African- Americans but also every other culture that exists in America.
African Americans have been associated with crime for quite some time. It was not until some in the 1970’s and early 1980s that the popular stereotype of the young black man evolved in the eyes of many from a petty thief or rapist into the notorious , malicious criminal predators, or what Kathery Russel ( 2002) has argued, is the world recognized “ criminalblackman”. Within the last few decades there have been controversial law enforcement practices of racial profiling. Law enforcement officials pursue minorities in an attempt to increase the likely hood of catching illegal activity or the predetermined act of illegal activity, which is part of a consequence from the racial profiling that the media has inflicted upon society. The questionable practices has led to negative effects on blacks. To the African American culture law officials are deemed more criminal or more of a threat than what the media and statistics has condemned blacks to be. The after math, after the many years of harassment, African ...
Chapter 5Stereotypes, Prejudice, and DiscriminationHeavily-TawnaDelatorrejs
Chapter 5 Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Heavily-armed police and National Guard forces are called in as racial tensions erupt into protests and riots in multiple American communities in response to a series of killings of unarmed African American men by the police.
A white man opens fire on worshipers in an historic African-American church in South Carolina, killing nine; investigators report that the shooter told them he wanted to start a race war. Supreme Court justices are split five to four in a ruling about the legality of practices that result in housing discrimination.
If you’re familiar with twentieth-century American history, this should sound like the volatile 1960s, as bat- tles over Civil Rights boiled over in many parts of the nation. But what we’ve just described occurred a full half century later, at the end of 2014 and in the first half of 2015. The sins of the past seemed to be repeating, demonstrating that although much has changed, much also remains the same.
The problems are by no means limited to black– white relations, or to the United States. Around the same time period, violence and hatred directed toward Jews throughout Europe and Australia were on the rise (see d Figure 5.1). Laws against pro-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) “propaganda” were passed in Russia. Anti-Muslim sentiment increased in many parts of the West, while anti-West sentiment con- tinued to flourish among large numbers of radical Mus- lims. The prime minister of India decried the continuing (though officially banned) practice of parents selectively aborting girls. As billionaire Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president of the United States, he denounced Mexican immigrants as criminals and rap- ists and leaped to the top of the polls (Ahmed, 2015; Fletcher, 2014; Gjelten, 2015; Luke, 2015; Mahr, 2015).
Faced with these headlines, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that progress, in some cases tremendous prog- ress, has been made. The United States had elected, and then re-elected, its first African American president. The Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was now legal throughout the United States. Today more people than ever rush to defend the targets and denounce the perpetrators of prejudice and discrimination. The march toward progress is real, but its rhythm is frustratingly unsteady, at its best a “two-steps forward and one-step back” motion.
To better understand and improve our diverse world, to help the march toward progress acceler- ate in the right direction, it is critically important to understand the complexity and causes of stereo- types, prejudice, and discrimination. That is the pri- mary goal of this chapter. We begin by taking a close look at the nature of the problem of intergroup bias in contemporary life. Later in the chapter we address some of the key causes and important consequences of intergroup biases, and we close by discussing some of the most promising directions in effort ...
Alexander, Michelle, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the A.docxnettletondevon
Alexander, Michelle, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Chapter 5: The New Jim Crow
It was no ordinary Sunday morning when presidential candidate Barack Obama stepped to the podium at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. It was Father’s Day. Hundreds of enthusiastic congregants packed the pews at the overwhelmingly black church eager to hear what the first black Democratic nominee for president of the United States had to say.
The message was a familiar one: black men should better fathers. Too many are absent from their homes. For those in the audience, Obama’s speech was an old tune sung by an exciting new performer. His message of personal responsibility, particularly as it relates to fatherhood, was anything but new; it had been delivered countless times by black ministers in churches across America. The message had also been delivered on a national stage by celebrities such as Bill Crosby and Sidney Poitier. And the message had been delivered with great passion by Louis Farrakhan, who more than a decade earlier summoned one million black men to Washington, D. C. for a day of “atonement” and recommitment to their families and communities.
The mainstream media, however, treated the event as big news, and many pundits seemed surprised that the black congregants actually applauded the message. For them, it was remarkable that black people nodded in approval when Barack Obama said “If we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that too many fathers are missing-missing from too many lives and too man y homes. Too many fathers are MIA. Too many fathers are AWOL. They have abandoned their responsibilities. They’re acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it. You and I know this is true everywhere, but nowhere is this more true than in the African American community.”
The media did not ask—and Obama did not tell—where the missing facts might be found.
The following day, social critical and sociologist Michael Eric Dyson published a critique of Obama’s speech in Time magazine. He pointed out that the stereotype of black men being poor fathers may well be false. Research by Boston College social psychologist Rebekah Levine Coley found that black fathers not living at home are more likely to keep in contact with their children than fathers of any other ethnic or racial group. Dyson chided Obama for evoking a black stereotype for political gain, pointing out that “Obama’s words may have been spoken to
1
black folk, but they were aimed at those whites still on the fence about home to send to the White House.” Dyson’s critique was a fair one, but like other media commentators he remained silent about where all the absent black fathers could be found. He identified numerous s.
1. Murdock 1
It is widely known that America incarcerates more of its population than any other
country. Since the 1970’s, incarceration rates have skyrocketed. According to Wildeman and
Western (2010), America’s incarceration rate today is roughly seven times higher than the
Western European average (p. 159). Rudell (2004) states that “European nations typically
imprison less than 150 inmates per 100,000 residents”(p. 1). In the mid 1970’s, Americans were
incarcerated at a rate of only 100 out of every 100,000 people, equaling about 2 percent of the
population that went to prison at some point in their lives (Wildeman & Western, 2010, p. 159).
Wildeman and Western (2010) also state that “As of the early 2000’s, 6.6 percent of Americans
could expect to go to prison at some point (p. 159). America has shifted to a mass incarceration
era since the 1970’s resulting in an increased risk for every person to go to prison at some time in
their life (Wildeman & Western, 2010, p. 159). Mass incarceration has caused many problems
within the United States’ correctional system leading to problems like overcrowding. Mass
incarceration affects all races but has become a significant problem for minorities. Fixing this
problem involves not an institutional solution, but a societal solution that would change
American’s perceptions on minorities and crime. The procedure of creating racial impact
statements would address disparities for the system of criminal justice and could be the start to
addressing the race issues outside of the system on a bigger scale so that all races and ethnicities
are more equal.
Although changes in America’s criminal justice system have created inequality for all
minorities when compared to Whites, African American men are significantly and
disproportionately represented within the system of corrections (Blau & Blau, 1982; Cole, 2000;
Currie, 1998; Jackson, 1997; Mauer, 2011; National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People [NAACP], 2105; Pettit & Western, 2004; Reiman, 2007; Ruddell, 2004; Walker
2. Murdock 2
et al., 2012; Welch, 1999; Western, 2006; Western, 2007; Western & Pettit, 2000; Wilson,
2009). The NAACP (2015) states that “One in six black men had been incarcerated as of 2001. If
current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison
during his lifetime” (factsheet). According to Walker et al. (2012) “ African Americans comprise
less than 15 percent of the U.S. population but nearly 40 percent of all incarcerated offenders”
(p. 406). Stemming from that, prison statistics from 1988 to July 1994 show that the number of
Black inmates increased 355% compared to a 67% increase for Whites (Jackson, 1997, p. 495).
African Americans are incarcerated at rates six to eight times higher than Whites (Pettit &
Western, 20004; NAACP, [factsheet], 2015; Petersilia, 2003; Western 2006). Based on that
statistic, it is not surprising that Blacks are more likely to be arrested, convicted and given a
harsher penalty than Whites. For example, when looking at death sentences it seems that the race
of the defendant has a significant impact on whether or not the death penalty will be given. Cole
(1999) states that “all other things being equal, defendants who kill White victims are much more
likely to receive the death penalty than those who kill Black victims” (p.132). In other words,
statistics show that when other factors are controlled, people who murder Whites are more likely
to receive the death penalty as a punishment and in fact, receive the death penalty more
frequently than people who murder people of other races or ethnicities.
One of the biggest ways we can see the disproportionality among African Americans
versus Whites is by looking at drug laws. Due to the war on drugs, legislators created laws that
targeted certain types of drugs that Whites did not frequently use. For instance, crack cocaine
and powder cocaine have the same chemical makeup. Unfortunately, crack is cheaper than
powder cocaine which means the lower classes are more likely to use it. Since the lower classes
consist of more minorities than other classes and Blacks represent a large portion of the minority
3. Murdock 3
population, they are more likely to use crack over cocaine. Accordingly, Cole (1999) states that
“about 90 percent of federal crack cocaine defendants are Black…. and a 1992 study found that
not a single White person had been prosecuted on federal crack cocaine charges”(p.142). The
problem here is that the two drugs are technically the same, but the laws targeted the impure drug
because Whites believed minorities used it more. Interestingly, as of 2002 Whites and Hispanics
are more than ⅔ of the crack cocaine users in America (NAACP, 2015). The NAACP also
states another startling fact that “five times as many Whites are using drugs as African
Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at ten times the rate of
Whites” (NAACP, 2015). Obviously, inequality exists between Whites and Blacks and this
inequality has led and continues to lead to arrest and sentencing disparities that greatly impact
the lives of African Americans.
Besides drug use and changes in America’s criminal justice system, Blacks end up
incarcerated more than other races due to a number of factors. Research has found that African
American men who have little to no education and come from a low socioeconomic class are at a
greater disadvantage and experience even higher rates of incarceration than other races (Blau &
Blau, 1982; Jackson, 1997; Pettit & Western, 2004; Walker et. al. 2012; Wildeman & Western,
2010; Western, 2007; Western & Pettit, 2000; Wilson, 2009).
African Americans have an increased risk of incarceration, because they are identified as
a minority and minorities represent a disproportionate amount of the lower socioeconomic class
(Pettit & Western, 2004; Tischler 2014; Reiman, 2007; Western, 2006; Wildeman & Western,
2010). There is great economic inequality that exists between the social classes in the United
States and a large portion of inmates within the correctional system are of poor, lower
socioeconomic status. When America changed to a “get tough on crime” era and incarceration
4. Murdock 4
rates dramatically increased, so did the socioeconomic inequalities. Researchers have found a
link between increased crime in poor urban neighborhoods and increased rates of imprisonment
(Pettit & Western, 2004, 153). The majority of crime occurs in poor, urban communities.
Because minorities are largely the residents living in these poor neighborhoods, they are more
likely to be subjected to increased scrutiny by police than residents in higher class
neighborhoods. In fact, researchers believe that the poor are seen as threatening and more likely
to disrupt social order by police (Pettit & Western, 2004, p. 153). To Whites, minorities are seen
as outsiders. Cole (2000) states that “Stigmatizing African Americans and the poor as ‘criminals’
eases the guilt” the upper classes might feel for the significant difference in the opportunities
available to minorities (p. 177).
Additionally, researchers have found a link between economic inequality and crime. It
appears that a majority of inequality based on income promotes criminal violence due to the
accumulating feelings of despair, alienation and “pent-up aggression” (Blau & Blau, 1982).
According to Currie (1998), “Being poor in America means being at the bottom of an
exceptionally harsh system of inequality” (p. 127). Seeing that being born into poverty or at the
lower end of the social ladder makes one's life more difficult, being Black leaves one with even
greater hardships and less advantages. African Americans have an increased risk of living in
poverty and becoming trapped at the bottom of society’s social ladder because of their race
(Currie, 1998, p. 127).
As poverty and lack of opportunities usually go hand-in-hand, so too, does inadequate
education and an increased risk of incarceration.. A lack of education has been found to be a
common factor among those who are poor and incarcerated and is a contributing factor for the
inequality in incarceration rates for African Americans (Pettit & Western, 2004; Petersilia, 2003;
5. Murdock 5
Western, 2006). Pettit & Western (2004) state that “High school dropouts are three to four times
more likely to be in prison than those with twelve years of schooling” (p. 160). Likewise, fifty-
nine percent of America’s prison population is either “completely illiterate” or “functionally
illiterate” (Petersilia, 2003, electronic source, no page #). Because Blacks tend to live in poorer
neighborhoods, their schools are likely to be poorly ran. An adequate education system is
important, because schools are where children learn the rules of society such as proper behavior,
and the knowledge and skills that will assist them in everyday tasks such as reading and writing.
Without schools that can teach Blacks and others who live in poverty, the skills that will help
them find employment after they finish school, they have a greater chance of turning to crime as
a means of employment.
Although a low education level is not the sole factor that sends African Americans to
prison, it does increase African Americans’ chances of incarceration to nearly 1 out of 5 (Pettit
& Western, 2004). As a matter of fact, Western (2006) concluded from his study conducted from
1995 to 2001 that African American men who had less than a high school education went to
prison at a rate of 16.33 percent compared to 3.37 percent for Whites who also had less than a
high school education (p.74).Wilson (2009) also confirms that inadequate education, which
contributes to unemployment, is very much related to African American’s risks of incarceration.
Obviously, racial disparities are not only caused by poor education and low
socioeconomic status. The overrepresentation of Blacks in America’s criminal justice system
stems from a societal and systemic problem. The racial inequality in American society impacts
the criminal justice system and has led to the disparities in arrests, conviction and incarceration
for minorities and African Americans especially. A solution to this macro problem is a macro
solution that does not necessarily erase racism in American society as a whole, but would try to
6. Murdock 6
eliminate racism as much as possible within the criminal justice system (Coker, 2003; Jackson,
1997; Mauer, 1999, 2001, 2011; Walker et al., 2012; Wilson, 2009). A way to combat racial
inequality in all segments of the criminal justice system is by using racial impact statements
(Mauer, 1999, 2007, 2009, 2011). Impact statements are reports based on assessments conducted
by legislators that examine the potential impact and repercussions of laws before they are
enacted (Mauer, 2009). Assessments such as these are conducted routinely and “Are widely
viewed as responsible mechanisms of government,” because they can help prevent unforeseen
consequences (Mauer, 2009, p. 19). For the purpose of reducing racial disparities, the first step in
producing a racial impact statement is to assign an agency to prepare the statement. In the
criminal justice system, the agencies most qualified to do this are Sentencing Commissions, the
Department of Corrections and a budget and fiscal agency, because they are the major controllers
of the system (Mauer, 2007). Next, the agency would create the process for the racial impact
statements. Once the process is created, the agency would look at the areas a proposed legislation
would impact, such as, racial representation within prison populations. Lastly, the agency should
examine any data from the possible impact results to determine its effect and vote on the means
by which the legislation would be implemented (Maurer, 2007). The agency should consider
whether the crime control benefits of the piece of legislation outweigh the possible consequences
of racial disparities and if there are other policy changes that could address the problem without
creating any racial disparities (Mauer, 2007).
Racial impact statements are crucial, because they can determine any disparities or
inequalities a law may create for citizens or any portion of the population. Specifically, racial
impact statements can be used to determine whether a particular law or legislation will
discriminately effect a particular race. Because it is very hard to reverse a criminal justice policy
7. Murdock 7
once it has been adopted, racial impact statements can help prevent any “unintended
consequences” (Maurer, 2009, p. 19). These statements can then be used to examine any
legislation that would impact an individual or every division of the criminal justice system. After
looking at any potential repercussions, policy makers can then decide whether or not to alter the
piece of legislation so that it can still enhance public safety without creating disparities. One way
to alter a piece of legislation without discarding the entire bill would be to redefine it so that it is
more specific or targeted. Policies that do this will acknowledge any concerns of the policy while
also defining any distinctions in any penalties that would negatively affect minorities (Mauer,
2009). Another way to adjust a piece of legislation would be to add or increase mandatory
sentences or penalties for violators of the policy (Maurer, 2009). Doing this would reduce any
potential racial disparities by holding everyone accountable with same punishment. Combined,
these two ways of addressing issues with policies after the racial impact statements have brought
light to any repercussions, allow legislators to consider the policy goals and can resolve probable
negative outcomes.
Although impact statements are used in different parts of the government, like any
solution or process, implementation can be tricky, because each state has its own criminal justice
system that varies but still works under the federal criminal justice system. In order for this
solution to be effective, it must be unified nationally and implemented uniformly. Technical
issues that can arise due to creating a racial impact statement include lack of racial/ethnic data,
limited data in general, over abundance of bills that need an impact statement, having multiple
decision makers who can’t agree, difficulties in ensuring enforcers such as courtroom personnel
will properly implement any new legislation, and impact projections that are not sophisticated
(Mauer, 2007).
8. Murdock 8
All things considered, racial disparities within America’s criminal justice system are
contributed by inequalities in education and socioeconomic status. The race issues of America
place minorities at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder which decreases their chances of
receiving adequate education and the opportunities they deserve to live a life outside of prison.
There is no reason that just because someone comes from a particular race they have a greater
chance of going to prison at some point in their life. To give African Americans and minorities
equal opportunities, examinations of the potential racial impacts of bills before they are passed
are a vital step in decreasing racial disparities. Implementing racial impact statements nationally
is the first step to fixing race issues in American society. By addressing discrimination in one
system and then others individually, over time racial disparities won’t be as big of a problem as
they are now and other institutions and problems in American society such as inequalities
between classes and education can be addressed.