The Mass Incarnation Discrimination against Minorities

According to Erickson (1423), racial effect claims are intended to bring about justice in cases of racial injustice. In her post, which is the focus of this study, she emphasizes the importance of considering racial impacts rather than simple motives. The main article states clearly that, regardless of motive, the consequences of racial prejudice are significant and harmful to minorities. The minorities in the report are African Americans and Latinos. The Racial Impact Statements is considered as the remedy for racial injustices experienced in the United States of America because they are proactive tools that endeavor to point out the outcomes of the formulated criminal justice legislation as well as provides information to legislatures regarding potential racial impacts before the amendment and the adoption of the law. The problem with racial impact statement is that it rarely adopts key steps as observed in the Environmental Impact Assessment. As a result, it is not easy to predict the projected racial discrimination impact as well as look at alternative options or mitigation measures to reduce the potential impacts. This topic is very relevant since it brings out the fact that any racial bias of individuals in the criminal justice environment such as judges or magistrates would lead to a high projected impact on the minorities. It is also important to understand that racial injustice is still genuine in the current society primarily through the criminal policies put in place which instills harsh sentences to the minorities (African Americans and the Latinos) compared to the white folks under the same conditions.

Erickson uses logos when she gives statistical data in her introductory statement about the percentage representation of the minorities in the prison population. She points out that out of the hundred percent of the Americans in prison, an approximate of about fifty-eight percent consist of the African Americans and Latinos. She justifies this scenario as racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system in the United States since America is dominated by the whites and yet its prisons have more of the Latinos and the African Americans (Erickson 1425). Besides, she observes that there has been an increasing incarceration rate over time. She affirms that in 2011, when the incarceration rates shot significantly in the United States of America, sixty percent of the populations in prison and local jails were mainly the ethnic and racial minorities. These were the Hispanics and the black Americans who recorded an imprisonment rate of thirty-seven percent and twenty-two percent respectively (Erickson 1427).

It is evident that racial disproportionality is there in the criminal justice system of our nation. This is practiced at different but distinct levels. These levels include the arresting level, the charging level, the conviction level, the incarceration level and the sentence severity level. To justify the scenarios in the criminal justice systems, some individuals like politicians have overestimated the occurrence of crime rate by the minorities (Erickson 1429). Such claims are biased since there are no clear sources of crime investigation on the reported crimes that the minorities are accused to have dominated. Marc Mauer, Director of the Sentencing Project, states that the policies on the “war on drugs” is the major contributor to the increased incarceration of African Americans in jails and prisons as well as the Latinos. Despite the fact that some studies indicate that the African Americans are linked to specific crimes such as drug abuse, there is a conspicuous bias which is firmly anchored in the nation’s history, and it is still being upheld in the current flow of criminal events. The latter is in contrast with laws that were formulated after the Jim Crow era that were intended to paint a picture of the society that racial discrimination is a social evil and should be eliminated. As per the quotation that racial disproportionality is there in the criminal justice system of the nation, determination of whether racism still exists to date or not is anchored on this quote. It will be evident why there is still racial discrimination in the United States despite there being some of the key and significant policies and laws on equality and human rights.

Despite the fact that there is a decrease in the overt discrimination in the criminal justice system as from the twenty-first century, there are still distinct scenarios of individuals with perceptions of racial indiscrimination and cases of unfairness in the nation’s criminal justice system (Felice, Spalter-Roth, and White 3). The quote is very relevant to the primary document and connects very well. This is evident because looking at the concerns in the main article; the author brings out the fact that despite there being amendments in most policies during the twenty-first century, traces of racial discrimination can still be spotted in the criminal justice system. Currently, this is seen in the institutional based biases involving the black American against the white citizens. Very harsh terms and conditions would be imposed on the African institutions, unlike the white citizens. Observations are also vivid when it comes to other policies in place relating to education, occupation, and settlement distribution and communication channels about the minorities.

The second quote from the main article is that the racial discernment in the criminal justice system is also anchored in the evolution of policies and laws for sentencing that have racial discriminatory impacts. Relating to the main topic, racial impact statements have the aim to inform and sometimes obligate the legislators on the potential racial impact of a certain law or policy to the minorities before adopting the policy. This means that the existing sentencing policies and laws did not come by recently. The latter has been deeply embedded in the culture of Americans who would cling to perceived stereotypes on racial discrimination. Observing the historical background of the United States about African Americans, there existed a slave code. This was a policy that existed way down in history. Some of the objectives of the code were: to instill into the minds of the African Americans that they were inferior and therefore not citizens of America, to deny the black Americans basic rights such as to education, property ownership and to impose heavy sentencing on the African Americans whenever they broke the law. Although such conditions were geared towards the slaves who were majorly the black Americans for the better part of the nineteenth century, they still apply in a modified way in the current century (twentieth century).

According to Griffith (7), the criminal justice system in the United States has developed a habit of creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy most of the existing states in our nation. This behavior has persisted over the history of the nation as far as discrimination due to skin color is concerned. His objective is to expose the menace and let the society know that the minorities are not living in freedom in the criminal justice environment. This quote is very relevant to the rest of the paper since it questions why the racial impact statements aspects are not considered when formulating policies and laws that automate racial impacts. He also affirms that racial disproportionality is one of the main contributors to the substantial number of incarcerated black Americans. This affirmation coincides with the one in the main article as well as emphasizes the case which I stated in the first paragraph.

The main article brings out its third point by defining racial influence reports. Racial influence statement is a report predicting the effect of a planned criminal justice law or policy may have on the racial minorities. It is through the understanding of the racial impact statements that we would be able to determine its effectiveness when it comes to adopting it. There have been attempts of various states to adopt racial impact statement. The response has been discouraging since only Iowa State adopted the racial impact statement by legislative means. The other states were only doing trial and error. Lack of a government that would easily fund the technicalities involved during racial impact statement development processes such as the methodologies and lobbying is the main contributor to such scenarios of ignoring racial impact statements by the legislators (Nellis 3). Brings out a contrast that there have been decrees in the incarceration of African Americans in jails and prisons due to what he terms as ”smart crime.“ This could be because much more awareness has been raised as far as racial discrimination is concerned. One of the objectives of racial influence statement is to provide information to the legislators that the intended policy would result in racial discrimination. He at some point agrees with the main article on the fact that causes of incarceration are based on racial inclinations and biased.

According to Segall (160), interesting point that explains the need for the American legislators to adopt the so-called ”smart crime.“ He points out that increased rates of incarceration have become costly to the government through the expenditures involved in maintaining the prisoners and the task forces involved. As a result, there is need to reduce the prisoners. This is quite relevant since it brings out another point of view besides racial impact statement approach which seems to be failing. It is also an opportunity for the racial impact statement to thrive since a loophole is provided (Seagall 161).

In conclusion, the arguments in the main article prove that though there is a mask to show the world that there is no racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, an analysis anchored on the racial impact statement procedures proves the legislators wrong. One fact remains that racial disproportionality is not only real in America but also a menace that needs to be faced out.

Works Cited

Erickson, Jessica. Racial Impact Statement: Considering the consequences of ratial Disproportional in the criminal justice system. Research Paper. Washington D.C: Washington Defender Association, 2013. Print.

Felice, Levine J, Roberta Spalter-Roth, and Patricia E White. ”Race, Ethnicity, and the Criminal Justice System.“ A Series On How Race And Ethnicity Matter (2007): 1-32. document. 09 December 2017.Print.

Griffith, Nichole. Racial in the Criminal Justice System. PhD proposal. California: California Polytechnic State University, 2012. Print.

Nellis, Ashley. The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prison. PhD Thesis. Washington D.C: The Sentencing Project, 2016. Print.

Seagall, Jordan. Mass Incarcaration, Ex-felon Discrimination and Black Labor Market Disadvantages. PhD Thesis. New York: Stanford Law School, 2011. Print.