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African Americans In The Criminal Justice System

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There has been major sources of racial discrimination in our nation's criminal justice system, the selective prosecution of African-Americans in particular. The American criminal justice system must recognize that the racial inequities have poisoned the criminal justice system. The American system of justice is a racially biased, two-tiered system; one for minorities and one for whites. In particular, African-Americans are disproportionately targeted, arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to long mandatory prison terms and execution (www.crimenet.org). The U. S. has gone from prison and jail population of about 300,00 to more than 2 million, most assume that this surge in imprisonment was due to a surge in violent crime but when incarceration …show more content…

The question here is: why is it mostly the minority that are suffering? It is simple, it is easier for the officers of the law to exploit those of no authority, the poor blacks, than those who can easily buy their way out with, affluent whites. African Americans—particularly in the poorest neighborhoods—are subject to tactics and practices that would result in public outrage and scandal if committed in middle-class white neighborhoods.”(Alexander 96) Our society has chosen to lock up more than two million people behind bars with millions more branded as felons for life which locks them into a permanent second-class status. Mass incarceration of poor and most times uneducated African Americans, mainly men, has emerged as the new caste system that is designed to address the social, economic and political challenges of our time which is comparable to Jim Crow. Michelle alexander says, “the impact of globalization and deindustrialization was felt most strongly in black inner-city communities…Those residing in ghetto communities were particularly ill equipped to adapt to the seismic changes taking place in the U.S. economy; they were left isolated and jobless”. (Alexander 50) According to our text, “Sociologist… point out that crime and social disorganization are products of the diminished capacities of poorer communities, the diminished opportunities so many individuals see for creating a better world for themselves and others”. (Dolgon & Baker chapter

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