Blacks, Prison, and Institutional Racism

As times got tough, people reverted to racism and discrimination to appear superior. As a result of this, African Americans were deprived and forced into poverty based on skin color. White men of the time used

The United States accounts for 5% of the world population, but our prison population makes up 25% of the world’s (Nagin, 2014). African Americans account for the largest percent of our prison population because they have the highest incarceration rate compared to other races. This essay will argue that African Americans are incarcerated at a higher rate than Caucasians. Proven by statistical data, there are grounds to establish that the racial disparity in incarceration rates is a social problem. To address this social problem, public policy should be implemented by the Federal Government.

America has the highest prevalence of jailing its citizens. Nearly 2.3 million Americans are behind bars or nearly one percent of the adult population at any given time (Campbell, Vogel, & Williams, 2015). As of 2014, African Americans make up 34% of the incarcerated population. As a result, a disproportionate amount of African American youth will experience a parent’s incarceration. Research has shown that children of incarcerated parents experience emotional problems, socioeconomic problems, and cognitive disturbances (Miller, 2007). In this paper, I will discuss the impact of mass incarceration in the African American community and its effect on African American children.

African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated; that is 60% of 30% of the African American population. African Americas are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. “Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups." (Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J. 2011.) Stated on Americanprogram.org “ The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.” Hispanics and African Americans make up 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population. (Henderson 2000). Slightly 15% of the inmate population is made up of 283,000 Hispanic prisoners.

Many jail cells and prisons hold more African Americans than colleges and universities. This is a major problem for younger men and women that have to witness this because if this is all they are exposed to then this will be all they know. It does not only affect younger children or teenagers but close family members, wives, and parents. The mass incarceration of African Americans is becoming the norm for our men and women because the ¨white man¨ or the government is subliminally fighting to oppress African Americans and hold them back from any chance of prosperity that they have.

When we think about prisons, jails, and courthouses, our minds are meant to draw a connection to cold, hard, justice and fair punishments for guilty and deserving parties. Yet, in our judicial and prison systems around the world, this idea is nowhere close to reality. From inhumane punishments, to mass incarceration, and “trapping” people in the system based on race or financial status, justice is far from being served.

“We ain’t thugs for the sake of just bein’ thugs. Nobody do that where we grew at N___, duh! The poverty line we not above. So I come in the mask and gloves ‘cause we ain’t feelin’ the love. We ain’t doin’ crime for the sake of doin’ crimes. We movin’ dimes ‘cause we ain’t doin’ fine. One out of three of us is locked up doin’ time. You know what this could do to a N___ mind? My mind on my money, money on my mind. If you owe me ten dollars you ain’t givin’ me nine! Ya’ll ain’t give me 40 acres and a mule. So I got my glock 40 now I’m cool.” –Jay-Z

Mass Incarceration in the United States has been a large topic of choice because rapid growth in the prison and jail populations, the long sentences the inmates face, and the inability for some inmates to incorporate themselves back into society. Since the 1970’s the U.S. prison population quadrupled from 158 to 635 people per 100,000, causing the U.S. to gain the title of country with the highest incarceration rate. (Massoglia, Firebaugh, & Warner, 2013, p. 142; Muller, 2012) As the growth of the U.S prison and jail population rapidly increased, so did the growth of the three major contributors to that population – African Americans, Hispanics, and whites – with African American and

There are large racial disparities in incarceration and related detainments for African Americans. They are more likely to be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections than any other racial or ethnic group (H.West, Sabol, & Greenman, 2010). Institutional racism is believed to be the reason why African Americans, especially males, are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. On balance, the public believes that discrimination against black people is based on the prejudice of the individual person, correlates to the discrimination built into the nation’s laws and institutions (Pew’s Research Center, 2017). This belief is actually supported through several experimental studies that provide evidence that African Americans are to be seen as more criminal and threatening than others thus more likely to be arrested or even shot (Greenwald, Oakes, & Hoffman, 2003). Racism within the criminal justice system very much exists and is still relevant.

1.) This man who was suspected of a burglary, was a victim of institutionalized oppression from the police officers questioning him. Although the officer confirmed that the call was for a different neighborhood, this man was automatically assumed to be the burglar because he was black, and that in itself was deemed suspicious by the police due to the stereotype of black crime. These officers, who were also black, have internalized oppression about black criminals, which means that they harbor the oppressive thoughts about their own minority group. This leads to the fact that this man was also facing horizontal hostility. Despite the fact that the officers were the same race as the ‘suspect’ they still jumped to conclusions about his actions instead of approaching this man without judgment.

“The Stain of Racism in New York’s Prisons” by the New York Times, The Editorial Board, is an editorial about the most common problems that happen in their prisons. There are three main points that the author made. They are, the inequality/racial bias, unfair punishments, and parole.

Throughout the last forty years high incarceration rates have been a major issue in the criminal justice field. There are many factors that attribute to the rates increasing in such an alarming matter, as well as theories that support and explain why the factors play the role they do in high rates. In the following paper it will show the affects high incarceration has on the different groups of criminal justice as well as the African American population.

Even after half century declaration of civil right people are still segregated by base on their color and suspect them as an prior list to commit crime. Which seems that racism still exist in the country like American which also know a melting pot where there is versatile amount of diversity .Being judgmental and act quickly bases on race assumption is brutal reaction which is rapidly increasing day by day . Its seems like police and security apparatus of US suspect more on color and immigrant people ,whether its suspecting for terrorist attack ,daily bases routine check up or any crime that occur in society its always come around first to blame on them before any going through its details or knowing the whole story.

The exploitation of prisoners by the U.S. is not color blind. There is a disproportionately large amount of people of color incarcerated in this country. There are more Native Americans per capita in prison than any other group (Davis). Latino people are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated than non-Hispanic whites (PrisonPolicy.org). Black men make up 60% of the prison population (McCalla). Michelle Alexander states in The New Jim Crow that there are more Black men "in prison or jail, on probation or on parole than were enslaved in 1850." This is not because of the erroneous idea of Black men naturally being delinquent. It is because the prison industrial complex was deliberately manufactured to directly replace the profit the country made through the enslavement of African-Americans.

Statement of Facts: High incarceration rates have been an issue in criminal justice over the past forty years. The issue can also affect the perception that the public has on the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, over the past forty years it has been a negative issue that has impacted the public perception. Some people may view the criminal justice system as a broken system due to the high rates, but fortunately it is not the case. High incarceration rates “do not simply reflect a rising crime rate that has strained the capacity of a besieged justice system. Crime did rise during this period, but the main reason for the stunning growth in prison populations was that the courts and legislatures did indeed get tougher on offenders.” (Currie, 1998) One particular group that may have a negative perception of the criminal justice system due to the high incarceration rates is the African-American population “The rise in incarceration rates has also disproportionately affected minority populations.” (Collier, 2014) The African- American population statistically contributed around forty percent of the prison population back in 2011, even though they only make up approximately 13 percent of the United