Free College Admissions Essays: My Interest In Law

When you are first learning how to surf, the weather conditions play a large part in determining your success. The ideal day for beginners includes a blue sky, a high temperature, and, most importantly, tame tides. When my cousin Lauren and I step onto the increasingly deserted beach at 5:00 pm, it quickly becomes apparent that the weather is not on our side. The sun barely peaks through the mass of gray clouds covering the sky. A breeze comes in, dropping the temperature to less-than-favorable conditions. Lauren and I look out at the ocean and can immediately tell that these waves are much bigger and much rougher than usual for this beach. Learning to surf is going to be a much bigger challenge than either of us anticipated.

Although we would like to believe the world is not as racially charged in 2013 as it was in the 1960s, a look in our penal system would show that minorities are still arrested and incarcerated at a higher rate than whites. The United States has experienced a rise in its prison population over the last 40 years and our incarceration rate is nearly 5 times higher than any other country. Even though 13% of the US population are African American males, they make up 38% of the prison population. Contributing factors to these numbers are mandatory minimum sentences, high crime and poverty areas, and lack of rehabilitative resources within our system (p.77-78).

The trend of African American males between the ages of 25 and 29 has seen a dramatic increase of incarceration. Attention has been focusing on areas of housing, education, and healthcare but the most prominent problem for African American males is the increase in the incarceration rate. African American males between the ages of 25 and 29 incarceration rate has been thought, by many, to be caused by economic factors such as under employment or unemployment, poor housing, lack of education, and lack of healthcare. Yet, others believe it is due to the imbalance of minorities within the criminal justice system, such as judges, lawyers, and lawmakers.

An academic subject that inspires me is pre-law, understanding the factors of life and the choices you make based off self interest is inspiring to understand how people's minds work depending on real life situations. I've always had an interest in understanding how the government is run. It's important to learn as an American citizen your rights to your laws. I will further my interest in college by studying more to have pre-law as my Major. Other opportunities that will benefit me in being universal in the area of law would include philosophy,social science, and Business throughout taking college courses. These majors all connect in the aspect in bettering a community or individual through some type of financial assistance. I intend using Pre-law outside of the classroom after I graduate throughout college

In today’s society, discrimination continues to affect millions of minorities from inappropriate name calling to being shot by a law enforcement officer because you were perceived to be dangerous. The underlying effects of racial discrimination are seen in all aspects of our society, especially in our social institutions. These social institutions range from the educational system to our government, yet racial discrimination is more evident in the criminal justice system. When analyzing how the criminal justice system discriminates against minorities we are able to do so through the visible disparities within the system. Unfortunately, these disparities display African Americans having the highest population rates in the criminal justice system, therefore, we can immediately conclude this disparity in population is due to the injustices conducted by the system. Thus, there is a need for urgent change not just within the criminal justice system but within all social institutions beginning with our government. This change should create greater opportunities for minorities to enter the political field in our government as well as promoting higher participating in voting. Yet, the criminal justice system within all its aspects practices discrimination due to its deeply interwoven prejudice, institutional racism, and socioeconomic status.

Underachievement, lack of inclusion, and backward progression within society is a trend that engulfs African American men constantly in the American society. There is a continuous struggle to break the persistent mold. Although many feel that the United States has overcome its racist history, the legacies of slavery and racism still affect our policies and practices today. Of the nearly 2.1 million adult men and women imprisoned in the United States, roughly 70% are persons of color (Minton, 2012). Within the criminal justice system, people of color are imprisoned disproportionately due to racist laws, are denied access to the rehabilitative options given to Whites, and are harassed and mistreated by U.S. agencies.

African American’s make up nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population, and they are incarcerated at nearly 6 times the rate of whites. (NAACP, 2009-2015) There are many reasons that play a factor in racial disparities in jails and prisons, and although some of these reasons are out of our control, some hold room for major reform. In order to understand why there is such disparity, we need to look at all of the possible contributing factors, and in order to make changes, we need to start from the bottom and work our way up.

Mass Incarceration is a growing dilemma in the United States that populates our prisons at an alarming rate. Michelle Alexander is a professor at Ohio State University and a graduate of Stanford law school. She states in her award winning book, The new Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness “In less than thirty years, the U.S. penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million” (Alexander, 6). These young men and women are unable to afford a decent lawyer because they come from such a poverty-stricken background. Men and women are at a financial disadvantage in our justice system. Lawyers and attorneys cost a fortune and most people can just simply not afford them. Others plead to their charges because

The Judiciary system encourages systematic criminalization of Blacks and mass incarceration as they contribute to keeping them in the cycle that oppresses them. In the 2016 Prison Policy Initiative article, “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie” an attorney and advocate for social justice reform, Peter Wagner, summarizes the distribution of criminals and their convictions within federal, state, and local jails and prisons. 2.4 million people are incarcerated in the U.S., the highest amount of incarcerated people in the entire world. It is ironic given that

Within African American communities, individuals with low incomes or low education levels are at increased risk of incarceration due to less options for legal employment and little resources to successfully navigate the legal system (Crutchfield and Weeks, 2015; Mtichell & Caudy, 2015; Pettit & Western, 2004). Although the incarceration of black people is an international issue (Warde, 2013) which affects both men and women (Christian & Thomas, 2009), the substantial size of the African American male incarcerated population within the United States suggest that this a

Coming from a society with much weaker civil society structure, I appreciate the protection of civil rights offered under the U.S. Constitution. However, I also know that there are many groups especially African Americans and others racial minority groups in this country who don't enjoy the same equal protection of the law. My understanding of the complexities of the American criminal justice system has expanded after watching the Kalief Browder documentary. This documentary relates the life of a black young man who committed suicide and a family destroyed because of the negligence, lack of professionalism and more important the criminal justice bias and prejudice against black people. This case also motivated me to achieve my dream of becoming

It has been proven across this country that the ratio of minorities to whites in jails and prisons is overwhelming. In 2010, African-American males were 6 times more likely than white males to be in jails and prisons as there were 678 white male inmates per 100,000 and 4,347 black male males per 100,000 locked away (Drake, 2013). This is up from 1960, when black males were 5 times more likely to be incarcerated (Drake, 2013). The ratio in the juvenile criminal justice system is not any better as in 2011, “African-American youths were 160% more likely to have been referred to juvenile court for a delinquent offense, 13% more likely to have been petitioned for formal case processing, 8% less likely to have been adjudicated, and 11% more likely to have had their petitioned cases waived to the adult system for criminal prosecution” (Howell & Hutto, 2012). These high ratios have caused a blame game across this country.

As reported by the U.S. Justice Department, there has been significant increase in incarcerated African American males, in comparison to Hispanic and White males. It is believed that social interaction, area of residency, and social networks have major influence on the increasing crime and incarceration rates of African American males. A larger portion of White males hold more positions within the U.S. Judicial system than African American males who make up a larger population of prison inmates and less involvement in legislation. This coincides with data suggesting that African American’s have lower percentages of receiving or obtaining higher education, placing them in areas of low-income and less opportunities. Social inequality in the judicial system is questioned as well as demographics and economics will be researched in order to provide in depth analysis of these national percentages of African Americans. Additional research is conducted to investigate circumstances once an African American male enters the criminal judicial system, and a generational cycle of crime. There is more knowledge and potential opportunities within the prison system versus the lack of resources these prisoners would feel they would have upon their release.

More than half of the United States prison population is made up of African Americans and Latinos, this is nearly twice as their accumulated representation within thirty percent of the general population. As these minorities continue to be put in jail, the rates of racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system also continue to stagger. Crime commission, arrests, convictions, and sentencing are all apart of the many stages within

As a family of six I was raised on section 8, barely surviving on welfare. I shared beds and clothes with dreams of making it out of poverty, but with little guidance I was at risk of continuing this lifestyle for generations to come. My mother was always at work and my father was absent, which made me skip childhood and mature in order to become independent. I was never that child who had their mother sitting at the table telling them how to do their homework, but rather a child who stood on the table all day and night trying to teach myself. I knew from an early age that I wanted more in life than used clothes and a bike as transportation. I had the dream of attending college and becoming a doctor in philosophy.