Oscar Lewis View On Poverty

There is also a large disparity between races when it comes to sentencing convicts to Death Row. Looking just at the federal death penalty data released by the Department of Justice between 1995 and 2000, 682 defendants were charged with death-eligible crimes. Out of those 682 defendants, the defendant was black 48% of the cases, Hispanic in 29% of the cases, and white in only 20% of the cases (Coker, 2003).

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.

As well as that, studies show that the death penalty has been disproportionately used between blacks and whites, with blacks being the ones where it happens more often. This has gone on as long as the colonial days, with the Jim Crow Laws being a big reason for the death penalty being used against blacks. Lynching was one of the most common forms of killing accused criminals until it was voted inhumane and was abolished in 48 states. Tom Robinson’s case was an example of an unfair execution “plan” even though he ended getting shot 17 times in the chest

The population at large in the United Stated is very different than the population of the prison system. Racial inequality in the criminal justice system is often ignored because it does not affect most people. If there is to be a change in racial inequality, this issue is one that must be addressed. According to Inequality and Incarceration, “497 out of 100,000 Americans are imprisoned.” This means there is “less than one percent of people” in the United States that are imprisoned. This may seem like an insignificant amount.

American prison is filled with minorities. The boom of minority in prison started after the 1980s war on drugs. Once arrested minorities are more likely to be convicted and their more likely to face hard sentence after begin convicted. In the article 1 in 3 black males will go to prison in their

Understanding that the poverty of black Americans did not just stay within the home is a big step in understanding urban poverty. Urban poverty reached outside the home, into the parks, schools and playgrounds. With poverties reach being that extensive, there was something other than adversity causing this. Louis Gates wrote an article about this called “Black America and The Class Divide.” (Jr.)

The death penalty is one of the most controversial issues on American soil. Blacks are more likely to face the death penalty than whites in the commission of identical crimes(CNN, 2014). The history of capital punishment dates back to the days before Christ. The Old Testament adage 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,' has survived throughout the ages despite the New Testament's rendition of 'thou shall not kill'. Today's American victims endure a more demure of style of cruel and unusual punishment; death by lethal injection has replaced the barbaric traditions of the past.

South Carolina is one of thirty one states in our country that utilizes the death penalty (DPIC, 2015). There are currently forty-four death row inmates in the state of South Carolina as of July 1, 2015 (DPIC, 2015). This population resides at Lieber Correctional Institute, a level 3 maximum security prison, in Ridgeville South Carolina (SCDC, 2015). There have been a total of 684 individuals put to death in our state’s history (DPIC, 2015). A choice between lethal injection and electrocution are the two active methods used in South Carolina by a means of execution for death row inmates (DPIC, 2015). This population consists of murderers, physical and sexual assaulters, abusers, and the aggressors of our society. They have made choices and

Blacks are also twenty one percent more likely to receive mandatory minimum sentences than their white counterparts. Why, you ask? Well, our judicial system has a lot to do with the unequal justice in the United States, which in turn helps increase the number of minorities that receive sentences and incarceration. Most of the offenders come from urban and poor neighborhoods and of course do not have the money for a private attorney so they are represented by a public defender that has less time and resources to fight for their freedom. Furthermore, that same public defender, works beside the prosecutor and judge that resides over the case. The system is set up so that people of color will fail and not

The article that I read from Amnesty USA was about how the race of homicide victims affects the results of whether or not a defendant in a capital case will receive the death penalty. The article provides a graph that showed how death row inmates who have killed white victims have been executed 77% of the time. However, death row inmates who have killed African American victims have only been executed 15% of the time. Since 1977, the vast majority of defendants in capital cases have been executed for killing white victims, even though African-Americans make up more than half of the total number of homicide victims.

While the topic can be overwhelming and complex, it is important to study the racist institution of the death penalty because execution is the ultimate expression of which individuals are valued by our society and which are considered dispensable. What the US expresses through its executions carries some racist undertones when we look at the races of the persons being executed, but it takes on a clearly racial direction when we consider the race of the original murder victim. For example, "the most comprehensive study of the death penalty found that killers of whites were eleven times more likely to be condemned to death than killers of African- Americans."3 On the flip side, "only 31 of the over 18,000 executions in this country's history involved a white person being punished for killing a Black person."4 In capital punishment, we find the modernday counterpart to lynching. Of course, lynching often meant sporadic acts of individual racism. Selective killing today is an official, bureaucratized act of the state and therefore an official statement of what our government stands for. And what the government stands for is the most complete disempowerment possible - death - for a large number of Black individuals.

I would always read these statistics online about how there are more African Americans incarcerated than any other race. Before I came in to the prison, I honestly thought those statistics were maybe over exaggerated, but once I entered the majority are indeed African Americans, which is very upsetting. I saw a couple of white people and the rest were Hispanics mixed with African Americans, which is extremely disappointing to see. This also doesn’t help the stigma that is going on throughout the country with people of color.

Capital punishment also reflects racial disparity. Between 1977 and 1984, the state of Texas executed 13 African Americans who were

Being sent to Death Row is the highest prosecution a criminal could be sentenced to and the process when determining of someone deserves a death sentence is a very bias decision. Since 1977 when capital punishment was restored there has been about 20,600 homicides and only about .7 death sentences for every 100 homicides has been given in the Cook county. The decision to impose a death sentence is not only based on the crime done but also the race of the victim. Attorneys at a state level has a less formal guide when giving death sentences. It is commonly seen how race plays a major role in the justice system. As apart of attorney protocol of determining if the death sentence is given it is seen black males will be given a higher sentence versus a white male even if the crimes where similar. In this article “Disparities on Death Row” published in Grumman points out the unjustness in the justice system. Through ethos, pathos, and logos Cornelia Grumman effectively persuades her audience to spread the issues of capital punishment assignment.

From 1976 to present day, there has been a total of 1379 executions due to capital punishment in the United States (Death Penalty Info Center). Founded in 1990 The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) is a non-profit organization focused on providing the media and the public with analysis and issues concerning capital punishment in the United States. After extensive research, I was not at all surprised to find that most of capital punishment carried out throughout the Unites States since 1976 mostly took place in the southern states. “Formed in February 1861, the Confederate States of America was a republic composed of eleven Southern states that seceded from the Union in order to preserve slavery, states’ rights, and political liberty for whites” (History.com). The states seem to have kept their ancient beliefs as society modernized and attempting to