The American Civil Liberties Union

And about two-thirds are there for either property or violent crimes” (Lopez, 2016). “A lot of mainstream media attention goes to the federal prison system and war on drugs. But most people in prison are held at the state level, and they 're usually in for violent offenses” (Lopez, 2016). In this theory it is notable that predominantly Black and Latinos are receiving longer and tougher sentences. "Tough on crime" policies that are still with us today are the reason for Mass Incarceration (Lopez, 2016).

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.

Numbers suggest that, for instance, while Blacks compose six percent of population in St. Clayton city, they represent 57% of overall police arrests. Similarly, the probability of Black arrest in Berkeley (CA) and Madison (Wis) cities is nine times higher than other racial groups compared to their corresponding population. In addition to this, Bureau of Justice statistics report that at the national level, Blacks are two times more likely to be arrested compared to Whites. Concurring with media reports and national statistics institutes’ estimates, empirical studies also report high proportion of minority arrests compared to their representation in the population (Golub, Johnson, & Dunlap, 2007).

The “War on Drugs” established that the impact of incarceration would be used as a weapon to combat the illegal drug problem in this country. Unfortunately, this war against drugs has fallen disproportionately on black Americans. “Blacks constitute 62.6% of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons in 1996, whereas whites constituted 36.7%. The drug offender admissions rate for black men ranges from 60 to an astonishing 1,146 per 100,000 black men. In contrast, the white rate begins at 6 and rises no higher than 139 per 100,000 white men. Drug offenses accounted for nearly two out of five of all black admissions to state prisons (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” The disproportionate rates at which black drug offenders are sent to prison originate in racially disproportionate rates of arrest.

When Americans first set their eyes on the 20th century, they hoped for a better life without war and a prospering economy. This vision of freedom and liberty in America was quite bold, knowing there were challenges ahead. There’s always a price to pay and obstacles to go through when the circumstances are not ideal. During the early 1900s, our country was evolving and starting a new era. An era where blacks were no longer slaves, civil rights movements were occurring, and citizens were having issues with the law. It was a moment in time that helped us understand why these events occurred. From those events, wars, and movements, we can learn and improve from any flaws we may encounter. As a nation, we will be better prepared and aware of these scenarios because we reflect on our country’s past.

while the overall U.S. rate of incarceration is up very substantially, this shift has fallen with radically disproportionate severity on African Americans, particularly low-income and poorly educated blacks. Indeed, the result has been a sharp overrepresentation of blacks in jails and prisons. In 2007, black males constituted roughly 39 percent of incarcerated males in state, federal, and local prisons or jails, though representing only 12 percent of the total adult male population. White males, on the other hand, constituted just 36 percent of the male inmate population in 2007, well under their 65.6 percent of the total male population. The Hispanic population, which constitutes about 20 percent of the total inmate population, is also overrepresented but is much closer to its relative share of the total population of about 16 percent ( ).

Interest groups are collections of people with common interests, beliefs, concerns, or goals who advocate for public policies that coincide with their agendas. These groups are most influential when they are formal, have a standardized agenda for policy change, and are non-governmental actors. One of the most recent and crucial issues to many environmentally minded interest groups is the Flint water crisis. Although many local and global organizations seek to provide support and resources for the city of Flint, the three non-economic interest groups that will be discussed in this paper include the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan

Drug usage is widely considered to be a black problem, but various studies have found that all races use drugs at roughly the same rates. Nonetheless, a 1995 issue of the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education found that 95% of the people who were asked to describe a drug user pictured a black person. The reason is that minorities are statistically much more likely to be arrested for drugs because minorities are aggressively pursued, arrested, and prosecuted. As a result, seventy-five percent of the drug offenders in state prisons are black or Latino. Consequently, minorities are also stereotyped as drug dealers, but they’re no more likely to deal drugs either. Even the former “drug czar” Barry McCaffrey acknowledged that most people buy their drugs from “their own race generally.”

The struggle of black communities and individuals can be observed in many aspects of contemporary society. Studies by the Department of Justice have found in past reports that black and latino American’s were not only more likely to be ticketed and searched by police, but also twice as likely to be met with force when confronted by police officers (Gallagher, 2003). Also two-thirds of convicted individuals on drug charges were black, regardless of the equivalency of drug use by white and black Americans (Gallagher, 2003). The key point to take away with criminal activity convictions is the higher percentage of black’s being charged then their white counterparts regardless of the equal frequencies of the activity in question. However, there are many more examples of modern discrimination, such as the housing market and city

The Criminal Justice system exists because of adults and juveniles who decided to commit offenses that put society’s well being at stake or they decided to not follow the law that was set before them. However, minorities make up most of the convicted citizens and it’s something minorities have no control over. The Center for American Progress says, “According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. A report by the Department of Justice found that blacks and Hispanics were approximately three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white motorists” (Sophia Kerby, The Top 10 Most Startling Facts, 2012). Based on past encounters, the assumption that African Americans and people of Hispanic descent will be present when crime occurs. African Americans make up less than half of society’s population but based on statistics, blacks make up more than half of the population of convicted men and women in federal prisons and state jails.

Last but not least, there is a higher number of arrests among blacks than whites. African Americans are being arrested at nearly six times the rate of whites (NAACP).As a matter of fact, “African Americans use or sell drugs about the same rate as whites, but they are 2.8 to 5.5 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than whites” (Hudson).Blacks and whites both do the crime, but blacks are the main one who gets caught and

US society reflects systems and institutions that act in concert with one another to maintain a class infrastructure that in large part finds its roots in race. A critical analysis of public education lends discussion to African, and Hispanic Americans having a close relationship to chronically failing schools; an evaluation of the American welfare system reveals a disproportionate minority representation, a discussion of public health crises note an overabundance of minority emergence, and a deep look into the criminal justice system uncovers a similar, and potentially even more ruinous fate for minorities. For example, almost one in three (32.2%) of young black men in the age group 20-29 is under criminal justice supervision on any given day -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole (Mauer and Huling (1995), moreover, in recent years, African American women have experienced the greatest increase in criminal justice supervision of all demographic groups, with their rate of criminal justice supervision rising by 78% from 1989-2004. While these sobering statistics point to a bias by police and the interworkings of the criminal justice system toward minorities, they also beg the question: are minorities committing more crime than their majority counterparts? The New Century Foundations offer in its study that: Blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder, and eight times more likely to commit robbery. Further adding that Hispanics commit

In 2010, the number of Hispanic men incarcerated per 100,000 U.S. residents was 2.6 times greater than that of white men, and the number of black men incarcerated was 6.4 times greater. Considering that only 13% of the United States population is black, this statistic is rather outrageous. Studies also show that

The U.S. penal population rose dramatically as a result of the War on Drugs. While this itself is striking, the most striking feature is the penal population’s racial dimension. According to Alexander, “No other country imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities” (6). This statement should not come as a shock. The reason for such a high number of minority imprisonment is racial discrimination. This was facilitated by the Supreme Court, which struck down Fourth Amendment constraints on the drug war and allowed law enforcement to conduct unreasonable searches on anyone they desired. Since there is “no meaningful check on the exercise of police discretion, racial biases are granted free rein” (Alexander 185). Thus, law enforcement specifically targeted minorities, resulting in a huge number of the minority population in prison. Some may argue that

African Americans are more likely to have interactions with police officers than non-blacks. Black people are three times as likely to be arrested for the use or possession of marijuana than a white person. These disparities exist all throughout the Criminal Justice system; blacks are more likely to be investigated by police, be arrested, convicted and given longer sentences than non-black offenders. Evidence of racial discrimination in the Criminal Justice system does not solely suggest that African Americans are the only targets of police brutality, but it suggests that they are at a greater risk of being