preview

Us Justice Department & Racial Inequality Essay

Best Essays

U.S. Justice Department and Racial Inequality Racial inequality in the criminal justice system is a belief that through research and statistics is a structural inequality that exists at different levels noted throughout the system stemming from those convicted and those convicting. According to literature published by the Leadership Conference, the nation’s premier civil and human right coalition, “racial inequality is growing, not receding. Our criminal laws, while facially neutral, are enforced in a manner that is massively and pervasively biased. The injustices of the criminal justice system threaten to render irrelevant fifty years of hard-fought civil rights progress” (Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, 2011). In today’s …show more content…

It has been noted that one’s race plays a vital role in the chances of being pulled over by the police. According to a New York article published in the City Journal in 2009, Blacks were pulled over 55% of the time and were only 23% of the city’s population while Hispanics, being 28% of the population were pulled over 32%, and Whites were pulled over 10% of the time and accounted for 38% of the population (MacDonald, 2010). Prison sentences and time served are based on the crime committed. I will discuss violent crimes and drug crimes. “Violent offenders are persons convicted of homicide, kidnapping, forcible rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault, or other crimes involving the threat or imposition of harm upon the victim, including extortion, intimidation, reckless endangerment, hit-and-run driving with injury, or child abuse” (Greenfeld, 1995, p.1). According to data collected from States by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), violent offenders served 48% of their sentence in 1992, an average of 42 months of their 89 month sentence (Greenfeld, 1995). Drug offenses consist of possession and trafficking. In Illinois there are four state statutes that address drug offenses. These include “the cannabis control act, the hypodermic syringes and needles act, the drug paraphernalia control act, and the controlled substances act” (Olson, 2000. p.1). Drug offenses are also broken up

Get Access