Race and Prison Populations

Aidsand Wright-Riggins has a column today on ethicsdaily.com about African-Americans and prison.  It opens with this painful anecedote:

During a recent morning's conversation at my local barber shop, I discovered that of the 12 African-American men present, only two of us had never been to jail or were not currently on parole or probation.  I realized that I personally know more young African-American men who have been imprisoned than those who are members of college fraternities. An entire lucrative industry has grown up around the incarceration of African American men.

Wright-Riggins,Executive Director of National Ministries, American Baptist Chruches in the U. S. A., links to and sites statistics from a study in Mother Jones:

Some two million United States citizens are now in federal and state prisons, and the vast majority of these prisoners are nonwhite. Mother Jones' exhaustive analysis of U.S. incarceration rates shows a locked-down nation--with African-Americans, who make up only 13 percent of the general population, comprising an extremely disproportionate number of prisoners.

Here is the central point of moral anguish in the story:

I refuse to believe that African-Americans are more criminal than others. Yet since this nation began, they have faced both the threat and the fact of incarceration at higher rates than any other population group. While poverty obviously has an impact on criminality, it seems that America, the land of the free, has established a system that is grossly unfair, primarily to African-Americans but also to other ethnic minorities.

This is the point, of course, with which detractors will disagree.  The assumption of most Americans is that everybody in prison deserves to be there

While the goal of the article, because of the position of its author, is to encourage churches to become invovled in advocating for justice, the information and analysis is important for everybody to see.  The Jena case got a lot of publicity, as it should have, but the tragedy is that there was nothing unusual about it.

Dr. Alan Bean, an American Baptist minister, is the executive director of Friends of Justice, which brought to light the infamous 1999 Tulia drug sting, in which 47 people--including 39 African-Americans--were arrested based on an undercover agent's false testimony.

You can find oout more about Dr. Bean's organization here.

•  problem is

  i really hate these theories that try to say there is an endemic society of racism in the justice system.

  Problem is, all the statistics show that, the racial proportions are mostly accurate.

  Are there some injustices? Absolutely yes.

  But the statistics of spending per capita on schools, alcoholism, poverty levels, and everything else show that for the most part, unfortunately, most people who are in jail deserve to be there.

  by edhula3 on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 11:18:10 AM PDT

  •  ????

    No, the statistics show that African-American prison populations tend to be larger than the percentage of general population by a factor of about five.  Illinois for example has a general population that is 15% African-American, but 65% of its prisoners are African-American.

    How could statistics on "spending per capita on schools" show that "most people who are in jail deserve to be there"?

    by illinifan17 on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 11:24:35 AM PDT

    •  i know

      You have all these factors (see above) poor schools, poverty etc etc etc which lead to criminal behavior.

      Black people are unfortunately routinely leading in all of these measurements.

      by edhula3 on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 11:41:51 AM PDT

      •  you forgot

        for example, selective enforcement. Dude, I can smoke pot all I want (if I'm discrete enough) -- I am a middle class educated white guy. I'll get a warning at worst.

        Fairly recently I was at a club; the club was at, well, a ghetto. White young people at the club obviously consuming more than just alcohol - and I am sure breaking a few local ordinances about blocking sidewalks, and all that. Cops kept coming past the club, stopping across the street with some regularity to pick on this or that black person. This looked totally surreal; I felt like I am a colonist of some sort.

        by debedb on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 11:47:27 AM PDT

        •  im not talking about smoking pot

          im talking about dealing drugs, shootings (which occur more in black neighborhoods than white ones), etc.

          by edhula3 on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 12:57:53 PM PDT

          •  how can you smoke

            if there's no dealers?

            by debedb on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 03:35:29 PM PDT

•  Crimes by white collars are not punished

  When management decisions kill and injure hundreds and even thousands of people, corporations get off the hook with a comparatively small fine and slap to the wrist, and no one goes to jail.

  For example, the ongoing misery of the people of Bhopal has not been alleviated by the criminal corporation that wreaked havoc upon that poorest of poor population.

  Environmental crimes by corporations in or outside the US are rarely punished. Exxon-Mobil still has not paid even the fine for its actions in the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.

  The tobacco industry was not punished and no one has been sent to jail for killing countless people including my father.

  The list is much longer of the crimes of the rich against the poor that go unpunished. For example, plantation owners were not punished for human bondage that made them so rich, and the descendants of slaves have never been compensated.

  Instead, the descendants of slaves continue, nearly 150 years after slavery, to be plagued by inferior schools and public services.

  The diarist errs primarily in ignoring the great crimes of the rich against the poor and working people.

  
  

  by skywriter on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 12:08:49 PM PDT

  •  there are also

    far fewer white collar crimes committed than non white collar crime.

    and as far as white collar criminals getting a slap on the wrist, almost all of the white collar crimes in the recent years were punished to the fullest extent of the law.

    i remember reading in an article as well, i wish i could remember where, that white collar criminals have it worst in jail because they will never instill fear or respect in jail, they never fit in, its so opposite to everything else they have experienced etc.

    by edhula3 on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 01:02:13 PM PDT

    •  Unsupported opnion

      What is the basis for your claim that there is far less white collar crime than blue collar crime?

      What is the proof that white collar crime was punished to the fullest extent of then law? Scooter Libby? I provided serious ongoing white collar crimes that have brought serious ongoing misery to two different populations. These crimes have not been righted and the injured people have not been made whole though the corporate criminals that committed these violent crimes against people and the environment remain unpunished.

      Numerous crimes against consumers have also gone unpunished.

      You have offered no evidence to support your viewpoint and therefore you have persuaded no one of your opinion.

      
      

      by skywriter on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 01:42:51 PM PDT

      •  waksal, skilling, kozlowski et al

        were punished to the fullest extent of the law, look,go look up what the official codes yourself,but none of them could have gotten more.

        As for white collar crime v blue collar crime, look simply at the opportunities there are to commit either of them.

        Its far easier to commit a blue collar crime than a white collar crime.

        by edhula3 on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 02:42:28 PM PDT

        •  A hand full of business men jailed...

          is minisccule commpared to the number of people hurt by big business. A tiny number of prosecutions for the Enron fiasco is nothing commpared to what Enron stole. The theft alone from California --and failure to reimburse California-- is in the billions.

          It is irresponsible to pretend this level of dishonesty has been treated with justice.

          by skywriter on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 04:17:23 PM PDT

          •  what do you want to do then?

            What happens to punish someone who robs a store and kills someone, the victim's family then gets no money and they live in poverty the rest of their lives?

            You can't put more punishment on someone because of how many people are affected by their crimes.

            Oh, and for my "proof" that those criminals involved with Enron, Tyco, etc got the strongest punishment offered? Well the law can offer no more punishment. THat might be a start. They threw the book at those fuckers and rightly so.

            And if they didn't get the book, many are so old they will die in jail before their term ends.

            But you know, the law is no real proof.

            by edhula3 on Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 05:07:32 PM PDT