Disproportionate Incarceration of African Americans Essay

The CCI penitentiary in South Carolina is one of thousands of prisons where their intentions are to make a profit, and to handicap the African- American male. That’s the more controversial topic, not the horrendous penitentiary conditions. The concern some Americans have are ,why so many blacks being placed in prisons. American prisons are not constructed to rehabilitate an inmate. Prisons are essential for our society, but they have become vast business, for private owners. Of course, killers, and any individual that commits a heinous crime should be placed in jail. Many people sympathize with the person who is trying to prove for his family by selling drugs, to make ends meet. They should have lighter punishments in the eyes of many. The laws are systematize to where the black male never achieves his full potential as a father, provider, and a positive representative to society. The educational system in black communities is making the circumstances unfavorable, and the legal system is repeating the sequence of events. America was not intended for Africans to become America civilians.

Research shows that individuals of African American descent are imprisoned more often than Caucasians. When it comes to prison, African American males seem to be discriminated against. In 2001, a total of 16.6% of African American males were incarcerated in a State or Federal prison (Bonczar, 2003). According to the Bonczar (2003), one in three African American

The cost of living is always on the rise, so naturally the cost of maintaining our public prison systems and its inmates is also on the rise. Not only does the cost to maintain the prisoners alive and healthy rise; our draconian laws that seem to make youth and the African American community the target, keep sending more and more offenders into the prison system. Without acknowledging alternative solutions and rehabilitation programs that are readily available. We currently live in an age where old laws from eras long past still rule. This is to say that we still follow laws that were put in place decades ago that are racist and unjust. Many of these laws emerged from the turbulence of the 1960’s; when the increasingly rebellious college youth and African American civil rights movements looked to change the nation. Laws were put in place directed at mainly these two groups: laws such as having a 100 times larger

America has the largest justice system in the world. America also has the highest incarceration rate with over 2 million people in prison. African Americans account for approximately 40 percent of those inmates. Why is the incarceration rate so high for young black males? By examining the data and demographics, and the causes and consequences a greater understanding will be gained as to why these disparities exist.

There have been 100,000 African Americans in prison since Brown vs Board of education. The article states that the trend will continue, 1 of every 3 African American males are apparently born today can expect to go to prison in their time, 1 in 6 Latino males, compared to 1 in every 17 White males. But for women, it is much lower, but the ethnicity does not change: 1 out of 18 African Americans, 1 out of 45 Hispanics, and finally 1 of every 111 White females, are expected to serve some time in prison. At any given day, 1 in every 13 African American males between 30 to 39 will incarcerated in a state or federal prison on any given day. This compares to the demographics of the group because in communities of color they are not affected only by incarceration but by high

Historically Americans are taught that prisons are a place to incarcerate people who pose the greatest threat to society: however, with so many minorities being incarcerated is this really true? After watching the documentary, 13th, one can assert that the effects of mass incarceration are systemically imposed on people of color, and felt throughout generations. Incarcerating African-Americans prevents them from the education system, jobs and families. The inheritance of the 13th amendment and slavery are still visible in black communities today, in terms of the education system, jobs, and family structures.

These huge racial disparities just show the divide in our country and the racial inequality that is going on. Behind all the statistics is a hidden fact, that being that one incarceration has effect on others. Just imagine now a kid is missing their father which also serves as inspiration or role model. It also has an effect on a family's income, it now limits them to a one household source of income which is why urban areas or otherwise known as “ Hood/Projects “ is one of the main contributors of the mass incarceration of African-American. Another effect of mass incarceration is the effect of an African-American’s right to certain citizenship right. These rights being the right to vote and the right to bear arms, which holds a great deal in America when it comes to choosing representatives and protection. As most of these are systematic there is also a problem that lies within the African-American community itself. But overall the justice system is systematically failing and being unfair towards African-American

The United States currently has the highest incarcerated population in the world with 2.2 million adults incarcerated in 2014 (Kaeble, Glaze, Tsoutis, & Minton, 2016). African American males represent a disproportionate amount of the incarcerated population, which is defined by those confined in either prison or jail (Crutchfield & Weeks, 2015). Although, African-Americans account for roughly 13% of the United States population, they comprised 37% of the male prison population (Carson, 2015; U.S. Census Bureau, 2016) and 35.4% of the male jail population within the United States in 2014 (Minton & Zeng, 2015). The imprisonment of over 750,000 African American males constitutes a social issue because it targets a historically oppressed minority causing rippling social and economic effects throughout the country.

The United States prison system is having a terrible time. In 2000 the US inmate population reached a record of two million. which means that 1 person in 140 in the United States was imprisoned. Over the last quarter of the 20th century, the number of inmates tripled, and the United States locked up mor people per capita than almost any other country, almost tying up with Russia for this dubious distinction. Incarceration rates are six times those of Briton and 17 time those of Japan. The rising numbers have made prisons a growth industry, California builds a new prison every year to keep up with the demand. The burden of imprisonment falls disproportionately on racial minorities. In California for example, a young black man is 5 times as likely

There is a racial connection between the United States criminal justice system and the overrepresentation of black men in the United States prison system. There are over 2 million people in the U.S. prison system exceeding that of any other nation and represents 25% of the world’s prisoners (The Sentencing Project, 2016). According to Prison Policy Initiative, African American communities are the most impacted with African American men representing nearly 40% of all U.S. prisoners, though African Americans represent less than 13% of the U.S. population (Wagner & Rabuy, 2016). In fact, African American males are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white males (The

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 ( ).

We live in a Nation that has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world, standing at about 700 for every 100,000 people are incarcerated. To put that into perspective that's about 1.6 to 2 million people of the 315 million people in the U.S. With about 40% of them being African American. 40% may not sound very high but, the surprising fact around all of these statistics, is only 13% of the entire population is African American. You may ask yourself how is this possible? Well let’s talk about that. The three major factors that contribute to high black incarceration rates are due to broken black communities/growth roots, the recidivism cycle and prejudice among police forces.

As previously stated, mass incarceration is an immense issue. To be more specific, it is even more catastrophic amongst African American males. African American males have been affected the most by America’s incarceration policies for decades now. Mass

The United States has the highest number of prisoners compared to any country in the world according to Denis J.Madden published in the America Magazine. Imprisoning hundreds of thousands African Americans has been significantly effective in society for several years. The criminal justice system enforces the law strictly in the African American society with brutal prosecution. As a result, the rate of poverty and unemployment in the African American community have been increasing for the last couple of decades as reported by

Male incarceration “is a massive system of racial and social control.” (Michelle Alexander, 2014 ) The world we live in today is 5% of the world’s population however, 25 % are prisoners meaning one out of every 4 humans are incarcerated or will be. Now one must question how this epidemic continues to grow. Let’s start by looking into what the 13th amendment did for the African American community for generations to come. “The 13th amendment grants freedom to all, except for criminals.” ( Michelle Alexander, 2014) With that being documented it gave the nation a tool to throw us behind bars for years to come. With Nixon’s administration coining the term “war on drugs” the destruction of the black community began. During the 1970’s the