0
dreamdancer

Is the US Prison System Racist?

Recommended Posts

Quote

The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African-Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people.

Saying the US criminal system is racist may be politically controversial in some circles. But the facts are overwhelming. No real debate about that. Below I set out numerous examples of these facts.

The question is – are these facts the mistakes of an otherwise good system, or are they evidence that the racist criminal justice system is working exactly as intended? Is the US criminal justice system operated to marginalize and control millions of African Americans?

Information on race is available for each step of the criminal justice system -- from the use of drugs, police stops, arrests, getting out on bail, legal representation, jury selection, trial, sentencing, prison, parole and freedom. Look what these facts show.



http://www.alternet.org/rights/147639/14_shocking_facts_that_prove_the_criminal_justice_system_is_racist/
stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Asking such a question on a forum primarily filled with wealthy white people, much of whom are republicans isn't going to exactly produce fair results.

I don't know if it's just so much the prison system as it is the whole social system.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
this group needs to decide who they're with...

Quote

Professor Michelle Alexander concludes that it is no coincidence that the criminal justice system ramped up its processing of African Americans just as the Jim Crow laws enforced since the age of slavery ended. Her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness sees these facts as evidence of the new way the US has decided to control African Americans – a racialized system of social control. The stigma of criminality functions in much the same way as Jim Crow – creating legal boundaries between them and us, allowing legal discrimination against them, removing the right to vote from millions, and essentially warehousing a disposable population of unwanted people. She calls it a new caste system.

Poor whites and people of other ethnicity are also subjected to this system of social control. Because if poor whites or others get out of line, they will be given the worst possible treatment, they will be treated just like poor blacks.



http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/26-2
stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yet another post about race?????

(as to your post in another thread)

You must be a racist[:/]

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Quote

forum primarily filled with wealthy white people, much of whom are republicans



:D:D:D Yea...this forum is loaded with WWR's. That's some funny shit!


Well, almost (almost!) everyone on these boards is white; and conservatives are very active and vocal in SC; and most conservative Americans tend to identify themselves as Republicans.

As for "wealthy", that's a matter of perspective. You and I see it from an American and North American perspective, while he sees it from a South African and African perspective. Skydiving is an expensive sport. It tends to be more expensive outside the US than in the US. There is poverty, even extreme poverty, in the US & Canada, but nothing like, especially in terms of scale, the grinding subsistence poverty that can be found in much of Africa, including South Africa. And the standard of living that would be considered "middle class" in North America would be considered quite wealthy in most of the Third World, or even in, say, many parts of Eastern Europe.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

It's more of a socio-economic issue than one of race.
A quality defense is out of the financial reach of the vast majority of the average person.
[:/]



Having studied and worked in and around criminal justice since the mid-'70s, I can tell you it's both. Yes, socio-economics are ONE large component. But - to make what could be a very long treatise very short- so is race, at every level: police, prosecution, courts, sentencing, prisons. Any serious scholar or practitioner of criminal justice knows this.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Precisely why I said the socio-economic piece is more so an issue as it affects everyone.

I fully agree with your statements.



you agree with this statement that there is racism in the criminal justice system...

'race, at every level: police, prosecution, courts, sentencing, prisons. Any serious scholar or practitioner of criminal justice knows this.'
stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Quote

forum primarily filled with wealthy white people, much of whom are republicans



:D:D:D Yea...this forum is loaded with WWR's. That's some funny shit!


and a third of even this biased group think that the us prison criminal 'justice' system is racist.
stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Quote

Quote

forum primarily filled with wealthy white people, much of whom are republicans



:D:D:D Yea...this forum is loaded with WWR's. That's some funny shit!


and a third of even this biased group think that the us prison criminal 'justice' system is racist.


As racist as the UK prison system is sexist.
Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Quote

Quote

Quote

forum primarily filled with wealthy white people, much of whom are republicans



:D:D:D Yea...this forum is loaded with WWR's. That's some funny shit!


and a third of even this biased group think that the us prison criminal 'justice' system is racist.


As racist as the UK prison system is sexist.


you're just putting words down at random now and hoping they make sense - they don't :)
(what did you vote)
stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Quote

Quote

Quote

Quote

forum primarily filled with wealthy white people, much of whom are republicans



:D:D:D Yea...this forum is loaded with WWR's. That's some funny shit!


and a third of even this biased group think that the us prison criminal 'justice' system is racist.


As racist as the UK prison system is sexist.


you're just putting words down at random now and hoping they make sense - they don't :)
(what did you vote)


Makes as much sense as your claim. After all, the numbers show the number of males greatly overwhelming the number of females in the prison system.

Therefore, the UK prison system is sexist against men.
Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Poor whites and people of other ethnicity are also subjected to this system of social control. Because if poor whites or others get out of line, they will be given the worst possible treatment, they will be treated just like poor blacks.



Then your whole race issue is gone based on your own information.

The "data" you have presented *might* (and I mean might) be used to claim a financial difference in the justice system.... But if Whites or "others" get treated the same, then it is NOT race based.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Quote

Poor whites and people of other ethnicity are also subjected to this system of social control. Because if poor whites or others get out of line, they will be given the worst possible treatment, they will be treated just like poor blacks.



Then your whole race issue is gone based on your own information.

The "data" you have presented *might* (and I mean might) be used to claim a financial difference in the justice system.... But if Whites or "others" get treated the same, then it is NOT race based.



you've missed the bit that says the poor whites only get the 'black' treatment if they 'step out of line'.
stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0