DISCRIMINATION IN THE AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM

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are more likely to be accustomed and then included to the nearest crime organization. This historical sociological heritage is the first step to mass incarceration in the way that police will obviously arrest more people in these « risky » areas, and these are mostly filled by African Americans and other minorities. So, the high arrest rate can then be explained by a social disparity in the living locations. (Mauer 91 and 95)

Then, we should also take in consideration the racial profiling tendency to explain the high arrests rate. Emanating from a conscious racist bias or not, law enforcement policies and practices are focusing on people of color and minorities by a stigmatization of Black and Latinos as potential criminals. People representing of the law should give the benefice of the doubt knowing that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Race isn’t a relevant indicator to consider someone as suspect or criminal and race doesn’t justify a highest probably of being controlled or arrested. Keeping on going in a logical order, the next point to be examined is the convictions and sentencings. As we can clearly understand in the case established in LA, with more than 30,000 cases, Black (and Hispanics) was significantly more likely to be prosecuted than white people.

Besides, white people were also offered better pleas and deals than the minorities. African Americans have to deal with less financial means, and good lawyer representation isn’t always offered when someone doesn’t have enough resources to call there own. Two big examples of conviction and sentencing racial disparities can be used as examples here. The first one concerning the chances to be sentenced to death penalty and the dynamic of Black vs White murder, while the second is about « War on drugs » and the example of Seattle’s polity on drugs.

According to Maur and throwing back at the Mc Cleskey case, « persons who kill whites are about for times as likely to receive a death sentence as those who kill African American ». (P93). Out of 3,483 males sentenced to death penalty, 1,302 were African Americans. This fact is clearly showing a hierarchy in life’s values, lending to a preference toward whites. It logically means that a white killing a black would go with a lighter sentence than a black killing a white. Overprotection and differentiation of sentence based on color, for the interest of the most powerful and hegemonic race is a concrete proof of justice’s discrimination toward African Americans and death penalty’s a sign that blacks are sometimes sentenced non equally, with bigger sentences than what they should end up with. This can seem a paradox when knowing that, beyond stigmatization, African American are also over victimized and, for instance, out of 2,976 hate crime, anti-black crime will go up to 1,820 incidents.

About drugs, the « War on drugs » (escalation of drugs crime relation arrests in order reduce the drug trafic and use) is causing racial disparities, African Americans represent 35% rate of drugs arrests in 2009 (still knowing their share in the global US population) when it said that black and white are using drugs identically and 57.6% of convicted drug offenders (563500 person AA out of 1 443 500 total incarcerated). (Mauer 91 & Banks 75).

Focusing on Seattle, studies on drug delivery reveals that powder cocaine and heroin are delivered by white, and black people only deliver one unique kind of drug, a cheaper one called crack cocaine. Still, 64% of the arrests for drug delivery are targeting African Americans. This clearly shows some disparity and also the fact that race shapes the perception of who is the face of Seattle’s drugs problems. Continuing, selling 500grammes of powder cocaine (White’s drug) was punishable of 5 years of prison, compared to 5 grams of crack cocaine for the same sentence length. The racial impact of this law was a disparity in the arrests of African American even though crack cocaine isn’t the most consumed drug and it’s clearly established that is consumed almost exclusively by blacks cause cheaper. The main problem, heroin and powder cocaine seller are still in the streets, whites and Latinos. (Gaines - Seattle Times)

Last but not least, racial disparity and a source of over incarceration could be the composition of the jury during trials. Indeed, even if forbidden by the fourteenth amendment of the constitution, court can try to limit jury to a fully white panel, especially when the defendant is African American. This is a really delicate process of selection as African American are officially eligible for being a part of a jury. Thus, the selection will be established within certain listing in which African American will not be a majority such as the list of registered motor vehicles (African American being potentially less willing to have a car by lack of means) (Banks - 71). Of course having a white jury when ben African American and judged for crime will not help at all. Race bias and African American’s are seen in almost all the cases that the book refers to.

Part 3. WHy SHOULD WE CARE & WHAT TO envisage ?

The whole American history seems to inflict differential treatments to African American and discriminate them for the worse. Indeed, it’s clear that something within the American justice system isn’t right and leads to an abusive control, stigmatization and an over incarceration of African Americans. Besides being an active phenomenon outside the prison’s walls, it is also observable within the incarceration complex, by the staff or even among prisoners themselves as explained by Arthur Longworth « Racism among prisoners has its own rules, distinct from the ones you may be familiar with in the free world. They are rules that have been handed down over a long period of time – through many generations of convicts and prison staff. All of your interactions with others are based on them ». Institutionalized racism is deeply anchored in our society.

When talking about discrimination in within the system it’s also interesting to have a look at what is happening inside the prison and how colored prisoner see themselves. Once again it’s obvious that the organization is made by race. Dormitories are organized by skin color, as well as the bathrooms, tasks are know to be done by a certain type of people « In prison, each race maintains itself separately, with clear lines of division running between each ».

The point of view of the author is really interesting in the way he’s telling us that he’s not bothered by this stratification as he didn’t learn any other way the live. It appears as a normal and internationalized fact. That’s exactly the point of this