Racial Disparities in the Justice System- Drugs
Introduction
The US criminal justice system has steeped the war on drugs due to the negative impacts the drugs have on the users. However, the war on drugs has led to the prevalence of racial disparities in the criminal justice system where most of those incarcerated and jailed are the minorities like African-Americans and Latinos. The source of such discrimination is primarily explicit racial profiling and negative attitudes by the law enforcers towards residents of poor neighborhoods that are mostly the people of color. The wealthy and the majority such as the Whites and Hispanics enjoy a robust adversary system and constitutional protections while the poor do not even access public defender entitlements and end up spending lengthy times in prison during their pretrial and trail periods. It implies that the war on drugs is discriminative towards Blacks and other minorities as drug use is comparable across different racial groups in the USA.
Discussion
The proliferation of the war on drugs has increased the level of racial disparities being witnessed in the US criminal justice system. For instance, data reveal that Blacks experience higher incarceration rates that are five to seven times that of Whites for drug-related offenses. Also, blacks accounted for nearly 50% of all the offenders incarcerated for drug-related offenses serving a jail term of more than one year (Carson & Sabol, 2011). It demonstrates that the major players in the criminal justice system engage in acts of racial bias and profiling against Blacks and people of color. The unfair practices are perpetrated at all levels of the criminal justice system such as biased police practices during arrests where they target minority neighborhoods and prosecutorial and sentencing behaviors in courts (Netherland & Hansen, 2016). For example, prosecutors have been found to be twice as likely to advocate for mandatory minimum sentences against Blacks in comparison to Whites facing similar offenses (Drug Policy Alliance, 2018).
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In the year 2015, amongst four people arrested for drug-related offenses, more than one was Black despite there being no notable variances in the drug use rates on the basis of race and ethnicity (FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 2015). Also, most of the drug users purchase or obtain their drugs from individuals whom they share race and ethnicity. The trend was captured by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2010 when they established that Blacks are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for the possession of marijuana when compared to whites despite the rate of marijuana use being comparable across races and ethnicities (Edwards, Bunting & Garcia, 2013).
The behavior of the law enforcement officers towards Blacks and the people of color in the war on drugs are discriminative. For instance, the behavior of the New York police in their stop-and-frisk strategies to uncover drugs was found to be discriminative and unconstitutional by a court of law in 2013 (Goldstein, 2013). The policy was enforced discriminately and targeted male residents of the poor neighborhoods that are mostly Blacks and people of color. Also, in California, the adoption of the ‘3 Strikes’ law has increased the levels of imprisonment for African-Americans that is 13 times the level for Whites (Krikorian, 1996).
The racial inequality against Blacks and the people of color is also evident during pretrial decisions. The prosecution imposes high level charges on Blacks and people of color accused on engaging in drug-related offenses. The behavior impedes the ability of the Blacks and people of color to get fair decisions regarding bail and bond decisions that would facilitate their release as their cases continue ( Omori, 2014) . Due to the severity of the charges they face, courts impose stringent bail and bond terms requiring significant amounts of financial resources. Majority of the Blacks and people of color are of poor backgrounds and cannot afford to meet these bond terms and end up staying in remand before the conclusion of their cases. It demonstrates a systematic form of discrimination as after the geographically targeted arrests prevalent in poor neighborhoods, the pre-sentencing decisions further discriminate against the minorities.
Also, individuals facing criminal charges are entitled to representation by counsel and if they cannot afford one, they should get representation from public defender services. However, most states lack effective public defender systems and those present face financing and other resource challenges (Lassiter, 2015). It means the offenders from poor backgrounds face lengthy incarceration periods as they have to stay in remand for the entire trial periods in addition to serving their sentences in prison as they cannot afford the hefty fines and penalties likely to be imposed if found guilty.
The discriminatory enforcement of the law has had profound impacts on Blacks and other minority communities in the USA. The high numbers of incarceration rates amongst these minority races has led to the disenfranchisement of children and the breakup of families as one of the parents, especially the male is likely to be in jail. For instance, by 2013, around 2.7 million children in the USA had one of their parents under incarceration either in prison or remand (Pew Research Center, 2013). These children are exposed to poor upbringing as most of these families with an incarcerated parent are likely to become dysfunctional and experience breakup due to the lengthy jail terms. Also, the children lack basic necessities like education and balanced diets and are likely to engage in acts of delinquency at tender ages like adolescence.
The pre-sentencing decisions where the Blacks and minority races experience unaffordable bail and bond terms mean they remain behind bars for lengthy periods. However, most of the Whites accused of similar offenses can afford bail and enjoy access to services like rehabilitation and parole as the prosecutors rarely push for mandatory sentencing against the white suspects (Cooper, 2015). The incarceration of the minority races has profound impacts on their lives even after they are released from prison. Most of them face hardships in accessing employment opportunities as employers rely on the criminal history of an individual to determine suitability for employment.
Also, upon release, the minorities face challenges as their past criminal record prevents them from accessing public services like federal education grants and public housing. A considerable number of those arrested are young adults and the failure to access educational grants impedes their ability to progress with their education and become productive members of the society owing to their poor backgrounds. Due to these predicaments, those released face risks of suffering psychological distress as they are treated like unwanted people in the society.
Conclusion
The war on drugs is unlikely to attain its envisaged goals due to the blatant cases of racial discrimination against Blacks and the people of color in their contact with the different players in the criminal justice system. The behaviors of police officers where policing strategies like the stop-and-frisk policies target minority neighborhoods is counterproductive as most of the Whites engaging in drug abuse and peddling go scot free. Also, the imposition of serious charges by the prosecution on minorities, even for misdemeanors like drug possession, leads to unaffordable bail and bond terms. Such behaviors lengthen the period of stay in remand before sentencing. These trends have serious impacts on the lives of the offenders from minority backgrounds as they face challenges of being re-integrated to the society upon release. The offenders upon release fail to access employment opportunities due to their criminal history besides being ineligible to access services like public housing and federal educational grants.
References
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Cooper, H. (2015). War on drugs policing and police brutality. Substance Use & Misuse , 50 (8/9): 1188-1194.
Drug Policy Alliance. (2018). The drug war, mass incarceration and race . Retrieved on 2nd November 2018 from http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/drug-war-mass-incarceration-and-race-englishspanish
Edwards, E., Bunting, W. & Garcia, L. (2013). The war on marijuana in black and white . Retrieved on 2nd November 2018 from https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/1114413-mj-report-rfs-rel1.pdf
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program. (2015). Crime in the USA . Retrieved on 2nd November 2018 from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/tables/table-43
Goldstein, J. (2013). Judge rejects New York’s stop-and-frisk policy . Retrieved on 2nd November 2018 from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/13/nyregion/stop-and-frisk-practice-violated-rights-judge-rules.html
Krikorian, G. (1996). More Blacks imprisoned under '3 strikes,' study says . Retrieved on 2nd November 2018 from http://articles.latimes.com/1996-03-05/news/mn-43270_1_african-american-men
Lassiter, M. (2015). Impossible criminals: The suburban imperatives of America's war on drugs . Journal of American History , 102 (1): 126-140.
Netherland, J. & Hansen, H. (2016). The war on drugs that wasn't: Wasted whiteness, "dirty doctors," and race in media coverage of prescription opioid misuse. Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, 40 (4): 664-686.
Omori, M. (2014). Cumulative racial inequality of drug defendants. Cumulative racial inequality of drug defendants . Retrieved on 2nd November 2018 from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8h96b76q
Pew Research Center. (2013). Sesame Street reaches out to 2.7 million American children with an incarcerated parent . Retrieved on 2nd November 2018 from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/21/sesame-street-reaches-out-to-2-7-million-american-children-with-an-incarcerated-parent/
