This is positively stunning and frightening. I figured it’d be in the low single digits at best. What the hell is going on? Why so many? I find it near impossible to believe that 12% of an entire age cohort are so dangerous they need to be incarcerated. If one out of every eight white men was going to prison you can be damn sure all the stops would be pulled out to solve the problem. What is the being done to address this issue. What are the origins of the problems that result in this amazing statistic?
I guess you have to start with trying to understand what population is being incarcerated for what infractions. My understanding is that drug possesion infractions account for much of the recent growth in the prison popuulation. I don’t think that’s particularily productive.
It is nice to have all those swell Italian boys slammerred (I understand that La Cosa Nostra is near stand-down these days).
So why are 12% of black males between 20 and 39 in prison? Just rampant racism? That seems like a pretty inefficient gathering number if that’s the cause. Any of these guys actually commit a crime?
Almost, but not quite humorous. I just felt it really necessary that I point out how much I didn’t appreciate that statement and the stereotypes implied. But that’s another story.
The way I see it, a disproportionate number of black people live in the ghetto, the projects, whatever you want to call it. Well… desperate times call for desperate measures. So a lot of blacks see that selling drugs is easy money, and go for it. Since so many black people are (apparently) selling drugs, it stands to reason that some of them will get arrested. And the amount of individuals arrested will seem disproporationately large when compared to other races who may not necessarily feel that selling drugs is the only way to survive. I think that racism is also a contributing factor, but basically… there’s a lot of black people in jail because there’s a heluva lot of poor black people who see that the illegal activities make the best money, and that’s what they go for.
There are many factors involved in this problem. Probably the biggest factor has to do with $$$.
Who can afford the better attorneys?
I bet if you check your stats. and include this factor you will find that most of these inmates could not hire a lawyer.
There are many other variables, but I think court appointed lawyers is the deciding factor determining who goes to jail. It’s expensive to have tests run, hire detectives, pay assistants, researching evidence, witnesses, depositions, etc. the list goes on…FOR FREE…(BTW, I’m not on a witch hunt for lawyers)
But, I’ve been there and done that, so to speak…if that SOB ain’t getting paid. Well, let’s just say… you get what you pay for.
I believe a person (any race) with tons of money and the right lawyers could get away with practically anything, regardless of the evidence.
Anybody have stats as to percentage of whites/blacks below the poverty level? I am sure there will be a corellation, but the differences between the ratios of below poverty level to in jail would remove the economic factor so you could see how much of this was court/law enforcement bias and cultural.
To paraphrase Chris Rock, “It isn’t a race thing, its a money thing. If OJ Simpson drove a bus for a living he’d OJ the wife murdering bus driver.”
You’ll find that conviction rates between races with comparable socio-economic status will still reveal higher conviction rates among minorities, specifically African-Americans. But, the numbers should be a lot closer than what the overall statistics indicate.
It’s been awhile since I researched this particular social problem. I can probably dig up some stats if needed.
I’d say it comes down to money and education, and obviously the two are combined. More blacks grow up in poor neighborhoods than whites, and poor people have historically committed more crimes (or at least the kind of crimes you get nailed for).
So, anyone has any stats as to how many people go to the criminal court and get away with it and then what % of those are black/white/asian…whatever…
I mean, good lawyer or not, if you didn’t commit a crime there are good chances you’re not going to go to prison.
My opinion is that if there is so many more black people in prison it would be because black people commit more crimes…now, why they commit their crimes is another debate altogether (I don’t think it has something to do with color).
by the way…I know there are exceptions (sometimes innocent people do go to jail) but I’d say that usually, since everyone is innocent until proven guilty of a crime, it would be more difficult to convict innocent people.
Another factor that can’t be overlooked is the crack panic of the mid-80’s. The fear that rock cocaine was more addictive than powder cocaine led to stricter penalties for crack. Because crack was a more cost effective high, it was (IIRC) used more frequently by inner-city blacks than by suburban whites. I think any jump in black incarceration rates since about 1985 could be related in part to the prevalence of crack cocaine.
A while back there was a study by the US dept of justice that found that blacks were something like 6x more liekly to speed on the NJ Turnpike. This in it self shows some difference between the races and which one tends toward the unlawful side at least on the speeding issue. Why this is I have no idea.
I want to add that IF blacks are more likely to commit a crime (other then speeding on the NJT) then whites, it would seem that police efforts should be concentrated where more crime is being commited. Just like if you have 2 fishing holes and one is more productive then the other you are going to fish more in the more productive hole and pull more fish out of there. The more productive fishing hole doesn’t have to be that much more productive just to get you to fish there, a small percentage would make the difference.
Connect the dots? Sure. Racism led from slavery to the ghettoization of blacks, with resulting poverty. Out of the impoverished ghettos come disproportionate crime rates. Thus my opinion that it is a dividend of racism.
I believe that our gun laws and our drug laws were originally “intended” and currently selectively enforced primarily against blacks, resulting in higher convicition rates among blacks.
Once you are convicted of a crime, you cant vote and cant get a decent job, and cant afford to raise a family in an honest way - resulting in further crimes.
There are 2 complicating factors to this situation.
One is that sometimes these laws backfire, and non-blacks get convicted.
Secondly, and most ironically, most blacks vote democrat(90%+) and for those candidates who continue to push for these same laws(and other race based laws) directed primarily against blacks.
Therefore, I dont see any solution to this self imposed discrimination ending any time soon.
The article cited at the start of the thread does not give us a prison count verses a jail count. It seems the two are treated as the same which they are not.
