Uncovering the Reasons Behind the Overrepresentation of Black Citizens within the American Criminal Justice System Alyson Yablonsky Florida State University ENC 2135: Research, Genre, and Context Matthew Zhao February 10, 2023 1 Uncovering the Reasons Behind the Overrepresentation of Black Citizens within the American Criminal Justice System Within the American Criminal Justice System, black citizens display a disproportionate overrepresentation; specifically, black Americans compose only 13% of the total American population, but account for 40% of the country’s incarcerated population (St. John & Lewis, 2019). With no direct laws or statutes dictating such a discrepancy, why is this pervasive overrepresentation present in the first place? Considering that this pattern has essentially been a part of this system since its conception, understanding certain aspects of the history of the American Criminal Justice System is essential in answering the above question. In addition, acknowledging the truths behind what it means to be a black person in America will aid in further explaining their presence in the incarcerated population. With this, the objective of this analysis is to examine the history of the Criminal Justice System in America and attempt to understand the black experience within the country to explain the significant overrepresentation of black citizens in the incarcerated population. In terms of history, several scholars argue that the root of the disproportionate amount of incarcerated black Americans can be traced back to slavery. Slavery was justified by both those who owned them and those who did not by upholding the ideology that this was somehow the natural social and economic place of black citizens. Thus, even though slavery itself was abolished in 1865, “its economic and ideological effects have endured” (Muller, 2021). Following the abolishment of slavery, the vast majority of Black Americans still possessed little to no wealth. With pervasive discrimination by employers, black people were forced into the lowest-income jobs within the labor market that tended to be defenseless against fluctuations in the demand for labor (Muller, 2021). For those citizens who could not get work or could not make enough money from the work they did have, crime became a common solution; people 2 have to make ends meet in some way when the only jobs they can obtain do not pay enough, if they can find work at all (Muller, 2021). In addition, employers tend to try to prevent their employees or potential employees from entering the Criminal Justice System when labor demand is high and they are in constant need of workers. Consequently, when labor demand is low, incarceration rates increase with less work available; this was especially true for black workers who occupied the bottom rungs of the labor market already and tended to face more severe punishment from all parts of the Criminal Justice System (Muller, 2021). Although racism seems to have become less prevalent as America moves further and further from slavery, this pattern of discrimination is still echoed today, contributing to the incarceration rate of black Americans. In more recent history, the 1970s “War on Drugs” is associated with funneling black Americans into the Criminal Justice System then and now. President Richard Nixon deemed the perceived drug crisis in America to be “public enemy number one” in 1971, kickstarting the aforementioned War on Drugs (St. John & Lewis, 2019). President Nixon passed several different laws which significantly increased the penalties for drug-related offenses as well as establishing the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The DEA was intended to aid in the enforcement of the newly passed drug-related regulations, but disproportionately targeted citizens of color (St. John & Lewis, 2019). With Gerald Ford taking over as President in 1974, the War on Drugs was only perpetuated with emphasis on even more aggressive campaigns toward diminishing drug-related offenses. Ford attempted to pass the Narcotic Sentencing and Seizure Act in 1976, which would have “enacted mandatory minimum penalties on individuals related to the distribution, transportation, and manufacture of opiates” had it not been rejected (St. John & Lewis, 2019). Nixon and Ford’s drug-related policies disproportionately impacted Black citizens because this minority had the highest rates of poverty in the aftermath of slavery 3 and Jim Crow laws; it is widely known that poverty is associated with increased drug abuse of all forms (St. John & Lewis, 2019). In the 1980s, this pattern only continued with President Ronald Reagan’s focus on fixed and extended prison sentences for those incarcerated for drug offenses. For example, the ‘86 Drug Abuse Act required a minimum five-year prison sentence for the possession of five grams of crack. On the other hand, 500 grams of cocaine was required to trigger a five-year prison sentence; cocaine happens to be the more expensive, more pure, and less accessible form of crack (St. John & Lewis, 2019). In the 1970s-1980s, approximately 80% of all crack users were black, and white people composed the majority of cocaine users. Whether or not the law was enacted with this intent, the Drug Abuse Act of 1986 resulted in black citizens being significantly more impacted than white citizens (St. John & Lewis, 2019). Between 1980 and 2016, there was a 229% increase in persons on probation, a 297% increase in persons on parole, a 303% increase in persons held in jail, and a 356% increase in persons held in prison. During this almost four decades of sharp increase in the incarcerated population in America, black citizens were imprisoned at approximately six times the rate of white citizens (Muller, 2021). With 40% of the incarcerated population currently being black citizens, the anti-drug policies of the 1970s and 1980s targeted black citizens and contributed to their overrepresentation today (St. John & Lewis, 2019). 4 References Gibbons, F. X., Fleischli, M. E., Gerrard, M., Simons, R. L., Weng, C.Y., & Gibson, L. P. (2020). 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