Criminal Injustice
Urban Studies 101
Lecture # 10
Criminal Justice Policies
 In the last twenty years, there has
been a dramatic increase in the
number of people who are
incarcerated in the United States.
Mass Incarceration
 Nationwide, approximately 6.5
million people are in prison, on
parole or probation.
 The prison population in the United
States is much higher per capita
than in any other industrialized
nation.
Race and Criminality?
 Why are blacks and other people of color
more likely to be involved with the
criminal justice system than are whites? A
common answer to this question is that
people of color are more prone to
criminal activity than are whites.
 But this answer is wrong !!!
Race and Criminality?

African Americans make up 12
percent of the nation’s
population, but over 40 percent
of those arrested on narcotics
charges.
Race and Criminality?
 Why are blacks and other people of color
more likely to be involved with the
criminal justice system than are whites? A
common answer to this question is that
people of color are more prone to
criminal activity than are whites.
 But this answer is wrong !!!
Race and Criminality?
 Study after study has shown that racial identity is
not a reliable factor for predicting criminal
activity.
 Said differently, you cannot tell by someone’s race if he
or she is likely to be guilty of committing a crime.
 Moreover, it is often assumed that people of color are
more likely to be arrested on drug charges because
people of color use more illegal drugs than whites, and
consequently they break more laws. But this is untrue.
Race and Criminality?
 The Department of Health and Human
Services has proven that rates of illegal
drug use among blacks and whites are
almost exactly the same, and that blacks
represent only 13 percent of illegal drug
users in the United States.
 However, blacks represent over 60
percent of all narcotics convictions.
Race and Mass
Incarceration
 What accounts for this startling
difference?
 The answer is that it is a matter not
of race but of racial discrimination.
 Many defense lawyers, racial justice
advocates and people of color believe
that there is a pattern of racial bias in
the criminal justice system.
The five areas of racial bias
in the criminal justice system
 Social scientists have identified three
areas of racial bias:
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Racial profiling;
Selective prosecution;
Unfair sentencing guidelines
Judicial color-blindness
Juvenile injustice
Racial Profiling
 Racial profiling is any action undertaken in the
name of safety, security or public protection that
relies on stereotypes about race, color, ethnicity,
ancestry, religion, or place of origin rather than
on reasonable suspicion, to single out an
individual for greater scrutiny or different
treatment.
 This violates equal projection clause of the 14th
Amendment of the Constitution.
Not Based on Probable Cause
Or Reasonable Suspicion

Racial Profiling is the practice of stopping and inspecting people
who are passing through public places – such as drivers on public
highways or pedestrians in airports or urban areas – where the
reason for the stop is based not on probable cause that the
detainee has committed a crime, but rather on the detainee's
race or ethnicity.
 One study showed that blacks represent only 13.5 percent of
drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike and only 15 percent of
those who are speeding. Yet blacks represent 35 percent of
all people stopped and 73.5 percent of all those arrested.
 The Sacramento Valley Mirror , a biweekly newspaper in
California, published a memo from a federal law
enforcement officer instructing park rangers fighting the war
on drugs "to develop probable cause for stop" if the vehicle
has Hispanics inside.
Selective Prosecution
 Selective prosecution is the selective
enforcement of law enforcement based on
race.
 As with racial profiling, if prosecutors use their
discretion unfairly, it violates the guarantee of
equal protection for all individuals under the law.
 Prosecutors have power over many criminal
justice decisions, such as the decisions to
prosecute, charging decisions, plea bargaining,
and bail.
Evidence of Selective
Prosecution
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Studies have shown that people of color, blacks and Latinos in
particular, are far more likely to be arrested and prosecuted than
are whites.
One study showed that 90 percent of all people charged with
“conspiracy” drug charges in Los Angeles were people of color,
despite widespread use of drugs across racial groups including
whites.
Studies show that prosecutorial decisions to bring charges in
federal, rather than state, court work against people of color.
From 1988 to 1994, hundreds of blacks and Hispanics — but no
whites — were prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s office
with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County. From 1992 to 1994,
approximately 96.5% of all federal crack prosecutions were of
non- whites.
It has been proven that prosecutors exercise their discretion
cases in ways that cause racially disproportionate outcomes,
even in capital cases.
Racial Bias in Sentencing
Guidelines
 Discrepancies between penalties work in favor of whites
and against people of color.
 For example, there is a huge discrepancy between penalties
for crack use and powder cocaine use, even though these
are more or less the same exact substances. Selling or
possessing five grams (about $125) of crack cocaine - the
form most widely used by the poor blacks - receives a
mandatory sentence of at least five years. Someone would
have to sell or possess 500 grams (about $50,000) of
powdered cocaine – the form most widely used by middleclass whites – to receive the same sentence. If someone is
caught with five grams of powdered cocaine, they are
unlikely to receive any jail time at all.
 There is evidence of racial bias in death penalty sentencing
as well.
Judicial Color-Blindness
 Those who are discriminated against can petition
federal courts for what is called injunctive relief,
intervention of the part of the court to stop or reverse a
particular situation or condition.
 But courts often refuse injunctive relief in situations
where defendants claim bias in the criminal justice
system.
 Cases of bias are hard to prove. They require defendants
to demonstrate that a prosecutor or the police singled
him or her out because of his or her race.
 Courts, including the Supreme Court, have been hostile to
this argument when it is made by defendants. They have
blocked discovery into the validity of these claims.
Supreme Court
 The cases of Christopher Armstrong and
Adolph Lyons. In both cases, the
Supreme Court found technical reasons
to reject these defendants’ claims of
selective prosecution even though a
pattern of racial bias was evident.
Juvenile injustice
 Juvenile justice was designed to head off
adult criminality.
 Yet recent juvenile justice policies blur the
distinctions between children and adults, and
new laws permit youthful offenders to be
tried as adults, and to be transferred into
adult prison populations.
 Youth of color suffer most from this policy
shift, because they already bear the brunt of
racially skewed law enforcement.
Evidence of Juvenile Injustice
 From 1986 to 1991, arrests of white juveniles for drug offenses
decreased 34%, while arrests of minority juveniles increased
78%, despite data showing that drug use rates among white,
black, and Hispanic youths are about the same. , and that drug
use has in fact been lower a
 Overrepresentation of minority youths in the juvenile justice
system increases after arrest.
 Minority youths tend to be held at intake, detained,
proseuted, and held in secure confinement facilities more
frequently than their white counterparts.
More evidence of Juvenile
Injustice
 Black, Hispanic, and Asian American youths
are far more likely to be transferred to adult,
state and federal courts, convicted in those
courts, and incarcerated in youth or adult
prison facilities than white youths.
 E.G., Native American youth represent 60 percent
of youth prosecuted by federal courts, which
punish them more severely than local courts.
Racial Prejudice in the
Criminal Justice System
 Taken together, these five types of racial bias combine to
prejudice the criminal justice system against people of
color.
 They mean that people of color will be more likely to be
stopped and arrested, more likely to be prosecuted, and
more likely to receive stiff sentences than will whites.
 They create the perception that most crimes are
committed by people of color.
 They challenge the legitimacy of the system as a whole,
undermine its effectiveness, and foster racial division.
Voting Bans
 Only 2 states allow people with felony
convictions to vote from prison.
 All other states have rules for felony convicts
varying from taking away the right to vote
permanently, depending on the crime (12
states) to allowing felons to vote upon
release from all supervision (18 states) to
allowing felons to vote upon release from
parole to allowing felons to vote upon release
from parole prison (5 states).
 5.3 million Americans have lost their right to
vote because of a former felony offense.
Voting Bans & Race
 1 of every 8 African-American men is
disenfranchised by felon voting bands.
 What can be done about criminal
injustice?
What is prison abolition?
As we speak, in the Supreme
Court…
 In California prisons, it's been estimated that about a
person a week has been dying from lack of medical care,
or preventable suicide.
 Judges have issued a string of orders to try to get the state
to improve conditions. Last summer, a three-judge panel
decided that these problems just wouldn't go away until
California reduced its prison population. So they told the
state to cut the prison population down to 137.5% of what
the prisons were designed to hold.
 The state of Ca., however, has appealed the case all the
way to the Supreme Court, which heard testimony this
past Tuesday.