Criminal Justice System
African Americans compose approximately 12% of the American population, yet they are 45% of the combined local, state, and Federal prison population, a percentage that has approximately doubled since 1930. 40% of all prisoners awaiting a death sentence in the United States are black.
One out of every five black men in the country spends some time in jail during his life. According to the Washington
Post, in 1998 over
half of the black males residents of the District of Columbia between the ages of 18 and 34 are in the criminal justice system: awaiting trial, awaiting sentencing, in prison, or on parole.
Given the statistics, our recent decisions to fight crime by "getting the criminal off the street" mean that increasing numbers of poor black men will be in jail.
One can certainly argue that the increase in safety that should result from "getting the criminal off the street" makes current policies appropriate,
especially for the inner-city poor who are much more often the victims of such street crime. At the same time, removing tens of thousands of young men from the cities takes potential breadwinners from their families. Since ex-cons find it much harder to get jobs, the impact of the criminal justice system on poverty is doubly harsh.
It is important to remember, too, that in computing the unemployment rates, those who are in jail are not counted as "unemployed;" they are removed from the denominator altogether, effectively lowering the real unemployment rate.
The reasons for the high numbers of African Americans in the criminal justice system are debatable and complex. Certainly, as we will see in the next chapter, proportionately higher percentages of poor black people commit crimes for which we ordinarily send people to jail (especially drug offenses but also burglary, robbery, murder, etc).
15 It is also undeniable that our system of criminal justice is more willing to prosecute poor African Americans than others, especially since these prosecutions are usually resolved through plea-bargaining. The few resources at the disposal of public defenders relative to those available to private attorneys mean a further tilt toward conviction of the poor.
Whatever the reason, the result is the same: the criminal justice system impacts African Americans, especially poor African Americans, far more harshly than average.
Conclusion
Each of these factors is exacerbated by the others. The segregation of poor African Americans into ghettos is the linchpin holding it all together. As long as ghettos exist, most of the people who live there will be poor.
Footnotes
15 On the other hand, we tend to punish more severely those kinds of crimes committed by the poor than those committed by affluent people. Why is it, for instance, that we prosecute shoplifters so much more aggressively than people who "fudge" their expense accounts? Both are crimes against business that can cost a significant amount; both are Federal crimes since neither source of income is usually reported to the Internal Revenue Service. The notorious example of the differential punishment for possession of crack versus powder cocaine is another example. The amounts of cocaine one can possess without risk of significant jail time are one hundred times smaller for crack (used by poor people) than for powder (used by affluent people), despite the fact that the powder can be easily transformed into equipotent doses of crack.
