Racial bias in the criminal justice system

Essay by MaleahCollege, UndergraduateA+, May 2004

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Numerous study have found widespread racial bias in US criminal justice system. A new report issued by a coalition of civil rights organizations calls the "massively and pervasively biased" treatment on blacks and Hispanics by the US police and courts the major civil rights problem of the twenty-first century entitled "Justice on Trial : Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System." The study finds that minorities in the US face discriminatory treatment at every stage of the judicial process, from arrest to incarceration. The 95 page report was issued by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights based in Washington DC. It's findings show that blacks, Hispanics and other minorities face unfair targeting by police and other law enforcement officials, racially biased charging and plea bargaining decisions by prosecutors and discriminatory

sentencing by judges. In a report released from Washington DC- Amnesty International criticized Us Federal and state justice systems as riddled with racial discrimination.

The report, Racism and the Administration of Justice, cites

as evidence the disproportionate rate of minorities incarcerated, sentenced to death, and executed in the US. In its report, Amnesty International cited cases of racial profiling, unlawful use of force, unlawful shootings, and

deaths in custody affecting minorities from at least 10 states in the US. African Americans and other minorities suffer disproportionate rates of incarceration, accounting for 60 percent of the 1.7 million people currently in jail or prison in the US. African American men are imprisoned at more than eight times the rate of white men, and one third of all young African American men are in jail or prison, on parole, or on probation. African American women are imprisoned at eight times, and Hispanic women at four times, the rate of white women. The overwhelming majority of victims of police brutality, unlawful shootings...