African-Americans in the Criminal Justice System

Background

African-Americans have a long history of being the target of racism and biased treatment in the area of criminal justice system in America. In the post slavery era African-Americans were still faced with living with the strain of being discriminated against both in society and in the justice system. De jure discrimination according to Butler (2010) included wrongful convictions, lack of effective counsel, vagrancy laws that specifically targeted African-American people, segregated prisons, and exclusion from juries. Lynching's were rampant in the southern United States, although they happened all over the nation, sometimes they were an extra-legal response to African-American criminal suspects and at other times they were just mindless acts of random mob violence. The NAACP was created in response to this domestic terrorism that also victimized Jewish, Latino, and other immigrants that were deemed to be undesirable and still plays a vital role in the advancement of the African-American community.

Incarceration Rates

There are currently more than 2.6 million prisoners in American prisons and jails, which equates to nearly 25% of the world's total inmate population. African-Americans are grossly overrepresented in this system with over one million presently being detained. At this time one out of every three young African-Americans are either locked up, on probation, parole, or awaiting trial. According to Butler (2010) racial disparities in education, housing,