American prisons have a disparity of minority inmate population. Is the trend due to a higher rate of minority crimes or the manner in which the judicial system operates?
Introduction
America has a diverse population of people, and classification of minorities is on the basis of their ethnicity, race and religion (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000).The increasing trend of type casting has become a matter of growing concern in the American society. Over the centuries, this labeling has marginalized the minorities up to the extent that it has now become a serious social concern. The issue of minority disparity in American prisons mostly corresponds to the racial and ethnic minority groups. On a much wider scope, these disparities do not necessarily arise because of discrimination. Instead, the concept relates to more serious underlying problems (Oliver, 2001).
The alarming statistics of the rate of incarcerations in America has captured global attention. The figures reveal that by the year 2000, America had surpassed Russia, reaching the top position in the number of incarcerations in the world. This was estimated to be approximately 690 of 100,000 people. With this rate of incarcerations, America has exceeded every other nation by four to six times (Oliver, 2001).
The analysis of such high figures of incarceration in American prisons on a much wider context has revealed other social, ethnical and racial concerns. Several studies show that the American prison inmates are disproportional in terms of minorities and more specifically categorized by racial and ethnical class. Over a 24-years period, the majority of the American prisoners were Blacks or Hispanics. The number of Black inmates tripled over this time period, from a figure of 646,000 to 2,166,000. The statistics of Hispanics increased 10 folds from 102,000 to an alarmingly high figure of 997,000 (Bonczar, 2003). Furthermore, the overall estimate of current, former or federal prisoners indicated that 16.6% of the total population was of adult Black males (Bonczar, 2003).
Figure 2 not only shows the distinguishingly enormous incarceration trends of America, in general as compared to other nations, but also raises serious social, moral and political concerns about the astronomical number of Black inmates (Oliver, 2001).
This prevalence trend has been reported as a disaster by several studies (Oliver, 2001). Therefore, core factors amounting to such figures need to be assessed more meticulously such as the predisposition of Blacks to more serious crimes and discrepancies in the American Criminal Justice System.
Discussion
American Justice System
The argument whether the American Justice System needs to be blamed of its practices leading to enormously high incarceration rates of minorities remains disputed. Several studies have blamed the unfair, unnecessary and biased sentencing policies of the judiciary system, thereby violating the rights of minorities (Baradaran, 2013).
Public Policies
The American Justice system has faced a number of economic disruptions and a revision of the change in policies during its growth over the past few years. They have faced notable effects on their operations leading to a change in policies of the judicial ...
