The United States criminal justice system has for several years been accused of a racially biased institution where the non-white, especially the African Americans, are maltreated. Many scholars and commentators have alleged that the criminal justice system is an institution anchored on racism which has been known to dishonestly target the people of color and punish them with a severity that is rarely applied to the white population. This paper, therefore, analysis Nichole Griffith’s articles titled “RACISM IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM” and explores some critical facts concerning the racism in the U.S justice system.
According to Nichole Griffith, the racial discrimination cases seen today are not a mistake but a result of a well-orchestrated plan to treat the African Americans a dishonorable way. In an attempt to unearth the genesis of this vice in the criminal justice system, Griffith refers back to 1982 during the Ronald Reagan administration when the government made changes that became the foundation of the problems found in the system today. As Griffith observes, President Reagan’s calling for an increased spending in military and police force and the reduction of expenditures in the social welfare was his first step towards facilitating the arrests of the African American. In 1992, ten years later, more than $30 billion was channeled to war on drugs which ironically targeted African Americans more than any other race. Griffith says despite the studies showing that around 76% of illegal drug users to be the white compared to 14% of African Americans, around 37% of those charged with drug cases where the black people against a surprisingly small percentage of the white people (Griffith, 2012). The writer is justified to suggest that this is unfair especially considering that African American amount to only around 13% of the American population.
The police crackdown, as Griffith notes, were coupled with a well-arranged media propaganda meant to portray the African Americans as criminals. Griffith says the government-sponsored media has also created a negative image of the inner cities where the majority of poor African Americans live hence making other groups stigmatize them. The media has also indirectly encouraged racial profiling making the black male youth to be associated with criminal behavior. The article points out the corruption in the police force where branches like NYPD have been known to falsely accuse black people of criminal activities including planting drugs on people to arrest them (Griffith, 2012). The articles are right to suggest that the courts of law are as racially biased as all other institutions because the black people are more like to be handed mandatory and death sentences for the same crimes than the white. These discriminations, as noted in the article, are not any different from slavery and Jim Crow. Griffith summarizes by quoting Angela Davis where she proposes for “…a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance” (Griffith, 2012).
The Author of this article approaches the subject of racism in the United States criminal justice in a very open-minded manner by historically taking the readers back to more than three decades to prove his argument and remove all the doubts. He presents well connected and extensively researched information yet manages to do this without appearing biased or inclining towards any single racial side. By providing verifiable data which is coupled with compelling figures in their chronological manner, the author manages to convince the readers of the presence of the racism vice in the Criminal justice system and its effects of the country’s social-economic setting from President Reagan’s time to the present day America. His ability to relate his research to respected Human rights figures like Martin Luther King Proves that his approach to this subject is a sober one. His conclusion demonstrates his level-headedness and needs for reconciliation and an end to racially oriented injustices.
The author has presented the article in a very professional format. The cover page indicates the research title and other relevant information which accurately dated. The table of contents, the annotated bibliography, the research proposal, and the outline of the paper is done in a manner that any reader would have an easy time reading it. The author has also made use of subtitles and graphical representations that further add to the convenience of understanding the content. Finally, by providing a bibliography with a broad range of references the author of this article has proved the credibility of his work and enabled the readers to access more information on this subject.
This article has addressed a broad range of issues concerning racial discrimination in the U.S justice system. However, there are a few critical ones that the author did not touch on. Juvenile arrests and incarceration are issues that further proves how racially biased the criminal justice system is. The African American youth from about 16% of the total juvenile population. While this is quite a small percentage compared to the number of other young people, there is around 37% of them in juvenile jails. Additionally, around 58% of this figure is unfairly moved to adult prisons. The author also failed to mention the cases of extrajudicial killing African Americans by the police. This has been one of the most common occurrences in the past recent years, and it is one of the issues that the criminal justice system needs to address to promote parity. The problems discussed in this article, the following questions remain unsolved:
1. Should there be a constitutional review to address these issues?
2. Should the media be held accountable for racially biased propaganda?