In your opinion, what are some of the biggest issues with
the criminal 'justice' system (think about what we talked about last week) -
what would be some remedies to get rid of these issues?
One of the biggest issues with the criminal justice system is
that African American are overcharged by prosecutor and over sentenced by
judges, there is a higher percentage of African American in prison than any
other race . Blacks and whites are convicted at very different rates, and
receive very different sentences for the same crime . For example , if a white
person was convicted for a violent crime they could get the minimums sentence
for a that crime , but if an African American was to committed the same crime
they would probably be faced with a longer sentence.
There are also
different penalties for the same drugs . For example if a person was to get
caught with 5 gram of crack cocaine they would receive a jail sentence of 5
years . For a person who gets caught with power cocaine would have to have 500
grams of power cocaine to receive the jail sentence as the person who was
caught with crack cocaine . I feel the crack penalties are racist because African
Americans are usual associated with crack cocaine and white people are associated
with power cocaine . Then though they are the same drug , people who get caught
with crack get a longer sentence .
Another issues with the criminal justice system is that it sends
to many people to jail would do not deserve it. For example people with drug
addicts . Instead of sending someone with a drug addict to jail , they should
be sent to a rehabilitation center in order to get help .
In order to get rid of these issue, I feel the people shouldn’t
get arrest for minor thing like unpaid parking ticket. I think people who get
arrest for drugs should go to rehab to receive help. People who are addicted to
drug are not real criminals .
For the unfair ruling and jail sentences against African American,
I feel prosecutor and judges should focus more on discovering the truth , and
stop judging people based on how they feel towards them . I honestly do not feel
there is a remedy for this , people should just stop being racist .
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Hi Hazel, I agree that one of the biggest issues with the criminal justice system is that there have been excuses made that african americans are more likely to commit crimes when theres evidence that shows the same crimes that African Americans are convicted or accused of can also happen with white people but since we are fed all the stereotypes about black people, and look at the number of African Americans that are locked the excuses and stereotypes starts to become believable to many. Its hard for them not to see that African Americans and white people are just as likely to do the same crime.
ReplyDeleteHey!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about lowering the amount of people in jail because of things like drug charges. If people who are drug addicts get sent to jail then how do we as a society expect them to get better? Prisons do not have the resources to help someone who is dealing with this kind of issue nor do they even try to help them. I think there should be more rehabilitation centers and resources available for people with drug addictions.
Hi Jen,
ReplyDeleteYou received credit for this blog- thanks!