by Jack Lee
Let me preface this article by saying a fact isn’t racist and it isn’t partisan, its just a fact and we should never fear exploring facts. Today’s politically incorrect article is based on the [fact] that America incarcerates more of it’s citizens than any other country in the world and it has a definite racial smell. We deserve to know why or we’ll never be able to fix it.
Fact: With only 5% of the world population, America has more than 25% of the world’s prisoners. Fact: We have about 7 million people incarcerated, on parole or probation, with roughly 2.2 million of them in prison or jail. By comparison China has 1.5 million prisoners, and Russia is in third place with 870,000. Fact: Blacks account for 39.2% of the prison population, yet they make up only 12.8% of the total population. Hispanics total 15.4% of prisoner and they make up about 14.4% of the total population.
You can conclude from the [facts] that one or more of the following are true (1) America has a black culture, and to a lesser degree a Hispanic culture, that are failing from a social disorder. (2) It is the result of an oppressive white population and racial profiling. (3) A police state has disproportionately singled out blacks and Hispanics for arrest and incarceration because of poverty and bigotry. The later doesn’t hold up (explanation in the next paragraph), but what about 1 and 2?
America has above average law enforcement and judicial system which means they are more likely to catch and convict criminals. If the offenders tend to be black or Hispanic this isn’t a casual effect, it’s a symptom of something deeper. Racism is a fair target for a causal reason and it’s reasonable to conclude that racism going back throughout our history was the a big setup for much of the current problem. However, today racism is only a very factional part of the real incarceration problem, especially for blacks and Hispanics.
Improvement in minority civil rights through anti-discrimination laws and enlightened attitudes has bigotry in a sharp decline, but it’s haunting effects lives on in the minds of many minorities. So, attitudes among whites has greatly improved, unfortunately the same can’t be said for blacks and Hispanic racist views and that is area in need of improvement, but it’s also taking us a bit off track.
The steep incline in the number of Americans incarcerated began in 1980, right along with drug abuse. Since that time the number of Americans incarcerated has jumped from under 500,000 people to close to 2,500,000. One non-scientific article poses the answer to the numbers and explains it thus, “since the advent of private prisons they have created a powerful lobby on behalf of its Wall Street investors, to lengthen sentences. Longer sentences means more prisoners. More prisoners means more prisons. More prisoners, and more prisons, means more profit.” Sounds good, but as soon as you discover that private prisons account for only about 3% of the total prison population that assertion implodes.
Why does the United States have the highest incarceration rate at 737 per 100,000 people? What are blacks about six times more likely than whites (4.4%) to be admitted to prison during their life?
Fact: The DOJ tells us that 62% of those admitted to federal prison and 31.1% of those admitted to State prison for the first time, were for drug offenses. In six California counties independently surveyed in 1995, 100% of those individuals sent to trial on drug charges were minorities, while the drug-using population in those same counties was more than 60% white.
This begs the question, is this a black cultural problem or is it a problem due to racial bias by the judicial system or a combination of the two? Regardless of where you come down, do you think we could we positively alter this ugly picture by decriminalizing drug offenses and taking the profit out of illegal narcotics?
If we did and it was proven effective, it would solve almost 1/3rd of the problem of minority over-representation in prison. This would be a good start to healing a community, especially since what we are currently doing is failing miserably and its becoming so costly it’s unsustainable.
There are more questions than answers in this article, but these questions are the first step to finding good answers. The [fact] is we have a judicial system that is failing entire sub-cultures and sub-cultures that are failing their country. We absolutely must do something before this problem is totally out of control. My thinking is we need to take a new direction, because all past efforts have failed. If that means decriminalizing drugs, then it is worth exploring.
“Let me preface this article by saying a fact isn’t racist ….”
Of course it is, because you insist upon describing the problem in terms of race (which is irrelevant) rather than poverty, a lack of material and spiritual resources (which positively is relevant).
Someday this is gonna sink in … but I’m not holding my breath.
Libby dear what if “poverty” or “lack of material and spiritual resources” ISN’T the cause…then what?
We’ve been addressing poverty for sixty some years in this nation and it hasn’t made a difference. Educational opportunities have increased during this same period…it hasn’t made a difference.
Opportunities for material gain exist for anyone with the gumption to go for it. (unless Keynesian economics are being utilized by our government)…those that have are the proof.
Ditto for spiritual resources.
Whether Libby thinks this is a significant bunch of facts or not I can assure you the black community thinks they are significant.
Unfortunately the voices that are the loudest are the ones who are inclined to use race as an excuse, to have lower expectations of POC, and who think redistribution and selective or special treatment is the answer.
This is obviously the wrong course. Bobody thrives when things are handed to them. people excell when they must work and achieve for what they get.
Our society in general is in crisis. We have abandoned tried and true notions of morality and personal responsibility that once kept our citizens living within the bounds of the law and supported them in becoming honest productive citizens. We have abandoned traditional marriage and parenthood, both of which helped to create secure and stable environments for children. We have abandoned spiritual and religious training. We have abandoned traditional ideas of what it is to be a great person. Our society values pop culture icons and criminals more than doctors, scientists, businessmen and teachers. We find our addictions amusing rather than troubling; we make them the center of our entertainment and amusements.
Young people in the black community have been hit harder by broken homes, addictions, and a poverty of life and spirit. The embrace of gansta music and lifestyle in the last twenty or so years only excellerated the downward spiral. It’s a profoundly sad situation that need not have happened except that the institutions and beliefs that hold families and communities together have deteriorated. (been under assault)
Those with the greatest power to do something about this are the black people themselves. An embrace of marriage, family, religion, and strong moral underpinnings would go a long way toward reversing this trend. Unfortuantely most of the people in prison today are likely lost…but the next generations need not be.
This kind of change in values and beliefs is needed across the board in American society but given these statistics it’s obvious that a transformation is vital for the very survival of the black community.
The following was posted on Alex Jones Infowars:
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/family_future_of_black_men_critical_for_american_family.htm
I would love to know what a liberal means by “spiritual resources”. If you are talking about religion and church, last time I checked they are free to all. Ok “all” maybe stretching it a bit, as a white conservative I am sure some churches would not welcome me. Do not worry, I am not going to cry racism, I will just find one that will take me. I will not go on a crime wave, so relax.
Jack, great story! I think less drugs are the answer not more but it has to be the whole Country and a wholehearted effort by our local, state and federal government.
If we have laws on the books they either need to be enforced or removed from the books. We cannot pick and choose what crimes will be enforced and who we will prosecute.
Tina, while the article you linked to seems to be inoffensive itself, Alex Jones is a racist who uses his site to promote “trutherism,” the conspiracy theory that President Bush orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. I would strongly advise not giving his site any more traffic by linking to it.
Poverty and crime go hand in hand. This has always been true. How to address this problem is, of course, very complicated. I think legalizing marijuana would have at least some effect on the crime rate, if not a large one. There may be unintended consequences, but Jack and Tina are right that our current system is just not working out.
Libby, how in the heck do you write an article about blacks being over represented in the prison system if you don’t mention race???
Toby, my thinking is we should do it right and enforce the laws or if we can’t do that, then we should do something to decriminalize it. I think we lack the will to get tough enough to make a difference, we keep doing half measures…well not even half…1/10th measures is more like it. So the only thing left is to make it legal. Then the fallout in 6 months should tell us if it was the right move or not.
All conclusions and theories based on incarceration numbers are totally unreliable because the numbers themselves are unreliable. Less than 10% of the people who commit crimes in the USA are even prosecuted, let alone convicted and imprisoned.
Soaps, isn’t that even more confirmation that we have a sick and degenerating society? One that is being plagued by subcultures dragging us down because they are unable to get their act together for whatever the reason?
Jack & Soaps
what do you think about the SC ruling today that gives police officers greater leeway in breaking down doors?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sc-dc-0517-court-search-20110516,0,5858981.story
I wonder what $50 light bulbs will do for the poor minorities? Should make robbing us much easier because a lot of us will be in the dark. Two words, night vision!
Tina, there has always been this ability, as far as I know. Soaps is more current, but I recall that if you had probable cause to believe evidence was being destroyed inside a residence or a business or such, you could enter without a search warrant to stop the destruction. If you had a search warrant and you heard the same noises you could stop the knocking and enter to save the evidence.
However, since a search warrant is planned out in many cases you anticipated they would try to flush the evidence and you were prepared to rush in and you also had somebody standing by the bathroom window either as a distraction or with something to disable the toilet, like a bowling ball. A bowling ball thrown at a ceramic toilet kinda wipes it out. Or another was opening the sewer drain or you blocked it in a way that you could recover the evidence from a flush. We never broke down the door and used that destruction of evidence thing as a lame excuse because we were afraid we would get an adverse ruling from the court to hurt all of law enforcement. We didn’t want that.
Yes, Jack, the laws and the judges in California are very liberal, which is why I quit California DOJ and moved to Arizona to continue my law enforcement career. In California, it was difficult to get a narcotics search warrant, so the detectives devised the “knock and talk” strategy. You just knock on the door and interview the people inside. You might say you have heard that the resident is a big-time drug dealer. He might say no, only small-time. He might allow you to come in. He might show you some dope to prove that he is only small time, and so on. This would be considered a consensual search, so you don’t need a warrant. With an actual warrant, you do need to knock and announce before entering. If there is no response, you can kick the door in. You can also apply for a no-knock warrant if you have probable cause that evidence would be destroyed. We had a battering ram for the door knob and a grapple hook for the security door that opens outward. We only pursued big dealers, whose stash would not flush down a toilet. We always positioned one guy outside the bathroom window to catch the dope that was thrown out, usually a kilo or more.
It’s been a while, so some things might have changed. But one thing readers should understand is that no one goes to prison for first-time simple possession of a personal use amount of marijuana.
“If you are talking about religion and church, last time I checked they are free to all.”
Alas, church attendance is not a corollary of spriritual health.
We’ve talked about this before. To be “without funds” does not, in itself, predespose a person to the crack pipe and the state pen. There is generally something more fundamentally lacking, spiritually lacking, and this is positively NOT racially determined. Witness the demographics of Trinity County.
Giggle.
Thanks Soaps. That’s how I see it too. The exigent circumstances that allowed cops to pursue a bad guy into a residence or break down a door are still the same. If you thought someone inside was in great danger – cops can break in. If there was evidence being destroyed – cops can break in. If there was a no knock warrant – cops can break in (usually for officer safety reasons). Evidence being destroyed need not be drugs, could be almost anything. You observe a stabbing suspect washing blood off a knife, etc.
Blacks have HUGE crime rates.. look at memorial day yet again… tons of black criminals going bonkers throughout the country.. I don’t care if we get 50 “black” presidents it will not mean much. The great lie is black crime and blaming it on other factors-white racism, the police, education, etc The fact is crime rates in such communities have gotten much worse along with out of wedlock kids the further we have pulled away from the 1950’s- far worse. The solution: take responsibility for your own actions, stop blaming white people, actually CARE about black crime the way black people do when they hear the N word from a white person, think outside the box politically- obvious the voting behavior of black people has NOT worked. Every city with large amounts of blacks has high crime rates and bad schools- reality in 2011.. support your police departments too instead of going with the thugs like sharpton and the gang.. This is a cultural issue and no amount of pretending if drugs were legal would change it.. Please…