THE CRIMINALIZATION OF LATINOS
BY JOEL
In recent years, Latinos have had the fastest rate of
imprisonment of all groups in the country and although there are many states
with a large Latino population we clearly see that the criminalization of
Latinos is especially relevant in the state of California. Criminalizing
Latinos is not a new phenomenon, this is an everyday occurrence which has
started since the first sightings of Latinos in the United States. In the late
1900s California was looking at expanding and financing the growth of prisons
so much so that Governor Jerry Brown “…had financed prison design studies out
of reserve funds appropriated by the legislature and initiated the era of new
facilities construction by approving a $25,000,000 expansion at the California
Correctional Institution (Gilmore 93).” These expansions and new prisons
directly correspond with the increasing rate of imprisonment among Latinos and
African Americans. Despite policymakers using an economic logic to explain
prison industries, I believe that if local elites and the justice system were not so
racist against colored people then there would be no need for these expansions
or new prison. This
information leads to some basic questions: Could this mass imprisonment crises be
resolved? How
would a dramatic decrease in Latino arrests affect the prisons in California?
During the late 1900s California had one of the highest
rates of prison populations in the country, mostly because “…parole boards were
capricious and racist, representing local elites; prisoners sentenced to one
year to life languished in the penitentiary for decades… (Gilmore 90).” Since
many members of the prison boards were racist this lead to an increase of
imprisonment for people of color in general. Many of these prisoners did not
belong in the system, the magnitude of their crime was small and they were not
dangerous to the well-being of others in society. In fact, many were
incarcerated for minor offenses such as carrying drugs. Also, during this time
period the conditions in prisons were atrocious “…the CDC could not or would
not respect the rights of inmates to ‘adequate life safety, health care and
recreation, food, decent eating… and sanitation standards…visitation
privileges, and access to legal services (Gilmore 91).” Prisoners fought these
conditions which lead to reform in the prison system. This was a victory at last but yet this did
not change the fact that the numbers of imprisonment for Latinos and African
Americans were still rising.
In Latina/os and US
prisons: Trends and Challenges the author states that there are many
reasons for the incarceration of Latinos: “the racialization of crime; the
manner in which criminal justice policy is formulated and justified around the
fear of crime; how the courts and the criminal justice system operate; and the
role of the media in promoting negative images of Latinas/os are among the
areas explored in discerning contributing factors (Morin 11).” I believe that
the mass imprisonment of Latinos in California can be resolved just by passing
policies that are fair, Latinos were usually stereotyped for no reason whatsoever
as stated by Morin “Latinas/os
are subject to stereotypes that transcend racial myths, with one such
stereotype being the false link between immigrants and crime (Morin 11).” Also,
if there was a dramatic decrease in Latino imprisonment in California I believe
that the state would have a similar situation to what we have here in New York.
Prisons
would be closed and inmates would be relocated which would then hurt the city’s
economy. Although, this is a negative impact on the economy, new industries
would have a chance to expand in these areas which would then turn the closing
of prisons into a positive aspect.
References:
Gilmore, Ruth. Golden Gulag: prisons, surplus, crisis, and opposition in globalizing
California. University of California press, 2007.
Morin, Jose Luis. Latina/os and US prisons: Trends and Challenges. John Jay College
of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, NY, 2008.
I agree that instituting fair policies would transform the Criminal Justice System in the United States for everyone. However this will take a tremendous amount of mobilizing of all people of color to unite to fight for these changes. Currently, more than 60 percent of the people in prisons today are people of color. African Americans make up 38 percent of the current population, while whites make up 35 percent and Latinos 21 percent. With this being said, once labeled a felon for life, as a result this may prevent voting rights, access to public housing, student loans, and other public assistance. This may also affect employment prospects, which can lead to increase in recidivism. In addition, Latinos are especially affected because crime is associated with immigrants, which leads to racial profiling or extreme policing. I am an immigrant and I came to this country with my family seeking to obtain the American Dream. The opportunity to go to school and get an education in order to find a good job that will help me to move up the SES ladder. I believe that most immigrants came to this country to work hard and not to be on welfare, lazy, have a lot of babies, become gang members, or take away jobs from other Americans. It is sad that right-wing politicans are targeting Latinos regarding their immigrant status or feel threatened by the increase of Latinos in the United States. Once again, it is a good idea to use fair policies to decrease the prison population in California or any prison population in the United States, however it will take a lot of work and mobilization of people.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Bureau of Justice Statistics, HTTP://WWW.BJS.GOV/
This is a really interesting subject that you bring up, and also a very controversial one. To answer your first question, I think the mass imprisonment crisis could be resolved by first changing how we define and measure what constitutes a crime in the United States. Criminalization of Latinos or racial profiling in general goes against every right that protects a human in the Constitution and should be a crime in itself. Like you have mentioned, a criminal record can haunt a person for the rest of their life so, as a society, we should be very cautious on how to label a crime. Second of all, I think it’s important to mention that there’s a big difference between incarceration and rehabilitation. If a person is arrested for possession of a small amount of drugs, is it justifiable to put them in prison for many years? Shouldn’t the crime committed match the severity of the punishment?
ReplyDeletePertaining to illegal immigrants in the United States, I hardly think they should be labeled as criminals. And targeting minority groups and putting them in prison for crimes that are non-violent is not only a waste but also doesn’t resolve anything. Putting people in prison shouldn’t be something that other people profit from. It’s not only unjust it’s inhumane.
Joel, I found this post to be very informative. You mentioned that the reason for such high imprison rates for Latinos is mainly because of discrimination and racism towards minority groups. It is unfortunate to know that after establishing laws protecting people based on their skin color, gender and race that law enforcers still discriminating against minority populations. I believe in some shape way or form discrimination will always exist but how to counteract that is still an answer our society has yet to establish.
ReplyDeleteJoel, i found this post to be very informative of the prison industrial complex that is begging to hold a huge role in this country. You present the question could this mass imprisonment crises be resolved? I believe that there is no way to fix this idea of the prison industrial complex because many neoliberal economic policy encourage it. Many policy makers support this idea because they believe it is a way of fighting " the war on drugs". The war on drugs though has become more a war on immigration and has pushed many minority groups to be targeted and spend large sentence in these jails for minor offenses. The prison industrial complex is very important to talk about because we see in areas of upstate New York, how it even impacts the job sector in this area. These prison industrial complex has had also a negative impact on the educational attainment and job sectors groups are automatically labeled into doing. I don't see policy makers making fairer laws until the community understands how the laws impact their population. I would be interested in hearing your opinion to what new industries could possibly expand in these areas.
ReplyDeleteI feel that with the number of prisons that were being built it put police officers in a situation where they felt the need to fill them, which lead to more random stops ignorer to see if they could catch you in a deviant act. Unfortunately the people who would fall victim to this were minorities. The racial profiling is still something we see today where if your at a police checkpoint they tend to be more vigilant with minority pedestrians rather than with white pedestrians.
ReplyDelete