CRIMINALIZATION OF LATINOS
BY STUDENT
In Latina/os And U.S. Prisons: Trends and Challenges the author gives a few factors contributing to the rise of Latina/o population in prisons, “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.” (Morín 11) These are all issues that could be easily resolved if the world didn’t automatically judge people based on their race or ethnicity. Another reason Latinas/os are exposed to high rates of incarceration is because of SOME of them being “immigrants” and the media seeing them as harmful people in our country. As I said earlier this is something that should be easy to put a stop to, but because the world is blind to reason and just believes what they are told by the media and other forms of news it can continue being an issue for a long time (when there is no reason for it to be.)
The other issue I wanted to bring up was IF this problem continues to occur, is there enough room in California jails to fit the large amount of “prisoners.” During the early 1980’s in California there were a lot of plans to build new prisons. In 1982 the legislature approved the siting of new facilities in Los Angeles and San Diego. That same year the legislature successfully petitioned voters to approve $495,000,000 in general obligation bonds to build new prisons—based on the argument that more prison cells would enhance public safety and punish wrongdoers. (Gilmore 93) The expansion of prisons throughout California would not have to be an issue if it wasn’t for the increase of Latinas/os and African Americans being incarcerated. In Los Angeles, Latina/o youth are incarcerated at rates much higher than White youth – 7.3 times as often from 1996 to 1998 – and Latina/o youth are prosecuted as adults more often than White youth – 2.4 times as often from 1996 to 1998. (Morín 26) If that issue (7 times as many Latinas/os being incarcerated) were not an issue, which it shouldn’t be, then there would be no need for more prisons.
References:
Morin,
Jose Luis. Latina/os and US prisons: Trends and Challenges. John Jay
College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, NY, 2008.
Gilmore,
Ruth. Golden Gulag: prisons, surplus, crisis, and opposition in globalizing
California. University of California press, 2007.
It's crazy that the people of California want to spend all this money on taxes to build more prisons than actually face the problem that there is a lot of people of color in those prisons, simply because of their skin. The issue of race and law enforcement has been going on for years, and I think that the increased Latino prison population is just going to get worse as more and more immigrants come to the United States. There is such a stigma for the people of color in the law enforcement's eyes, and the issue shouldn't be about building more prisons it should be about whether or not law enforcement is targeting certain groups more than others and based on the data you included, they are.
ReplyDeletei read an article before that correlates the number of prisons being built with the grades third graders receive on their state wide tests. So pretty much by the age of 8 children are already seen as a "lost cause." This is shocking to me because an 8 year old is still so young and have a lot of time to learn.
ReplyDeleteI truly find this so amazing the fact that simply having a link to the hispanic heritage is what is getting the majority of latinos in trouble. I recently discussed this issue in class because there was an article in where a white male college student was drinking and driving and he ended up causing a car crash in which an ENTIRE family was killed. However the verdict lied, he was found not guilty because of the "incredible wealth" the kid was grown into. That was simply astonishing because this trial was compared to another one in which an African American Child was given jail time because he pushed another kid accidentally and the other kid hit his head and because of the head trauma he received he eventually died. This just goes to show the social injustice we as minorities receive even after so many years of trying to reach equality for all.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting viewpoint. Whenever I read a blog post I try to look for possible other explanations that might be contributing to any changes occurring. One alternate reason for why the number of incarcerated Latinas increased from 10.9% in 1985 to 15.5% in 1995 could be because the very rapid growth of Latina immigrants in the United States. Considering that the Latino population in the US nearly doubled between the early 80s and late 90s, according to US census data, the increase in Latina incarcerations doesn't seem to be all that significant. I do agree with your point that "the racialization of crime" is a serious issue that victims sometimes may face, however, I do not believe it is as common as it is made out to be.
ReplyDeleteThe number of latinos/as being incarcerated is outstanding and a true crime to Humanity. I like how this article mentions how the media portrays one thing and the numbers express the opposite when it says, "This might seem “surprising” to some people because television and social media always portray African Americans more than any other race as those being criminalized and imprisoned the most." It might be interesting to see an argument for how the media exacerbates the Latino/a and Black incarceration. Also, I see that the article mentions Hispanics and Lations/as, are they being used interchangeably?
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