BY STUDENT
In the United States, our government has a set of laws that we all must abide by or else we face punishment. The punishment can range from miniscule fines to jail time and it’s determined on the severity of the crime committed. The government justice system also uses these laws to aid in the prevention of crime in communities by demonstrating the consequences of particular actions. However, the definition of crimes deserving jail time has changed. Nowadays people can get sent to jail simply for drug possession due to the perceived expectation that drugs will make them act violently and/or commit crimes (Gilmore, 2007, 109). But how does this concern the Latino/a/x population? In this blog post I argue how the justice system has been unfair toward the Latino/a/x community.
According to Ruth Wilson Gilmore, the “Prison Fix” there was an increase in the percentage of California prisoners of Latino/a/x ethnicity from the year of 1977 to the 2000’s. Starting at 21%, it has managed to reach 34.8%, making them the second biggest group in these institutions (Gilmore, 2007, 111). Throughout this time, there was also an increase in the percentage of inmates being in jail for drug offenses from 7.4% to 39%, making it more common than violent crimes (Gilmore, 2007, 112). How did it get to this? Well, it started with state officials fearing the loss of funding from the government for the lack of punishment in response to criminal activity. This then led to an increase in patrolling done by police officers to find people participating in illegal activities. By doing so, police officers began to patrol certain areas more than others, typically lower income neighborhoods, which would generally consist of minority groups of Latino/a/x and/or African American ethnicity. This can tie into the Broken Windows Theory. This states that policing will increase in these low-income neighborhoods due to the lack of reconstruction or repair which leads to the assumption of criminal activity. Situations like these would also add onto the pre-existing stereotype regarding the Latino/a/x community as being criminals and/or drug traffickers.
This stereotype regarding the Latino/a/x community as being criminals has impacted the perceptions of the community in day to day life and the justice system. In California, this community has a higher chance of facing discrimination and struggles to be seen as innocent until proven guilty. There is an underlying assumption that since they typically come from low income neighborhoods, they are automatically deemed to be partaking in activities that they shouldn’t be. This relates to what Black Experts, such as W.E.B. Dubois, Ida B Wells, and Thorsten Sellin, claimed back in the 1900’s that crimes were determined by social circumstances, like class. This shows how the justice system has yet to truly see everyone as equal. Supposedly, the justice system uses jails as a way of keeping “bad people” off the streets, yet they struggle to be fair and unprejudiced. The justice system shouldn’t decide on who goes to jail based on false assumptions that pertain to social class. Instead, they should be putting people in jails based on facts that they are truly a threat to society.
Bibliography:
Gazzar, Brenda. “Report: Latinos Overrepresented as Crime Victims and in Justice System.” Daily News, Daily News, 28 Aug. 2017, www.dailynews.com/2014/06/24/report-latinos-overrepresented-as-crime-victims-and-in-justice-system/.
Gilmore, Ruth. 2007. “Prison Fix”. Golden Gulag. University of California Press.
I agree with you on the sense of how polices and government officials "bend" the laws and rules for people based upon a racial profile. These stereotypes of identifying Latino/a/x and African Americans as criminals impacts the limits of how far we can go in society; leaving us with the struggles of defending our natural rights.
ReplyDelete^ my comment. I agree with you on the sense of how polices and government officials "bend" the laws and rules for people based upon a racial profile. These stereotypes of identifying Latino/a/x and African Americans as criminals impacts the limits of how far we can go in society; leaving us with the struggles of defending our natural rights.
ReplyDeleteReally good point about how the justice system does include assumptions in the decision making process even though this should not be the case. You provided detailed support such as the major people involved with writing crime into class. It seems as if you even touch on Muhammad's point of writing crime into place - when you mention that it is assumed these individuals are partaking in criminal acts because they live in a certain neighborhood. I agree that the justice system's decisions should be based only on the act that one has committed rather than the color of their skin or the neighborhood they live in.
ReplyDeleteThe Latino/a/x and black population of the united states have always been victims of stereotypes and I believe they have done many wonderful things to overcome them but over time and time again they fall victims to incidences based on their ethnicity. Has our country shown us that it is ok with unfair treatment towards minorities? It may appear so...
ReplyDeleteThis criminalization of minorities is definitely upsetting. You'd think that society would be able to regulate itself to prevent injustice like this, but that clearly isn't the case. We need to reel in our police, to ensure that they actually serve the people, and not just the wealthy. On top of the points you made, there were an alarming number of reports of officers framing minorities by planting drugs on them. Many of them are probably not true, but some of them definitely are. Who's the judge going to believe, a police officer or a minority who got "caught" with drugs? Body cams are a good start, but our work is far from done.
ReplyDeleteBeing a part of the minority society comes with encounters with men in uniform who are more comfortable putting away people who have been discriminated for years. Sadly, it continues today and i'm glad you pointed out how it impacts our community. Not only is it impacting everyone in the Latinx but their future. Putting Latinx in jail when they don't deserve is the cause of stereotypes today. Also ruining a potential future for the victim, possibly they wanted a future here in the States and being criminalized makes it ten times harder for us, especially because we are minorities.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that so many innocent people get put in jail based on how they look, act, and where they come from is very disturbing. The people who are supposed to help run the country are the ones who create the idea that certain groups are the criminals because they look like one. I completely agree with your last statement that people should be put in jail for the right reasons.
ReplyDelete