The Jailing of Black America: Race, Family, Laws, and the NY Times

On October 2nd, one of the most emailed New York Times articles in the United States was an op-ed highlighting several coinciding, racially-charged events. These included the slandering of a black female executive for the Knicks, the beating of a popular female Evangelical minister by her husband, the most recent arrest of O.J. Simpson, and, finally, the Jena 6 “miscarriage of justice.”

The article also broaches the gross discrepancies in the rate of black male incarceration compared to white male incarceration in the the United States and looks to uncover the causes behind our penal system’s gibbous population.
As of June 2006, there were 2,245,189 prisoners behind state and federal bars. The incarceration rate of black men was 4,789 for every 100,000 black males in the population compared to the 736 per 100,000 white males.

Just for reference, a quick international comparison: South Africa under apartheid in 1993, imprisoned 851 black males per 100,000 black males in the populous. The United States (under George Bush) in 2006, imprisoned 4,789 black males per 100,000 black males in the population.

Below are maps heat sourcing the state prisons’ population composition.

White Male Incarceration

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Black Male Incarceration

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Here is a link to the chart with full numeric values of incarceration by race in each state prison:
chart

The states with the largest discrepancies:
Iowa: White Males 159 Black Males 2818 Difference 2659.
DC: White Males 87 Black Males 2720 Difference 2633.
Connecticut: White Males 139 Black Males 2296 Difference 2157.
Pennsylvania: White Males 108 Black Males 1826 Difference 1718.
New Jersey: White Males 115 Black Males 1526 Difference 1411.
Minnesota: White Males 59 Black Males 1383 Difference 1324.
Illinois: White Males 98 Black Males 1395 Difference 1297.

The states with the least discrepancies: (still twice as many black males as white males)
Hawaii: White Males 219 Black Males 579 Difference 360
Vermont: White Males 178 Black Males 451 Difference 273

Rockefeller

As Paul Smith said, “The level of crime and the levels of inequality in a society go hand in hand, statistically you are more likely to commit crime the more oppressed you are.”

Many sources will say the direct cause of our unbalanced prison population is the ineffective laws currently governing drug apprehensions. The total number of people imprisoned in the United States in 1980 is just over the number of people currently imprisoned for only drug offenses. “A major reason for the overflow of African American inmates in New York State prisons is the so-called ‘Rockefeller Drug Laws,’ enacted in 1973. They require judges to sentence even a first-time offender to a minimum of 15 years in prison for selling two ounces of narcotics.”

These current drug laws are largely considered to be harsh, naive, and ineffective money drains. The New York State Corrections Commissioner, Thomas A. Coughlin, III, says “…the punitive effect of the Rockefeller drug laws, as well as the rigidity of the second felony offender laws, do not deter, they do not lessen, nor do they cure drug addiction. Instead, as far as prisons are being filled with low-level drug offenders, more street level sellers and abusers appear to take the place of those individuals who get caught up in the criminal justice system.”

A Heat Map of Drug Use in the United States

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Unemployment

An alarming effect of the deluge of black American men incarcerated since the enactment of the current drug laws, is that upon release, these men are considered mostly unemployable. Employment discrimination is prevalent enough without adding a criminal record to render a black man undesirable for hire. According to the Community Service Society, “The Wall Street Journal reported on a study that showed white men with a criminal record have a better chance of being asked back after a first job interview than black men without a record.” Not to mention the fact that they have already lost the right to vote (“Thirteen percent of the black adult male population has lost the right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement laws.” Human Rights Watch and the Sentencing Project, Losing the Vote.)

Having a criminal record doesn’t just bar you from high level, hard to attain jobs; in places like New York, it eliminates your ability to be employed in occupations such a as a licensed plumber or barber. Furthermore, these restrictions are not modified in accordance with the degree or type of crime, they fall across the board, firmly tying the hands of many released felons.

A map of unemployment rates in the United States

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Family Structure

What’s clear is that there is a devastating and ever increasing disparity in our penal system’s racial composition. What is unclear is why that is. There is strong support for the idea that our nation’s crippling drug laws are the culprit, however, The New York Times article spawning this blog states that the obvious—but ignored—reason is the increasing failure in African American families due to male/female dissension. According to the article, the abuse of black females is leading to the disintegration of a healthy, prolific family structure. Then there is the all encompassing and all so vague summary that “Although racial bias may play a role in individual cases, most researchers believe racial disparities in the criminal justice system are primarily the result of indirect discrimination; the impact of race-linked (e.g. poverty, education, neighborhood of arrest) disadvantages compounded through out the criminal justice processing system; specific ‘social structural contexts;’ and such legally relevant race neutral variables as the existence of prior records,” provided by David Cole.

So is it the drug laws, pure and blind racism, familial dysfunction, indirect discriminations, or misfiring drug laws? Probably all of the above. The more important question; what can be done?