Why US Courts Are Dangerous Places for Young Blacks

[PonderThis]

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

At age 15? That seems a bit harsh.

[Leonard]

But what has been lost in this; the 15 year old Travion Blount's was originally sentence of six life terms plus 118 years for taking part in an armed robbery of a drug dealer that resulted in no serious injuries and netted him $60 and a few joints.

So the armed robbery of a drug dealer is different than an armed robbery of a housewife? Or, are they both armed robbery? Should a conviction of a murder of a known gang member be lighter than a murder of a Rotary Club member?

He stuck a loaded gun in the face of people and took shit that didn't belong to him. Would his sentence have been fitting if he had taken $50,000?

Nobody is saying this kid was innocent. Luckily nobody got shot. Nobody died, but the possibility was definitely there. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

While you may be correct in part, do the crime do the time this is about the sentencing of this minor as an adult and if he had played the game he would have been out in 5 years or so. Does anyone seriously, or want the rest of the world to think even the 40 years, because you did not plea bargain is a fair assessment of the US system of justice?

Speaking of crime and doing the time..........did the 16 year old, one year older than this kid that did the crime of killing 4 while drunk do the time?

Plus this kid is an a maxim security prison; this will not be a deterrent to any crime, not to mention costing the taxpayers untold millions of dollars for his incarceration in a privately owned prison 90 miles from his family.

This is immoral and certainly not cost effective for the American tax payer already burdened with policing the world to make it safe for Corporations.

[tvguy]

Plus this kid is an a maxim security prison; this will not be a deterrent to any crime,

The hell it won't

[Scrapper]

this kid is an a maxim security prison

Maxim has prisons?!?! Are the guards all sexy ladies wearing next to nothing?


Ha! I kid! I kid!

[chuck white]

Maybe we need a quote system for the penal system. If Blacks are only 15% of the US population then the prison systems must reflect that and not one percent more. I'm sure Obama and Holder would support it.

And whites need to commit more crime. It's a shame that we let the blacks do a majority of the crimes.

[csrowan]

"Incarceration rates have increased steadily since 1970 even while criminal activity has dropped. Additionally, while crime rates are relatively equal across races, the rate of incarceration for blacks has risen faster than for whites."

Criminal activity has dropped because we have more criminals in prison.

If more blacks are in prison because the get caught more than do efing what? they were still caught committing a crime.

I'm a cop in a city. I wonder where I should cruise around? Some white neighborhood with low crime rates? Or a crime infested black neighborhood where they get 911 calls every five minutes?
Black on black crime is rampant in these areas. The police HAVE to target blacks to protect the innocent.

Crime has dropped because crime has dropped. There are all sorts of hypotheses as to why. The best I've heard is the lowered environmental lead from eliminating leaded gasoline (http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/20...-epidemic/).




We have more people in prison because we have longer sentences compared to the rest of the world for just about everything. Heck, we even send people off to prison when other countries would just give them fines or send them to treatment programs. But Canada's doing just fine with their shorter sentences and stable prison population and their crime rates are sticking close to ours. It can't be because they have more criminals in prison, so it's got to be something else. And the fact that it parallels ours implies that its something environmental or large scale.

A 2008 New York Times article points out:
Still, it is the length of sentences that truly distinguishes American prison policy. Indeed, the mere number of sentences imposed here would not place the United States at the top of the incarceration lists. If lists were compiled based on annual admissions to prison per capita, several European countries would outpace the United States. But American prison stays are much longer, so the total incarceration rate is higher. … "Rises and falls in Canada's crime rate have closely paralleled America's for 40 years," Mr. Tonry wrote last year. "But its imprisonment rate has remained stable."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarcerati..._countries




As to the idea blacks are so much more violent and criminal than whites that they need to outnumber whites in prisons, consider this:



I'm just wondering why the 2.5 times as many white people who committed violent crimes aren't in prison, outnumbering the black people who committed violent crimes...




And I'm wondering why, since drug usage is fairly even across race (actually somewhat more heavily among whites according to some sources) blacks are more highly represented in prison than whites for drug offenses. Especially since, even if blacks did drugs at twice the rate of whites, you'd still expect to see more whites in prison just due to the differences in population.

Here's one answer: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17...41346.html



But go ahead and keep your blinders on.

[Wonky]

Similar over-representation of African Americans occurs among youth arrests and incarceration rates.

It's a lie or myth spread by liberals that African Americans are prosecuted and jailed so much more than whites because they are African Americans.

I am quite sure part of the reason is police profile blacks. But they do this because they know it works. And it still doesn't mean they catch and incarcerate anyone who is innocent.
And then there's the whites get off because they have money theory. Yeah , OK but There are more poor whites in this country than poor blacks.

Virginia's African-American population is just 20 percent of the state's total, but they represent around 60 percent of state prison inmates

Is anyone is shocked by that? Sounds like every other prison in the whole country.

As a matter of fact maybe there are LESS blacks locked up per capita in Virginia?

Blacks in the USA account for 60 percent of those imprisoned and their population nationwide is 13% not 20% like Virginia.

More blacks are in prison because blacks commit more crimes.

[Wonky]

<Snip>

More blacks are in prison because blacks commit more crimes.

No. More whites (non-blacks) are in prison.

But your point is taken I guess. When considering racial proportions blacks "top the charts".
But it ain't because they have black skin. We MUST look to social causes when considering this stuff.
Of the white guys in the joint, a huge percentage come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Interesting enough, the lowest "race" in prisons are Chinese. 'Splain that Lucy.

[Scar]

<Snip>

More blacks are in prison because blacks commit more crimes.

No. More whites (non-blacks) are in prison.

But your point is taken I guess. When considering racial proportions blacks "top the charts".
But it ain't because they have black skin. We MUST look to social causes when considering this stuff.
Of the white guys in the joint, a huge percentage come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Interesting enough, the lowest "race" in prisons are Chinese. 'Splain that Lucy.

Good. Now they can't use it as an excuse.

[BeerMe]

But what has been lost in this; the 15 year old Travion Blount's was originally sentence of six life terms plus 118 years for taking part in an armed robbery of a drug dealer that resulted in no serious injuries and netted him $60 and a few joints.

So the armed robbery of a drug dealer is different than an armed robbery of a housewife? Or, are they both armed robbery? Should a conviction of a murder of a known gang member be lighter than a murder of a Rotary Club member?

He stuck a loaded gun in the face of people and took shit that didn't belong to him. Would his sentence have been fitting if he had taken $50,000?

Nobody is saying this kid was innocent. Luckily nobody got shot. Nobody died, but the possibility was definitely there. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

While you may be correct in part, do the crime do the time this is about the sentencing of this minor as an adult and if he had played the game he would have been out in 5 years or so. Does anyone seriously, or want the rest of the world to think even the 40 years, because you did not plea bargain is a fair assessment of the US system of justice?

Speaking of crime and doing the time..........did the 16 year old, one year older than this kid that did the crime of killing 4 while drunk do the time?

Plus this kid is an a maxim security prison; this will not be a deterrent to any crime, not to mention costing the taxpayers untold millions of dollars for his incarceration in a privately owned prison 90 miles from his family.

This is immoral and certainly not cost effective for the American tax payer already burdened with policing the world to make it safe for Corporations.

He did try to play the game first of all. He figured since he was fifteen and a minor he would only get three years. That backfired on him.

Untold MILLIONS? Isn't it $40K a year per inmate?

If it isn't a DETERRENT, does that mean that we shouldn't punish the offenders? It should be a deterrent, we hope it's a deterrent, was not stealing from people not a lesson learned at home? But in the end it may just have to be a punishment....

And I've got serious issues with that little shit from Texas getting away with what he got away with. I think that judge should be sent to jail.

[BeerMe]

I'm just wondering why the 2.5 times as many white people who committed violent crimes aren't in prison, outnumbering the black people who committed violent crimes...




And I'm wondering why, since drug usage is fairly even across race (actually somewhat more heavily among whites according to some sources) blacks are more highly represented in prison than whites for drug offenses. Especially since, even if blacks did drugs at twice the rate of whites, you'd still expect to see more whites in prison just due to the differences in population.

Here's one answer: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17...41346.html



But go ahead and keep your blinders on.

Your 2 1/2 times stat makes no sense. Committed violent crime. Are you saying they were suspected of committing the crime? Were they convicted and not sent to prison? Not arrested? WTF does that mean?. 2 1/2 times the people aren't in prison......

Drug use may be even, but most drug prison terms are for selling/transporting not individual possession/personal use weight.

Frankly, I don't give a shit what color the criminal is, they should be punished.

[tvguy]

Maybe we need a quote system for the penal system. If Blacks are only 15% of the US population then the prison systems must reflect that and not one percent more. I'm sure Obama and Holder would support it.

And whites need to commit more crime. It's a shame that we let the blacks do a majority of the crimes.

[csrowan]

I'm just wondering why the 2.5 times as many white people who committed violent crimes aren't in prison, outnumbering the black people who committed violent crimes...




And I'm wondering why, since drug usage is fairly even across race (actually somewhat more heavily among whites according to some sources) blacks are more highly represented in prison than whites for drug offenses. Especially since, even if blacks did drugs at twice the rate of whites, you'd still expect to see more whites in prison just due to the differences in population.

Here's one answer: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17...41346.html



But go ahead and keep your blinders on.

Your 2 1/2 times stat makes no sense. Committed violent crime. Are you saying they were suspected of committing the crime? Were they convicted and not sent to prison? Not arrested? WTF does that mean?. 2 1/2 times the people aren't in prison......

Drug use may be even, but most drug prison terms are for selling/transporting not individual possession/personal use weight.

Frankly, I don't give a shit what color the criminal is, they should be punished.

I'm saying read the numbers, do the math. I showed my work in the graphic.

Two and a half times as many white people commit single-offender violent crimes as black people. And white people use drugs at the same rate or higher than black people. But given that blacks are almost 40% of the prison population and only 13% of the population, I'm seeing a serious problem with our "justice" system.

I showed the study that explains how, at each of the eight decision points in our system, there's a cumulative effect creating a 42% chance of higher punishment for blacks. We have so many blacks in prison because we sentence them more, we sentence them longer, we refuse parole more often.

Other countries have a race disparity, too. But they don't build it up over the years through this practice of super long sentencing, for-profit prisons, and elected judges "getting tough on crime".




EDIT: Oh, Prison population... in 2009 almost 40% non-Hispanic black. 20% Hispanic, including black Hispanic. So non-Hispanic whites made up less than 40% of the prison population. More blacks in prison than non-Hispanic whites.