Civil Rights Blog

         The United States criminal legal system is flawed. America’s reported criminal incarceration rate is higher than any other country in the world. As of 2017, approximately 2.2 million people serve sentences in jails and prisons and another 4.5 million people are on probation and parole. However, this is not the only issue because you can see the evident racial disparities that still exist when looking at the prison population. Even while incarceration rates were decreased overall, black women were imprisoned twice as much as white women. This disparity is even more prominent when examining the number of black men imprisoned as opposed to the number of white men. For black men, imprisonment rates are six times higher than that of white men and for younger populations, the inequality is even more prominent. 

Another issue is how the criminal justice system favors the wealthy. Poorer people in America accused of crimes are jailed far more frequently than wealthier people. This is because courts require bail money as a condition of release. A person not yet even convicted of a crime will be forced to remain in jails for unknown, sometimes extensive amounts of time awaiting trial if they are unable to afford the bail price. Recently, these issues have come into the public eye and solutions are beginning to be worked out. Hopefully, solutions will be worked out and implemented in the justice system soon to prevent further racial and class inequalities. 

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