| March
14, 2004
...and Justice
for All.
By Erika Robles/HispanicVista.com
A 1999 National
Survey reported that 54 percent of
Hispanics agreed with the statement:
“Courts are out of touch with their
community.” Like all Americans,
Hispanics are concerned about crime and
justice; but the disproportionate
incarceration of Latinos in the US –almost
19.9 percent of all those incarcerated in
2002 were Latinos- makes you wonder if
the criminal justice system has been fair
towards them and other minorities.
While rates of incarceration have been
rising in some European nations in recent
years, the contrast between their
policies and those in the U.S. are still
quite glaring. According to the
International Center for Prison Studies,
the U.S. is the world’s leading
incarceration country. The U.S. rate of
incarceration per 100,000 population is
702. The U.S. now locks up its citizens
at a rate 5-8 times that of the
industrialized nations to which it’s
most similar, Canada –rate of 116-,
England/Wales – 139-, Germany –
91.
Latinos represent the fastest-growing
segment of the US prison population; in
federal prison alone, the constitute
nearly 31.9 percent, and Latino men are
almost four times as likely as
non-Hispanic White males to be sentenced
to prison during their lifetime,
according to the NCLR “State of
Hispanic America 2004” report.
“There are many factors associated
with the overrepresentation of Hispanics
in the criminal justice system,” the
report continues, “including
inadequate education levels and high
poverty. Another factor especially
relevant for Latino and African American
youth is that they tend to live in urban
areas with few resources and often lack
sufficient opportunity for sports,
recreation and other activities that
would deter them from involvement in
those criminal activities.”
Having said so, racial profiling is also
a contributing factor for the
overrepresentation of Latinos in the
criminal justice system. Although Latinos
are no more likely than other
racial/ethnic groups to use illegal
drugs, and less likely to consume
alcohol, they are disproportionately
likely to be convicted for drug offenses
–Hispanics accounted for 43.4
percent of the total drug offenders
convicted in 2000.
Because drug law enforcement is so much
easier to carry out in poor, non-white
neighborhoods, leading to high
percentages of non-whites arrested on
these charges, all non-whites have become
suspect in the eyes of the drug warriors.
Once arrested, minorities are once again
treated more harshly – this time, by
the criminal justice system itself. The
best-known example of the disparity in
sentencing is the disparity between crack
cocaine and powder cocaine sentences.
Crack and powder cocaine both contain the
same active ingredient, but crack is
marketed in less expensive quantities and
in lower income communities of color.
Selling only five grams triggers a
five-year federal mandatory minimum
sentence for crack cocaine, while an
offender must sell 500 grams of powder
cocaine to get the same sentence. “In
other words, a person has to have in
his/her possession 100 times more cocaine
than crack to receive the same sentence,”
the NCLR report states.
While there’s the perception –proliferated
by the media- that Latinos are more
likely than Whites to commit a crime,
data suggest otherwise. According to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the year
2001, Hispanics represented only 7.2
percent of violent offenders –non-Hispanics
accounted for 92.8 percent. Moreover, the
US Department of Justice 1997(DOJ), shows
that only 11.7 percent of Hispanic
federal prison inmates committed another
violent crime, compared to 25.5 percent
of their White counterparts.
According to the DOJ data (1996, date for
which most recent data are available)
Hispanics served prison sentences that
were 14 months longer on average than
their non-Hispanic counterparts for the
same offense. Latinos youths are also
admitted at a rate 13 times that of White
youth for drug sentences; however,
Hispanic federal prison inmates in 1997
were the least likely of all other groups
to receive any type of substance abuse
treatment.Drug treatment is inadequately
funded and unavailable to the majority of
those most in need.
People should be held accountable for the
crimes they commit, but the punishment
should be equal for all. Funding for
substance abuse treatment and prevention
programs; drug treatment programs instead
of incarceration (researchers found that
these programs reduced drug-related crime
by 54 percent); appropriate prison
sentences for those individuals who pose
a real threat to society; a legislation
to ban the practice of racial profiling
by law enforcement agencies at federal,
state and local levels; and a criminal
justice system that promotes fairness and
equality are some of the changes that
ought to happen.
___________________________________________________
Erika Robles, a contributing columnist to
HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com),
is a writer and translator now living in
Eugene, Oregon. She was educated in
Mexico City; London, England; and
Melbourne, Australia. Contact at: erikare77@hotmail.com.
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