Question

What is the experience of African Americans and Latinos in the criminal justice system, specifically how enforcement of drug laws disproportionately affects people of color and the reasons that black men are seven times more likely to be imprisoned than their white counterparts.

Answer 1

Studies have shown that African Americans and Latinos has faced a lot of discriminations in criminal justice system through ages. According to Nellis (2016), African Americans are incarcerated 5.1 times more than Whites while Latinos are incarcerated 1.4 times more than Whites. These people suffers from racial discrimination as they are perceived to the criminals without any logical or legal evidences against them. Many studies show that in case of those crimes where law is harsh, these disparity of criminal conviction is more. According to studies by Blumstein, the biggest disparity has been found to incase of drug abuses. The blacks have been imprisoned a lot more that whites and not all imprisonment were later found to be based on accurate evidences. There are reports which shows that many blacks have later been found innocent but whoever goes to jail once never walks innocent after that. These people are perceived to be out groups who are have criminal mindset and and thus are more incarcerated. Even when they are found innocent, they are thought to be guilty by the society and they face a life filled with prejudice and inequality in all spheres of life.