Incarcerating the poor and racially marginalized is not the answer but the symptom of deeper problems.
Race and ethnicity
(New)Jails in Indian Country, 2016 Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2017“An estimated 2,540 inmates were held in 80 Indian country jails at midyear 2016, a 1.2% increase from the 2,510 inmates held in 76 facilities at midyear 2015.”
It Matters If You’re Black or White: Racial Disparities in the Handling of Complaints against North Charleston Police Officers NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., July, 2017“Although 60 percent of the citizen complaints against NCPD officers were filed by Black residents, their complaints were much less likely to be sustained by NCPD than complaints filed by White residents.”
Hate Crime Victimization, 2004-2015 Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2017“In 2015, the rate of violent hate crime victimization was 0.7 hate crimes per 1,000 persons age 12 or older.”
Language from police body camera footage shows racial disparities in officer respect Stanford University, June, 2017“Officers speak with consistently less respect toward black versus white community members, even after controlling for the race of the officer, the severity of the infraction, the location of the stop, and the outcome of the stop.”
Selling Off Our Freedom: How insurance corporations have taken over our bail system Color of Change and the American Civil Liberties Union, May, 2017“Fewer than 10 insurance companies are behind a significant majority of bonds issued by as many as 25,000 bail bond agents.”
Racism & Felony Disenfranchisement: An Intertwined History Brennan Center for Justice, May, 2017“One in every 13 voting-age African Americans cannot vote, a disenfranchisement rate more than four times greater than that of all other Americans.”
Paying More for Being Poor: Bias and Disparity in California’s Traffic Court System Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, May, 2017“The available county-level data shows that African-American people in particular are four to sixteen times more likely to be booked on arrests related to failure to pay an infraction ticket.”
Still Life: America’s Increasing Use of Life and Long-Term Sentences The Sentencing Project, May, 2017“Nearly half (48.3%) of life and virtual life-sentenced individuals are African American, equal to one in five black prisoners overall. As of 2016, 1 in every 9 people in prison was serving a life sentence.”
Bullies in Blue: Origins and Consequences of School Policing American Civil Liberties Union, April, 2017“[A]t at its origins, school policing enforced social control over Black and Latino youth who could no longer be kept out of neighborhoods and schools through explicitly discriminatory laws.”
Prison: Evidence of its use and over-use from around the world Institute for Criminal Policy Research, March, 2017“Whether you would end up in prison is also affected by who you are. For example, Roma people make up around 40% of Hungary’s prison population, despite representing only 6% of the national population.”
Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States National Registry of Exonerations, University of Michigan Law School, March, 2017“Innocent black murder suspects, especially those who are falsely convicted…are additional victims of murders committed by others. Those who have been exonerated spent on average more than 14 years in prison before they were released.”
Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. District Courts: Can Offenders’ Educational Attainment Guard Against Prevalent Criminal Stereotypes? Travis W. Franklin, Sam Houston State University, February, 2017“[C]ourt actors may be less concerned (or not at all concerned) with factors typically linked to perceptions of dangerousness (e.g., race, ethnicity, age, sex, detention status) when dealing with offenders of higher educational status.”
Behind the Badge: How Police View Their Jobs, Key Issues, and Recent Fatal Encounters Between Blacks and Police Pew Research Center, January, 2017“27% of all white officers but 69% of their black colleagues say the protests that followed fatal encounters between police and black citizens have been motivated at least to some extent by a genuine desire to hold police accountable.”
Florida: An Outlier in Denying Voting Rights Brennan Center for Justice, December, 2016“With roots tracing back to Reconstruction and the Jim Crow period, racial discrimination has stifled the right to vote in Florida for hundreds of years.”
The Geography of Incarceration: Boston Indicators Project, MassINC, and the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, November, 2016“Many people of color live in Boston neighborhoods with such highly concentrated rates of incarceration that nearly every street—in some cases every other building— contains a resident who has been incarcerated.”
Driving While Black: A Report on Racial Profiling in Metro Nashville Police Department Traffic Stops Gideon’s Army, October, 2016“Between 2011-2015, MNPD (Metro Nashville Police Department) stopped an average of 1,122 per 1,000 black drivers: more black drivers than were living in Davidson County.”
Every 25 Seconds: The Human Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use in the United States Human Rights Watch and the ACLU, October, 2016“More than one of every nine arrests by state law enforcement is for drug possession, amounting to more than 1.25 million arrests each year.”
Police Violence and Citizen Crime Reporting in the Black Community Professor Matthew Desmond, Harvard University; Professor Andrew Papachristos, Yale University; Professor David Kirk, University of Oxford, September, 2016“This study shows that publicized cases of police violence against unarmed black men have a clear and significant impact on citizen crime reporting.”
Evaluating the Role of Race in Criminal Justice Adjudications in Delaware John M. MacDonald and Ellen A. Donnelly, University of Pennsylvania, September, 2016“African American-White disparities in incarceration sentences are largely explained by differences in most serious of arrest charge, type of arrest charge, detention between arrest and final disposition, and county location.”
Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, August, 2016“[T]he Department of Justice concludes that there is reasonable cause to believe that BPD engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the Constitution or federal law.”
Unjust: How the broken criminal justice system fails LGBT people of color Center for American Progress, Movement Advancement Project.., August, 2016“This report focuses on LGBT people of color and their interactions with the criminal justice system.”
Racial Profiling in Hiring: A Critique of New National Employment Law Project, August, 2016“Ban-the-box is working, both by increasing employment opportunities for people with records and by changing employer attitudes toward hiring people with records.”
Is Justice Really Blind? Race and Reversal in US Courts Journal of Legal Studies, July, 2016“[B]lack federal judges are consistently overturned on appeal more often than similar white judges.”
Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Statistical Discrimination: A Field Experiment University of Michigan, June, 2016“Our results confirm that criminal records are a major barrier to employment, but they also support the concern that BTB policies encourage statistical discrimination on the basis of race.”
The Gavel Gap: Who Sits in Judgment on State Courts? American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, June, 2016“We find that courts are not representative of the people whom they serve — that is, a gap exists between the bench and the citizens.”
The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in State Prisons The Sentencing Project, June, 2016“This report documents the rates of incarceration for whites, African Americans, and Hispanics, providing racial and ethnic composition as well as rates of disparity for each state.”
Voting Rights of Former Felons ACLU of Nebraska, June, 2016“Disturbingly, a decade after our ex-felon voting rights law was adopted, only half of all counties provided correct and accurate information.”
Stemming The Rising Tide: Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Youth Incarceration & Strategies for Change W. Haywood Burns Institute, May, 2016“Youth are being incarcerated for longer periods of time, with Black and Latino youth having the longest stays out of home.”
Racial Disparities in Florida Safety Belt Law Enforcement ACLU, February, 2016“American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) analysis of the most recent seatbelt citation data confirms that the Florida Safety Belt Law has been applied more often to Black motorists than white motorists.”
Lethally Deficient: Direct Appeals in Texas Death Penalty Cases Texas Defender Service, 2016“Review by the U.S. Supreme Court was not sought in 34.6% of the cases surveyed, meaning that defense lawyers waived the first opportunity for federal review in more than a third of Texas death penalty cases decided on direct appeal between 2009 and 2015.”
Selective Policing: Racially Disparate Enforcement of Low-Level Offenses in New Jersey ACLU of New Jersey, December, 2015“Racial disparities between Black and White arrests exist in every city studied.”
Suspended Childhood: An Analysis of Exclusionary Discipline of Texas’ Pre-K and Elementary School Students Texas Appleseed, November, 2015“In the 2013-2014 school year, Texas schools issued 88,310 out-of-school suspensions to young children.”
Hate Crime Statistics, 2014 Federal Bureau of Investigation, November, 2015“Of the 5,462 single-bias incidents reported in 2014, 47 percent were racially motivated. Other motivators included sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, disability, and gender.”
A Multi-Level Bayesian Analysis of Racial Bias in Police Shootings at the County-Level in the United States, 2011-2014 University of California, Davis, November, 2015“The results provide evidence of a significant bias in the killing of unarmed black Americans relative to unarmed white Americans[.]”
The Conditioning Effects of Race and Gender on the Court Outcomes of Delinquent and Justice Quarterly, November, 2015(The main inverse effect for status, probation violation, contempt, misdemeanor property, felony property, felony person, drugs, and other offenses with detention, was conditioned by whether the youth was Black.)
Federal Sentencing Disparity: 2005-2012 Bureau of Justice Statistics, October, 2015“Federal Sentencing Disparity, 2005-2012, examines patterns of federal sentencing disparity among white and black offenders, by sentence received, and looks at judicial variation in sentencing since Booker vs. United States, regardless of race.”
Blackstrikes: A Study of the Racially Disparate Use of Preemptory Challenges by the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office Reprieve Australia, August, 2015“In short, over the course of a ten year period, Caddo parish prosecutors exercised peremptory challenges against black prospective jurors at more than three times the rate at which they exercised peremptory challenges against white prospective jurors.”
Race-Of-Victim Discrepancies in Homicides and Executions, Louisiana 1976-2015 Loyola University of New Orleans Journal of Public Interest Law, August, 2015“Black male victims comprise 61% of homicide victims in present day Louisiana, yet their killers have been executed in only 3 cases out of 12,949 homicides since Gregg v Georgia reinstated the death penalty in 1976.”
Disproportionate Impact of K-12 School Suspension and Expulsion on Black Students in Southern States University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, August, 2015“In 132 Southern school districts, Blacks were disproportionately suspended at rates five times or higher than their representation in the student population.”
Investigation of the St. Louis County Family Court St. Louis, Missouri Department of Justice, July, 2015“Black children are almost one-and-a-half times (1.46) more likely than White children to have their cases handled formally, even after introducing control variables such as gender, age, risk factors, and severity of the allegation.”
Stuck in the ’70s: The Demographics of California Prosecutors Stanford Criminal Justice Center, July, 2015“Latinos are almost 39 percent of the population but only nine percent of California prosecutors.”
The Racial Geography of Mass Incarceration Prison Policy Initiative, July, 2015“Entirely separate from the more commonly discussed problem of racial disparities in who goes to prison, this data addresses a distressing racial and ethnic disparity in where prisons have been built.”
San Francisco Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Racial and ethnic disparities analysis for the reentry council The W. Haywood Burns Institute for Juvenile Justice Fairness & Equity, June, 2015“Black adults are 7.1 times as likely as White adults to be arrested, 11 times as likely to be booked into County Jail, and 10.3 times as likely to be convicted of a crime in San Francisco.”
Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Jails: Recommendations for Local Practice Brennan Center for Justice, June, 2015“Overuse of Pre-Trial Detention: Studies consistently find that African American and Hispanic defendants are more than twice as likely to be detained in jail pending trial.”
Stop and Frisk in Chicago ACLU of Illinois, March, 2015“Black Chicagoans were subjected to 72% of all stops, yet constitute just 32% of the city’s population.”
Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, March, 2015“This investigation has revealed a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct within the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and federal statutory law.”
Native Lives Matter Lakota People’s Law Project, February, 2015“Native American men are admitted to prison at four times the rate of white men and Native women at six-fold the rate of white women.”
Black Lives Matter: Eliminating Racial Inequity in the Criminal Justice System Sentencing Project, February, 2015(The report identifies four key features of the criminal justice system that produce racially unequal outcomes, beyond the conditions of socioeconomic inequality that contribute to higher rates of some crimes in marginalized communities.)
Where Do We Go from Here? Mass Incarceration and the Struggle for Civil Rights Economic Policy Institute, January, 2015“In other words, society chose to use incarceration as a welfare program to deal with the poor, especially since the underprivileged are disproportionately people of color.”
(New)Born Suspect: Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America NAACP, 2015“This report is an analysis of the fight to end racial profiling in New York and the potential for nationwide implementation these efforts in every jurisdiction across the country.”
Demographic Differences in Sentencing: An Update to the 2012 Booker Report United States Sentencing Commission, 2015(Black male offenders continue to receive longer federal sentences than similarly situated White male offenders.)
CPD Traffic Stops and Resulting Searches in 2013 ACLU of Illinois, December, 2014“City-wide. The rate of black drivers in the stops (46%) is far higher than the rate of black residents in the city population (32%).”
Incorporating Racial Equity into Criminal Justice Reform Sentencing Project, October, 2014“Reform strategies that do not directly tackle racial disparity ignore the multifaceted ways in which public safety is produced. Key among these is the perception of the criminal justice system by the community.”
Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions Human Rights Watch and Columbia Law School, July, 2014“This report documents the significant human cost of certain counterterrorism practices, such as aggressive sting operations and unnecessarily restrictive conditions of confinement.”
Race and Prosecution in Manhattan Vera Institute of Justice, July, 2014(Blacks and Latinos were particularly likely to be held in pretrial detention for misdemeanor person offenses, followed by misdemeanor drug offenses. Blacks and Latinos were also most likely to have their cases dismissed for misdemeanor drug offenses.)
Shadow Report of The Sentencing Project to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System Sentencing Project, July, 2014(Our report documents continuing disparities in incarceration, the imposition of juvenile life without parole, the death penalty, and felony disenfranchisement.)
Collatoral Damage A Roadmap to Restore Rights and Status After Arrest or Conviction National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, May, 2014“NACDL recommends a broad national initiative to construct a legal infrastructure that will provide individuals with a criminal record with a clear path to equal opportunity.”
The Color of Corporate Corrections, Part II: Contractual Exemptions and the Overrepresentation of People of Color in Private Prisons Radical Criminology, February, 2014“…this study finds that people of color are overrepresented in private minimum and/or medium security private facilities relative to their public counterparts in each of the nine (9) states examined.”
Prosecution and Racial Justice in New York County Technical Report Vera Institute of Justice, January, 2014(For all offenses combined, compared to similarly-situated white defendants, black and Latino defendants were more likely to be detained, to receive a custodial plea offer, and to be incarcerated; but they were also more likely to benefit from dismissals.)
Justice in Washing State Survey, 2012 Revised and Updated 2014 The Washington State Minority Health Commission, The Washington State Center for Court Research, 2014“When we asked about their personal encounters with police officers and the courts, we found substantial differences between Whites and African Americans in terms of the frequency of negative encounters.”
The Degree of Disadvantage: Incarceration and Inequality in Education Stephanie Ewert, Bryan L. Sykes, and Becky Pettit, November, 2013“Nearly three in ten white male dropouts in the United States can expect to serve time in a state or federal correctional facility in their lifetime, and nearly 60 percent of black male dropouts are imprisoned at some point in their lives…”
Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, October, 2013“We have to question why we are using the long arm of the criminal justice system to arrest… black and Latino men who write their name on a wall, or why we arrest kids for pot in a pocket when we don’t arrest other kids for pot.”
Report of the Sentencing Project to the UN Human Rights Committee Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System The Sentencing Project, August, 2013“If current trends continue, one of every three black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino males—compared to one of every seventeen white males.”
Race, Justifiable Homicide, and Stand Your Ground Laws: Analysis of FBI Supplementary Homicide Report Data Urban Institute, July, 2013“Regardless of how the data are analyzed, substantial racial disparities exist in the outcomes of cross-race homicides. In addition, the recent expansion of Stand Your Ground laws in two dozen states appears to worsen the disparity.”
Racial Disparities in Arrests in the District of Columbia, 2009-2011 Washington Lawyers’ Committee, July, 2013“While there are about as many African Americans aged 18 or older (47.6%) as there are adult whites (42%) living in this city, eight out of 10 adults arrested for a crime in Washington are African American.”
Felony Disenfranchisement: A Primer Sentencing Project, June, 2013“The 11 most extreme states restrict voting rights even after a person has served his or her prison sentence and is no longer on probation or parole; such individuals in those states make up approximately 45% of the entire disenfranchised population.”
The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Waster on Racially Biased Arrests American Civil Liberties Union, June, 2013“On average, a Black person is 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates”
Wisconsin’s Mass Incarceration of African American Males: Workforce Challenges for 2013 Employment and Training Institute, University of Wisconsin, April, 2013“From 1990 to 2011 Wisconsin incarcerated 26,222 African American men from Milwaukee County in state correctional facilities. As of January 2012, 20,591 men had been released back into the community and 5,631 were still imprisoned.”
Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims The Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC), The Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR), The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)., March, 2013“Interviewees noted deep apprehension of the NYPD’s intentions and practices towards them, including day-to-day interactions with beat-police officers such as filing stolen phone complaints, asking an officer for directions, or reporting hate crimes.”
The Dose-Response of Time Served in Prison on Mortality: New York State, 1989-2003 Evelyn J. Patterson, University of Vanderbilt, March, 2013“After controlling for a variety of demographic and offense-related factors…each year in prison increased the odds of death by 15.6% in this 1989 to 1993 parole cohort…an increased odds of death of 78% for somebody who spent 5 years in prison.”
In Search of Racial Justice: The Role of the Prosecutor New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 2013“…one of every three African American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino males. One of every eighteen African American females and one of every forty-five Hispanic females face a similar fate.”
Criminal Records, Race, and Redemption New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 2013“…poor individuals of color disproportionately shoulder the weight of a criminal record.”
Addressing Racial Disparities In Bail Determinations New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 2013“…Seventy-five percent of pretrial detainees are charged with relatively minor property crimes, drug offenses or other non-violent acts, and remain in jail simply because the money bond was set in an amount they cannot afford to pay.”
Tracked and Trapped: Youth of Color, Gang Databases and Gang Injunctions Youth Justice Coalition RealSearch Actions Research Center, December, 2012“Currently 291,094 people across California are in the CalGang database. Of these, 94% are male, nearly 20% are African-American, and 66% are Latino.”
The Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force Report 2012 The Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force, December, 2012“Implicit, unconscious bias and disparate treatment on the part of workers at all stages of the criminal justice system may explain a portion of the disproportionate representation of Native Hawaiians in the criminal justice system.”
The Disparate Treatment of Native Hawaiians In the Criminal Justice System Office of Hawaiian Affairs, November, 2012“An analysis of data, controlling for age, gender, and type of charge, found that for any given determination of guilt, Native Hawaiians are much more likely to get a prison sentence than almost all other groups, except for Native Americans.”
Tribal Crime Data Collection Activities Bureau of Justice Statistics, October, 2012“Suspects investigated for violent offenses in Indian country totaled 23% of all federal investigations for violent offenses in FY 2010.”
Do Race and Ethnicity Matter in Prosecution? A Review of Empirical Studies Vera Institute of Justice, June, 2012“Most of the 34 studies reviewed here suggest that defendants’ or victims’ race directly or indirectly influence case outcomes, even when a host of other legal and extra-legal factors are taken into account.”
Report of Findings: (investigation of allegations of national origin discrimination) Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, March, 2012“…AOC policy does not provide interpreters in child custody hearings; child support hearings, civil no-contact order 50C proceedings, foreclosures, and divorce proceedings”
The Disproportionate Impact of the Criminal Justice System on People of Color in the Capital Region Center for Law and Justice, February, 2012“Statewide, from 2000 to 2011 the number of minorities incarcerated dropped by 29%; in Albany County, the number of minorities incarcerated increased by 60% over the same time period.”
A Stubborn Legacy: The Overwhelming Importance of Race in Jury Selection in 173 Post-Batson North Carolina Capital Trials Michigan State University College of Law, 2012“Over the twenty-year period we examined, prosecutors struck eligible black venire members at about 2.5 times the rate they struck eligible venire members who were not black.”
Forensic DNA Database Expansion Growing Racial Inequities, Eroding Civil Liberties and Diminishing Returns Generations Ahead, November, 2011“Given the existing racial bias in other aspects of the criminal justice system, we need to ensure that DNA databases do not unfairly and disproportionately affect communities of color.”
Breaking Schools’ Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students’ Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement The Council of State Governments Justice Center, July, 2011“Nearly six in ten public school students studied were suspended or expelled at least once between their seventh- and twelfth-grade school years.”
Tribal Crime Data Collection Activities Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2011“For the first time, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) submissions to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) were disaggregated by tribe and reported in Crime in the U.S., 2009.”
Justice for All? Challenging Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System Sentencing Project, June, 2011“[The] data generated by the U.S. Department of Justice project that if current trends continue, one of every three black males born today will go to prison in his lifetime, as will one of every six Latino males.”
Separate but Unequal The Federal Criminal Justice System in Indian County University of Colorado Law Review, December, 2010“The”
The Racial Geography of the Federal Death Penalty Washington Law Review Association, December, 2010“Federal death sentences are sought disproportionately where the expansion of the venire from the county to the district level has a dramatic demographic impact on the racial make-up of the jury.”
Comparing Homicides to Capital Cases East Baton Rouge Parish, 1990-2008 Timothy Lyman, November, 2010([T]here is a less than one-in-ten-thousand chance that the prosecuted cases were a racially random sample drawn from the homicide group.)
Stop, Question & Frisk Policing Practices In New York City A Primer Center on Race, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, March, 2010“In 2009 alone, Blacks and Hispanics combined were stopped 9 times more than Whites.”
Created Equal: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the US Criminal Justice System National Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2009“African Americans make up 13% of the general US population, yet they constitute 28% of all arrests, 40% of all inmates held in prisons and jails, and 42% of the population on death row.”
Compounded Disadvantage Race, Incarceration, and Wage Growth National Poverty Center, October, 2008“Multilevel growth curve models show that black inmates earn considerably less than white inmates, even after considering human capital variables and prior work histories. Furthermore, racial divergence in wages among inmates increases following release…”
Racial Disproportionality in the American Prison Population: Using the Blumstein Method to Address the Critical Race and Justice Issue of the 21st Century Justice Policy Journal, September, 2008“Two key themes are that a national figure of explained racial disparity in imprisonment is not generalizable to the states and that drug offenses consistently have one of the lowest amounts of disproportionality explained by arrest.”
Racial Disparities in Criminal Court Processing in the United States Sentencing Project, December, 2007“[This report] offers input regarding the nation’s compliance, and need to reform current criminal justice practices and was submitted to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.”
Report to U.S. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that U.S. Census practices dilute votes of minority populations Demos and Prison Policy Initiative, December, 2007(A report to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva on racially discriminatory redistricting practices violating Article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.)
Real Impacts: The actual results of Rhode Island’s new policy that charges 17-year-olds as adults Rhode Island Family Life Center, October, 2007“[A]lthough it was not an explicit intention of the bill, one of the most important outcomes is that these juveniles will now have adult records, seriously limiting them as they become adults.”
America’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline Children’s Defense Fund, October, 2007“A Black boy born in 2001 has a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime; a Latino boy a 1 in 6 chance; and a White boy a 1 in 17 chance.”
Analysis of the NYCPD’s in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias Andrew Gelman, Jeffrey Fagan, and Alex Kiss, September, 2007“[F]or violent crimes and weapons offenses blacks and Hispanics are stopped about twice as often as whites.”
Who Survives on Death Row? An Individual and Contextual Analysis American Civil Liberties Union, August, 2007“The findings show that despite efforts to transcend an unfortunate racial past, residues of this fierce discrimination evidently still linger, at least when the most morally critical decision about punishment is decided.”
Black Victims of Violent Crime Bureau of Justice Statistics, August, 2007“Blacks accounted for 13% of the U.S. population in 2005, but were victims in 15% of all nonfatal violent crimes and nearly half of all homicides.”
Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity Sentencing Project, July, 2007
The Persistent Problem of Racial Disparities in the Federal Death Penalty American Civil Liberties Union, June, 2007“[M]odern Attorneys General seek the death penalty at far higher rates if the victim is White, and White federal defendants are far more likely to have their death charges reduced to life sentences through plea bargaining.”
Prisoner-assisted homicide: more ‘volunteer’ executions loom Amnesty International, May, 2007“Race and mental health appear to be the strongest predictors of who will waive their appeals – most”
Contacts between Police and the Public, 2005 Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2007“In 2005 police searched 9.5 percent of stopped blacks and 8.8 percent of stopped Hispanics, compared to 3.6 percent of white motorists.”
And Justice for Some: Differential Treatment of Youth of Color in the Justice System The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, January, 2007“This report details the accumulated disadvantage for youth of color as they move through the juvenile justice system and, too often, into the adult system.”
An Analysis of Racial Disproportionality in Juvenile Confinement An Analysis of Disproportionate Minority Confinement in the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center Council on Crime and Justice, August, 2006“The major findings show that all nine police departments studied refer a disproportionate number of minority juveniles to the JDC.”
Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 40 of the Covenant United Nations – Human Rights Committee, July, 2006(The UN expresses numerous concerns about the state of civil and political rights in the United States)
Law Enforcement and Arab American Community Relations After September 11, 2001: Engagement in a Time of Uncertainty Vera Institute of Justice, June, 2006“Although community members also reported increases in hate victimization, they expressed greater concern about being victimized by federal policies and practices than by individual acts of harassment or violence.”
A Report on Pre- and Post-Katrina Indigent Defense in New Orleans Southern Center for Human Rights, April, 2006“More than six months after Katrina, a majority of [indigent defendants] remain behind bars, where they have languished on average for over a year without any communication with a defense attorney.”
Hidden Challenges: Juvenile Justice and Education Issues Affecting Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Youth in Richmond, California National Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2006“The intent of [this] report is to provide a detailed assessment of the status of Southeast Asian youth in Richmond. To this end, the report contains data from the areas of juvenile justice and education, with relevant demographic data provided for context”
Reducing Racial Disparity While Enhancing Public Safety: Key Findings and Recommendations Council on Crime and Justice, 2006“The racial disparity in Minnesota’s justice system is exceptionally high compared to other states. From arrest to imprisonment, the disparity is over twice the national average.”
Census of Tribal Justice Agencies in Indian Country, 2002 Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2005“Almost 75% (140) of the tribes relied on the States for some justice services (for example, correctional and counseling services).”
Human Rights in the Heartland: An assessment of social, economic, civil, and political rights in the Midwest Heartland Alliance, December, 2005“Historically, the U.S. has been a beacon of hope for those seeking safety and opportunity, but our nation falls short of its potential in assuring a full complement of human rights – civil, political, social, economic, and cultural.”
Hennepin County Disproportionate Minority Contact Study Examining Extended Jurisdiction Juvenile and Adult Certification Cases Council on Crime and Justice, October, 2005“[R]ace was not significant when considering the disposition of Extended Jurisdiction Juvenile or Adult Certification motioning. Instead, weapons and firearms appear to be the most influential factor in both motioning and dispositions.”
Searching for Justice: American Indian Perspectives on Disparities in Minnesota’s Criminal Justice System Council on Crime and Justice, August, 2005“This report indicates that in one county, while American Indians make up only 11.5% of the population, they account for over 50% of the arrest rates.”
Black Male Incarceration Rates and the Relatively High Rate of AIDS Infection Among African-American Women and Men Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, July, 2005“Our results reveal that the higher incarceration rates among black males over this period explain a substantial share of the racial disparity in AIDS infection between black women and women of other racial and ethnic groups.”
Root Causes and Solutions to Disparities for Hispanics/Latinos in the Juvenile Justice System Council on Crime and Justice, May, 2005“Statistical analysis indicated that Hispanic/Latino youth were over represented in the juvenile system by 227% in 1990 and by 92% in 2000.”
Don’t Mind If I Take a Look, Do Ya? An Examination of Consent Searches and Contraband Hit Rates at Texas Traffic Stops Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, February, 2005(2005 Racial Profiling Report)
Race & Imprisonment in Texas: The Disparate Incarceration of Latinos and African Americans in the Lone Star State Justice Policy Institute, February, 2005
Race and Incarceration in Delaware: A Preliminary Consideration Thomas P. Eichler, Published by Delaware Center for Justice and Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, 2005“Delaware’s criminal justice system treats Blacks differently and far less favorably than similarly situated Whites. The data shows that the racial disparities in the criminal justice system are increasing.”
American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002 Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2004
Low Level Offenses in Minneapolis: An Analysis of Arrests and their Outcomes Council on Crime and Justice, October, 2004(The diperate treatment of Black and White people is greater at the hand of the police than in the courts.)
Racial disparities in incarceration by state, 2000 Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2004(Graphs showing the percentage of each state’s total and prison population that is of a particular racial/ethnic group)
Schools and Prisons: Fifty Years After Brown v. Board of Education Sentencing Project, April, 2004
Incarceration rates by race, 2001: Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2004(Blacks, Whites, Latinos per 100,000 for each state and the U.S.)
Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004“Black faces looked more criminal to police officers; the more Black, the more criminal.”
Minnesota Statewide Racial Profiling Study Council on Crime and Justice, September, 2003“Results show that law enforcement officers stopped and searched Black, Latino, and American Indian drivers at greater rates than White drivers, yet found contraband on Blacks, Latinos, and American Indians at lower rates than in searches of White drivers.”
East Side of St. Paul: Crime Related Needs Assessment Council on Crime and Justice, February, 2003“In order to assess the needs of racial/ethnic communities experiencing heightened criminal activity within their neighborhoods, five focus groups were undertaken: African American, Hmong, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, and Caucasian.”
On The Level: Disproportionate Minority Contact in Minnesota’s Juvenile Justice System Minnesota Department of Public Safety, October, 2002“African American youth, who comprise just 8% of the youth population White but are 34% of juvenile delinquency arrests. On a smaller scale, American Indian youth are 2% of the youth population but account for 4% of juvenile delinquency arrests.”
A Department in Denial: The San Francisco Police Department’s Failure to Address Racial Profiling ACLU of Northern California, October, 2002
¿Dónde Está la Justicia? A Call to Action on behalf of Latino and Latina Youth in the U.S. Justice System (English Version) Building Blocks for Youth, July, 2002(Available in English and Spanish)
Defining the Disparity -Taking A Closer Look: Do Drug Use Patterns Explain Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Drug Arrests in Minnesota Council on Crime and Justice, April, 2002“For African American males the reported drug use rate was 51% greater than White males, while the arrest rate was 400% higher nationally and 1000% higher in Minnesota.”
Race and Incarceration in the United States Human Rights Watch, February, 2002“first state-by-state incarceration rates for whites, blacks and Latinos based on actual correctional facility counts”(Note the links to the report and tables on the right)
African American Males in the Criminal Justice System Council on Crime and Justice, 2002“In 2000, 37.2% of the state’s prisoners were African American. By comparison only 3.5% of the population of Minnesota was African American.”
The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs and Community in Chicago, Illinois, and the Nation Chicago Urban League, 2002
Color of the Keystone: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Use of Incarceration in Pennsylvania Justice Policy Institute and National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, August, 2001
The brotherhood: Racism and intimidation among prison staff at Indiana Correctional Facility-Putnamville Kelsey Kauffman, July, 2001
Report to the Supreme Court Systemic Proportionality Review Project 2000-2001 Term New Jersey Supreme Court, June, 2001“there is unsettling statistical evidence indicating that cases involving killers of White victims are more likely to progress to a penalty trial than cases involving killers of African-American victims.”
Masking the Divide: How Officially Reported Prison Statistics Distort the Racial and Ethnic Realities of Prison Growth National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, May, 2001
Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Leadership Conference Education Fund, 2001(2.5MB)
The Color of Justice An Analysis of Juvenile Adult Court Transfers in California Building Blocks for Youth, February, 2000
The Impact of Race and Ethnicity on Charging and Sentencing Processes for Drug Offenders in Three Counties of Washington State Washington State Minority and Justice Commission, December, 1999
Driving While Black: Racial Profiling On Our Nation’s Highways American Civil Liberties Union, June, 1999“All the evidence to date suggests that using traffic laws for non-traffic purposes has been a disaster for people of color and has deeply eroded public confidence in law enforcement.”
Prisons as a Growth Industry in Rural America: An Exploratory Discussion of the Effects on Young African American Men in the Inner Cities Tracy Huling, consultant to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, April, 1999
American Indians and Crime Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 1999“American Indians are victims of violent crime at double the rate of the general population”(includes some incarceration statistics)
Double Jeopardy: An Assessment of the Felony Drug Provision of the Welfare Reform Act Justice Policy Institute, October, 1998
Juvenile Justice and Disproportionality: Patterns of Minority Over-Representation in Washington’s Juvenile Justice System State of Washington Sentencing Guidelines Commission, December, 1997
From Classrooms to Cell-blocks: How Prison Building Affects Higher Education and African American Enrollment in CA Justice Policy Institute, October, 1996(California)
Racial Disparities: in Federal Death Penalty Prosecutions 1988-1994 Death Penalty Information Center, 1994
Does the punishment fit the crime? Drug users and drunk drivers, questions of race and class Sentencing Project, May, 1993(Executive summary to longer report not available online)
Race of Prisoners Admitted to State and Federal Institutions, 1926-86 Bureau of Justice Statistics, May, 1991“The recorded number of black prisoners In 1986 was nearly 9 times larger than the number recorded In 1926 (80,814 In 1986 versus 9,292 in 1926). The recorded number of white prisoners was 3 times larger (100,874 in 1986 versus 33,626 In 1926)…”
Buckle of the Death Belt: The Death Penalty in Microcosm (Chattahoochee Judicial District) Death Penalty Information Center, 1991(racial discrimination in one region of Georgia)
Death Penalty Sentencing: Research Indicates Pattern of Racial Disparities Government Accountability Office, February, 1990“Our synthesis of the 28 studies shows a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty….”
A Question of Race II: New York and Its Neighbors A Look at the Incarceration of Whites and Minorities in the United States New York State Coalition for Criminal Justice, 1990
A Question of Race Minority/White Incarceration in New York State Center for Justice Education, January, 1987
Disproportionate Imprisonment of Blacks in the United States: Policy, Practice, Impact, and Change Prepared by Scott Christianson for the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, March, 1982“This report seeks to promote a better understanding of the problem of racially differential imprisonment and attempts to offer some specific goals and strategies for reducing racial disparities in American criminal justice.”
