America’s criminal justice system creates just results for some people, but it is terribly unjust for far too many others. Research has shown that Our history of “tough on crime” laws have been directly responsible for America becoming the most incarcerated nation in the industrialized world. These laws disproportionately affect minorities and low-income communities.  And because we do so little to rehabilitate those who are incarcerated, we have created a revolving door at our jails and prisons. Within five years of their release, three-quarters of formerly incarcerated persons are arrested once again, usually for minor infractions.

Criminal justice has become both a political and moral disaster.

The Problems of Our Criminal Justice System

According to the Bureau of Justice, incarceration in the U.S. grew from 300,000 people in 1980 to more than 2 million in 2013. This statistic is startling given that data from both the FBI and the Bureau of Justice shows that violent crime in America has fallen sharply over the last quarter of a century. Furthermore, when the media and politicians refer to crime, they focus on urban, violent crime statistics, and ignore corporate crime, financial crimes, and other ‘white collar’ crimes. These ‘nonviolent’ crimes have actually cost the United States close to $2 trillion since 2010, and the perpetrators of those crimes are rarely held accountable. In fact, 90% of white-collar crime goes unreported, and only 3% of federal criminal prosecutions are white-collar crimes. We must understand that when white-collar crime is unchallenged, the trickle-down effect of stealing those resources from average working Americans increases crimes of poverty in our communities.

Our criminal system has disproportionately targeted Black communities and Latinos, who have the highest likelihood of facing the most strict prison sentences. According to a U.S. Sentencing Commission report, the prison sentences of Black men are 20 percent longer than white men for similar crimes. Today America is incarcerating Black people at a higher proportion than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. Currently there are more Black men behind bars than there were enslaved in 1850.

It is wrong to ignore the racial element involved in systemic criminal injustices. Black mothers and fathers all over America feel the need to teach their children — particularly their sons — how to avoid the unequal application of criminal justice in the United States. The trend of incarcerating people rather than addressing the systemic problems that plague their communities, is a fundamental wrong in America that we must correct.

Addressing the destruction caused by wrongful convictions in the United States is critical to achieving racial and economic justice and extending the compassion necessary to help heal our fellow human beings and their families from the times when our system has failed. Experts calculate that of the 1.2 million people currently incarcerated in U.S. prisons, approximately 4 to 6% [48,000 to 72,000 people] are actually innocent of the crimes for which they are serving prison sentences. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 53% of those exonerated are Black, indicating that economically disadvantaged and over-policed communities are hit the hardest by this problem. However, civilians of any race can find themselves at risk of being wrongfully convicted. Along with mass incarceration and arrest rates in the U.S., the number of people wrongfully convicted is predicted to increase.

Specific federal legislation to address wrongful convictions in the U.S. should aim to provide resources in all 50 states, creating a hub where wrongfully convicted people who have been left languishing for decades in prison can seek assistance to exonerate themselves.

Important Statistics

“People of color make up more than 60 percent of the people behind bars. Though only 13 percent of the U.S. population is Black, they make up 40 percent of the incarcerated population. Latinos account for 16 percent of the overall population but make up 19 percent of incarcerated people.” Center for American Progress

“Despite using and selling drugs at similar rates as whites, African Americans and Latinos make up 62 percent of state prisoners for drug-related offenses and 72 percent for federal drug trafficking offenses.” Center for American Progress

“People of color are more likely to be searched than their white counterparts during traffic stops. National survey data also shows that Blacks and Latinos are three times more likely to be searched than whites.” Center for American Progress

“Drug arrests account for a quarter of incarcerated people in America, but overall drug use has remained steady. America has spent trillions of dollars on the ineffective “War on Drugs” over the last 40 years but the proportion of drug use has not declined. Disproportionately, it’s been poor people and people of color that have been locked up. People with criminal arrest records are routinely burdened with impediments to employment, education support, housing, and stability.” ACLU

“Formerly incarcerated people are routinely blocked from getting jobs, housing, and educational opportunities after their release through federal, state, and local legal restrictions because of these records. There are nearly 50,000 such legal restrictions throughout the United States. This perpetuates re-arrest rates and significantly contributes to high rates recidivism of people who have been once released from prison.” ACLU

SOLUTIONS TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

White-Collar Crimes

• Increase protections for corporate whistleblowers and heavily penalize corporations that engage in retaliation and discrimination for acts of whistleblowing, in much the same way as implemented in the EU Whistleblowing Directive.
• Encourage corporations to implement a culture of protecting whistleblowing.
• Increase FBI and other corporate watchdog organization staffing and funding, to specifically target corporate crimes.
• Ensure that CEOs and executives are held criminally liable when their corporations knowingly do harm. Executives should not be able to hide behind Limited Liability Corporations to avoid personal accountability.
• Re-introduce the Glass-Steagall Act immediately to ensure commercial banking is separated from investment banking, and prosecute banking executives for breaking those rules.
• Increase funding for cybersecurity departments, and target criminals who steal personal data in order to commit fraud.
• Advocate for nationwide legislation to support the wrongfully convicted. Establish a resource hub in all states to aid those unjustly imprisoned for decades, facilitating their exoneration and justice.

Early Intervention & Addressing Poverty

• We need to engage at-risk youth, and offer them the kind of resources, education, and counseling that will help them succeed in life, rather than fall into cycles of violence and imprisonment.
• Fund and create economic opportunities for youth.
• Ensure that the department of education has funds to provide bus and transit tickets. This would prevent our youth from being arrested for fare evasion and would provide them with transit options to keep them off the streets.
• Fund afterschool programs to ensure youth have opportunities to engage in fun, healthy, positive growth activities while parents and guardians are still working. ‘Latchkey’ children often benefit from this kind of support; we must eliminate barriers to them receiving it.
• Housing rights and economic justice that includes a living wage.
• Addressing poverty means addressing hunger. Hunger is a root cause of violence, and a country with the resources we have in the United States must do more to prevent hunger.
• In my economic and education sections, I explain what I am proposing to be done to help alleviate poverty in America.