The United States has the largest population of prisoners currently incarcerated. What makes the United States so unique? I highly doubt it’s the prison conditions that are so attractive to would be criminals. A good majority of those in that are incarcerated are minorities. The simple question to ask is why? The answer is long and complex. Someone’s race doesn’t necessarily make it more likely that the individual will commit crimes, there are far more factors to consider. First let’s examine the United Sates War on Drugs and its implication on minority communities. According to drugpolicy.org “Research shows that prosecutors are twice as likely to pursue a mandatory minimum sentence for black people as for white people charged with the same offense. Among people who received a mandatory minimum sentence in 2011, 38% were Latino and 31% were black.” These mandatory minimum sentences often times force minorities to serve great lengths of time in prison without getting input from a judge. Minorities are often scared into entering guilty pleas by prosecutors in order to avoid lengthy maximum sentences, especially with drug offenses. According to the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation “In its most recent comprehensive study, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported in 2011 that “high-level” suppliers or importers made up only 10.9% of federal defendants, wholesalers of any amount — 21.2%, street-level dealers — 17.2%, and couriers — 23% sentenced for drug offenses. Only 2.2% were managers or supervisors. The rest of federal drug defendants were other low-level offenders, even marginally-involved friends and family of the accused.” These harsh drug laws are simply imprisoning low level criminals and doing nothing to curb the drug epidemic in the United States. The individuals who do go to prison for drug related crimes are quite simply replaceable in the scheme of multinational drug organizations. One thing is clear, the United States will continue to fill its prisons unless an overhaul of current laws takes place.
References
The Drug War, Mass Incarceration and Race (English/Spanish). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/drug-war-mass-incarceration-and-race-englishspanish
Mandatory Minimums and Sentencing Reform. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cjpf.org/mandatory-minimums