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You Can Call it What You Want to, it’s Still Jim Crow

Unchaining Civil Rights:. You Can Call it What You Want to, it’s Still Jim Crow. A Collaborative Project. Today's Criminal Justice Crisis. Tomorrow's Divided Society. WHAT OUTCOME WOULD YOU EXPECT?. Mass imprisonment Mass reentry and mass criminalization

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You Can Call it What You Want to, it’s Still Jim Crow

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  1. Unchaining Civil Rights: You Can Call it What You Want to, it’s Still Jim Crow A Collaborative Project

  2. Today's Criminal Justice Crisis Tomorrow's Divided Society

  3. WHAT OUTCOME WOULD YOU EXPECT? • Mass imprisonment • Mass reentry and mass criminalization • Collateral consequences and stigma Social Inequality and Racial Stratification

  4. MASS IMPRISONMENT • David Garland • Refers to the high rate of imprisonment in the contemporary U.S. • Two characteristics: • “…a rate of imprisonment…that is markedly above the historical and comparative norm for societies of this type.” • Ceases to produce just the incarceration of individual offenders, but becomes the “systematic imprisonment of whole groups of the population.”

  5. A DEFINITION OF RACIAL DISPARITY Racial disparity in the justice system exists when the proportion of a racial/ethnic group within the control of the system differs from the proportion of such groups in the general population.

  6. OUR HYPOTHESIS • We are living in a period of mass imprisonment, mass reentry and mass criminalization • Poor people and people of color are the groups systematically affected • Collateral consequences, stigma and prejudice have taken the place of Jim Crow practices in the 21st Century • Restrictions on employment, education, enfranchisement and equality make this period similar to the Civil Rights Era in the first half of the 20th Century • There is a new inequality developing in America that can only be turned back by a mass movement similar to the Civil Rights Movement

  7. A Civil Rights Perspective

  8. DEFINED Civil Rights: The rights belonging to an individual by virtue of citizenship, especially the fundamental freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th, 14th, 15th and 24th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by subsequent acts of Congress, including civil liberties, due process, equal protection of the laws, voting rights and freedom from discrimination. The rights to full legal, social, and economic equality extended to African Americans.

  9. AMENDMENT XIII – UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION • Slavery Abolished • Ratified 12/6/1865 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,

  10. AMENDMENT XIV – CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS • All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

  11. AMENDMENT XV – RACE NO BAR TO VOTE • The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

  12. AMENDMENT XXIV – POLL TAX BARRED • The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

  13. SIGNIFICANT CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION • Civil Rights Act of 1957 • Civil Rights Acts of 1964 • Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Civil Rights Act of 1968

  14. VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 Effects • Suspended Poll Taxes • Eliminated literacy tests and other tests • Authorized federal supervision of voter registration • Political impact • Within 4 years voter registration in the South had doubled • 1965 – approximately 100 African Americans held elective office in the U.S. • 1989 – more than 7,200 African Americans held elective office, 4,800 in the South

  15. AFRICAN-AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Reform movement in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination of African Americans and establishing equality and equal opportunity.

  16. AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE • A struggle against Jim Crow • Jim Crow Era (1876 – 1965) • Jim Crow Practices • Government enacted or sanctioned laws, attitudes and actions that required or permitted acts of discrimination against African Americans.

  17. FOUR ASPECTS OF JIM CROW • Racial segregation (Separate but Equal) (Inequality) • Voter suppression or disenfranchisement • Denial of economic opportunity or resources • Private acts of violence and mass racial violence

  18. Key Historical Events • 1954 Brown v. Board of Education • 1955 Rosa Parks Arrested • 1957 Desegregating Little Rock • 1961 Freedom Rides • 1962 Organizing in Mississippi • 1963 March on Washington • 1963 Medgar Evers Murdered • 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer • 1965 Selma to Montgomery March - SNCC voter registration drive • 1965 Voting Rights Act

  19. FOUR CRITICAL ISSUES CONFRONTED BY THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT • Employment • Education • Enfranchisement • Equality The Four E’s

  20. DO YOU THINK THAT BLACK’S CIVIL RIGHTS ARE BEING RESPECTED BY THE COUNTRY’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM? Whites Blacks Source: Gallup Organization – telephone survey, June 3-9, 2002 – per Cole & Smith

  21. UNDERSTANDING THE MAGNITUDE OF MASS IMPRISONMENT • 2,320,359 – total number of adults in prison or jail at year end 2005 • 1 in every 136 adult residents were incarcerated on 12/31/05

  22. U.S. INCARCERATION RATES IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT • World Prison Population: • 9 million • Percent of the world population that is in the United States: • 4.6% • Percent of the world prison population that is in the United States: • 22% (2.3 million people)

  23. RACIAL DIMENSIONS

  24. DEMOGRAPHICS2000 Indicator NYS USA 18,976,457 +5.6% Since 1990 281,421,906 +13.1% Since 1990 % of African American 15.9% 12.3% % American Indian 0.4% 0.9% % Asn/Pac. Is. American 5.6% 3.8% % White/Euro American 67.9% 75.1% % Other Ethnic Origin 7.1% 5.5% % Rep More Than One Race/Ethn 3.1% 2.4% % Hisp Origin (of any skin color) 15.1% 12.5% Source: U.S. Census Bureau

  25. ALL STATE AND FEDERAL PRISONERS 2005 Hispanic African American 20% 40% White 35% Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

  26. Incarceration Rates per 100,000 Population (1997) Source: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2000

  27. New York State – 1999State Prison Sentences for Drug Offenses New York State – 1998Adult & Juvenile Arrests for Drug Offenses Source: NYS Department of Correctional Services Source: FBI

  28. National Comparison of Drug Use and Arrests by Race Source: Compiled from Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports, various years, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Summary of Findings from the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999.)

  29. U.S. PERCENTAGE OF ALL DRUG OFFENDERS IN STATE PRISON African American White

  30. PROPORTION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS AMONG STATE RESIDENTS AND IN PRISON POPULATION Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Correctional Population in the U.S., 1996, Table 5.6 and U.S. Census data 2000.

  31. HOW HAS A POLICY OF IMPRISONMENT AFFECTED THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY? • 1 out of every 14 African American men is now in prison or jail. • 1 out of every 3 African American men born today can expect to be imprisoned at some point during his lifetime. • BJS calculates that an African American male is 6 times more likely to serve at least a year in prison than a white male. • 1 out of every 8 African American men between the ages of 25 and 29 is incarcerated today. Numerically

  32. 12 Junctures in the Criminal Justice Process Where Race and Class Cause Cumulative Disadvantage Law Enforcement Deployment/ Arrest Arraignment Bail/Detention Alternatives to Incarceration/Reentry Services Public Defense Parole Cumulative Disadvantage Jail/Prison Jail Preadjudication Decisions Probation Sentencing Pre-Sentence Report Jury

  33. WOMEN IN PRISON From 1973 to 2007, the number of women in prison increased by 645%--almost twice the rate of men. Source: Institute on Women and Criminal Justice The Sentencing Project

  34. LET THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME? • In 2003, women in state prisons were more likely than men to be incarcerated for a drug offense (29% vs. 19%) or a property offense (30% vs. 20%) than a violent offense (35% vs. 53%). • Women are more likely than men to serve time for their drug offenses, despite the fact that women are less likely than men to play a significant role in drug trade. • Women’s higher proportion of property crimes reflects the extreme economic disadvantages many women face prior to incarceration. Source: Institute on Women and Criminal Justice The Sentencing Project

  35. WHAT DO THE NUMBERS REFLECT? • African American women comprise 12% of the overall population in the U.S.--they now comprise more than 50% of women in prison. • Overall, drug offenses constituted half of the increased number of women in state prisons between 1986 and 1996. • Ironically, from 1986 to 1996 the rate at which women used drugs actually declined. • The war on drugs became a war on women…of color. Source: Institute on Women and Criminal Justice The Sentencing Project

  36. NOT JUST A PRISONER, A PARENT • More than 70% of women in prison in the U.S. have children. • On average, children of incarcerated mothers will live with at least 2 different caregivers during the period of incarceration; more than 1/2 will experience separation from siblings. • Over half of female prisoners have never had a visit from their children. Source: Institute on Women and Criminal Justice The Sentencing Project

  37. UNITED STATES Sentenced Female Prisoners 1977-2004 Female Prisoners Year Source: Institute on Women & Criminal Justice

  38. Mass Reentry and Mass Criminalization

  39. UNDERSTANDING THE MAGNITUDE OF MASS REENTRY • 650,000 people released each year from state and federal prison • 595,000 from state prisons • 56,000 from federal prison • 7 million different individuals released from jails in this county each year

  40. UNDERSTANDING THE MAGNITUDE OF MASS CRIMINALIZATION • 71 million people in the U.S. have a criminal record • 13 million people in the U.S. have a felony conviction • 1 in every 32 adults is under some form of correctional supervision (7 million) • 5,618,000 – total number of U.S. adult residents who had served time in state or federal prison by yearend 2001 • 1 in every 37 adults – had served prison time by yearend 2001

  41. UNDERSTANDING THE MAGNITUDE OF MASS REENTRY • 8% of the adult male population has a felony conviction • 25% of the African American male population has a felony conviction

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