The Crime in Criminal Justice

Lawyering for Social Change

100 Year Rule

What was legal but unjust

100 years ago?

Women won right to vote

in 1920

Child labor was outlawed in 1938 with Fair Labor Standards Act

1935 Right of Workers to Organize Protected by Wagner Act

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Segregation legal in US until 1960s

Voting Rights Act

1965

1965 Medicare and Medicaid

1970 Clean Air Act

1990 Americans with Disabilities Act

Analyze Criminal Justice

System

Key Question:

Are these facts mistakes of an otherwise good system

orIs the system working exactly as intended?

Last Several Decades Explosion in

Criminal Justice System

One in every 31 adults(more than 7 million people)

were behind barson probationor on parole.

Pew Center on States

In Pennsylvania1 in 28 adults

is under correctional control.

PA ranks 13th in adults in probation and parole – 258,000

PA ranks 31st in adults in prison and jails – 87,000 pew

U.S. Criminal Justice in International Context

What is going on?

Violent crime going up?

Gun crimes from 1973-2006 USDOJ key facts

Is this race neutral crime?

Process for Putting People

into Criminal Justice System

Review the system:Use of DrugsPolice Stops

ArrestBail Bond

RepresentationTrial

SentencingPrisonParole

Freedom

Drug Use

“blacks and whites engage

in drug offenses-

possession and sales-

at roughly comparable

rates” May 2008 Targetting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the US - HRW

Police Stops

Driving while black?California ACLU found blacks three times more likely to be stopped than

whites. Ian ayres, aclu s cal LA stops july 2003-june 2004

DOJ reports similar percentages stopped. But percentage of drivers

stopped whose vehicles were searched:

Hispanic 10%; Black 7%; White 1% 2005 April US DOJ Bureau of Justice statistics report

From 2005 to 2008, 80% of NYPDStop and Frisk actions

were of Blacks and Latinos(who make up 53% of population).

Once stopped85% of Blacks and Latinos were

frisked compared to 8% of whites.

Results of Stop & Frisk?

Arrest

“State-by-state data from 2006 show that blacks were arrested for drug offenses at rates in individual states that were 2 to 11.3 times

greater than the rate for whites”

March 2, 2009 Decades of Disparity HRW

African Americans comprise 13% of population and

14% of monthly drug users but 37% of persons arrested for drug

offenses.

May 21 2009 testimony before Congress of Marc Mauer The Sentencing Project

So blacks, who use drugs at same rate as whites, are arrested

200% to 1110% more.

Result?

Bail Bond

Blacks are 33% more likely to be detained awaiting felony trials than whites facing felony trials in some

parts of NY state.NYState division of

criminal justice services, 1995 study in disparities in processing felony arrests.

Representation

Once arrested, 80% get

“All too often, defendants plead guilty, even if they are innocent, without really understanding their legal rights or what

is occurring…The fundamental right to a lawyer that America assumes applies to everyone

accused of criminal conduct effectively does not exist in practice

for countless people across the United States.”

American Bar Association 2004Gideon’s Broken Promise

Trial

Only 3-5% of criminal cases go to trial – rest are plea bargained.

“Who wouldn’t rather do three years for a crime they didn’t do than risk 25 years for a crime

they didn’t do?”

Sentencing?

Since 2005 (US v Booker)

Black and Latino men receive

federal sentences10-23% longer

than whites.

Report - March 2010

African Americans are: 21% more likely to receive mandatory minimum than white defendants; and20% more likely to be sentenced to

prison than white drug defendants. May 21, 2009 testimony to

congress of Marc Maurer on unfairness of federal cocaine senetencing.

Two-thirds of crack cocaine users are white or Latino.

But 80% of the people sentenced for crack cocaine in US federal

system are African American.may 21, 2009 testimony

of Mar Maurer to Congress on unfairness of federal cocaine sentencing. Sentencing project.

? 100-1 Disparity between sentencing for crack cocaine and

powder cocaine reduced to 18-1 ratio. March 2010. ?

Two-thirds of people in US with life sentences are non-white.

In NY, it is 83%.sentencing project – july 2009 – no exit

Result?

Prison

African Americans comprise 13% of population and

14% of monthly drug users but 37% of persons arrested for drug offenses, and 56% of

people in state prisons for drug offenses.

May 21 2009 testimony before Congress of Marc Mauer The Sentencing Project

Two-thirds of people in state prisons for drug offenses are

African American or Latino. 2009 April Sentencing

Project – changing racial dynamics of the war on drugs

Mental illness is 200% to 600% higher

among prisoners than outside.National reentry resource center facts

Chance of Black male born in 2001 of going to prison – 32%;

Hispanic male has a 17%; white male has 6% chance.bonczar, T.P. (2003)

Bureua of Justice Statistics, Prevalence of Imprisonment in US population 1974-2001.

Impact of

Mass Incarceration

Exempted from the prohibition on slavery, prisoners are on way to

being non-human objects

Rights of Prisoners?

?Private for profit prisons?

?Impact of increased costs for Incarceration?

Parole

5,095,200people were on

Probation or Parole in 2008.

38% African American19% Hispanic

41% white. Glaze and Bonczar – Probation and Parole in the US 2008, US DOJ, BJS, 12-09

Nearly one in three young black males

is under correctional supervision. 2009 Criminal justice primer – Sentencing Project

YOUTHBlack youth are 16% of population,

28% of juvenile arrests, 37% of youth in juv jail, and

58% of youth sent to adult prisons.Sentencing

project, criminal justice primer 2009

The US Department of Justice reported that in 2008

7.3 million peoplewere under “correctional

supervision”jail or prison, parole or probation.

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppus08.pdf

African Americans are nearly three times as likely to get their probation

revoked as whites, especially for drug offenses.

http://www.wi-doc.com/PDF_Files/Revocation%20Study_Exec%202-Pg%20-%20FINAL.pdf

Freedom

Even after release,

Prisonersnever regain

full human and civil rights

Ex-offender employment?

Among applicants with criminal records, employers called back

17% of white applicants and5% of black applicants. Devah Pager Study 2002

Consequences for Drug Felons

• No public housing• OK to discriminate against in private

housing• OK to yank right to vote• OK to discriminate in employment• No food stamp assistance• No jury service• Prohibitions on associating with others

?IMPACT ON DRUG USE?

More than two decades of incarcerating drug offenders has apparently had little impact on the

demand for illicit drugs. In surveys carried out during the years 1991-1993, an average of 5.8 percent of persons surveyed reported using an

illicit drug during the previous month. In the same survey carried out in 2006, 8.3 percent of

persons said they had used an illicit drug in the previous month.

HRW – Targetting Blacks 2008

What will people think100 years from now

about ourcriminal justice system?

Analysis of System

Key Question:

Are these facts mistakes of an otherwise good system

orIs the system working exactly as intended?

1700s - Birth of Slavery1863 - Death of Slavery

1877 - Birth of Jim Crow withdrawl of federal troops

1950s-60s - Death of Jim Crow

1980s - Birth of Mass Incarceration

From 1981 to 1991 – War on Drugs

FBI Antidrug $ increased from $38 m to $181 m

DOD Antidrug $ increased from$33m to $1042m

DEA anti-drug spending increased from$86m to $1026m

source: p 49 The New Jim Crow

Criminal Justice is:

Racialized System of

Social Control

Stigma of criminality functions in much the same way as Jim Crow:

• Legal boundaries between them and us;

• Social and economic boundaries between them and us;

• Cannot vote;

• Can legally discriminate in jobs and housing;

• Warehouse a disposable population;

Poor whites and people of other ethnicity are also subjected to this system of social control

because if they are out of line they are treated just like poor

blacks – the worst possible treatment

Criminal Justice System is Integral Part of the

Domestic War on Marginalized

Because of globalization there is an excess of people.

Those people are not productive, not needed, not wanted, and are not human beings entitled to the same rights as us.

Essentially, the must be controlled and

dominated. They must be either intimidated into compliance with their

inferior status or removed.

Criminal Justice System is Part of the White Supremacist

Domestic War on Marginalized

Domestic War relies onTechnology of Domination (Criminal Justice System)

for

CaptureImmobilization

PunishmentLiquidation

Criminal Justice System is working just fine doing its part in the

Domestic Racist State Violence or War at Home

Thus Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, US jails &

prisonsare all the same – domestic

& international versions of domination

So, what to do?

Adopt a 100 year

perspective on law and justice

A radical approach to injustice means to go to the root of the problem

not trimming the leavesnot pruning the branches

but ripping up by the roots the injustice.

First, open our hearts and liberate our minds

We are all entitled to be safebut is that what

this criminal justice system is?Find and support alternatives.

“Nothing short of a major

social movement can dismantle this

new caste system.”

What about President Obama?

If the system is broken perhaps the administration can help fix

small parts of it.

But is there evidence that this administration intends to reverse the explosion of the

criminal justice system?

Join the Movement

Restorative Justice

Study Prisons in Criminal Law?

Support Prisoner Organizing and Resistance

Resist in Place: Prosecutors, Defenders, Judges

If there is no

struggle,

there is no progress.

Seek Out Hope Joy Love

Wherever you find tragedy and injustice

You will also find

resistance and

inspiration

Liberation is up to us.

bquigley@ccrjustice.org