NCJ Number
157918
Date Published
Unknown
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The recent case in Union, South Carolina, in which black men were rounded up and questioned by police about the abduction of two young children and other racial incidents underscore the harsh treatment of blacks by the criminal justice system.
Abstract
Nationally, one in four young black men is under some form of criminal justice control. While 78 percent of persons who use drugs in Sacramento, California, are white, only 34 percent of those arrested for drugs are white. Conversely, blacks represent 12 percent of Sacramento County's drug users but comprise 52 percent of those arrested for drugs. Crimes committed by minorities are generally punished more harshly than crimes committed by whites. Because black offenders cannot understand why the same society that makes them wait 6 months for a drug treatment program provides them with instant access to a prison cell, it is essential to design programs that rehabilitate rather than merely punish and to change the stereotyped profile of the average prisoner as a poor, young black man.