result #116355 - MINORITIES IMPRISONED FAR LONGER THAN WHITES

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result #116355 - MINORITIES IMPRISONED FAR LONGER THAN WHITES

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MINORITIES IMPRISONED FAR LONGER THAN WHITES

[+] ballot by aya
ACTIVE Jul 20,2007 - Sat Jul 19, 08

DES MOINES, Iowa - Blacks in the United States are imprisoned at more than five times the rate of whites, and Hispanics are locked up at nearly double the white rate, according to a study released Wednesday by a criminal justice policy group.

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The report by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based think tank, found that states in the Midwest and Northeast have the greatest black-to-white disparity in incarceration. Iowa had the widest disparity in the nation, imprisoning blacks at more than 13 times the rate of whites.

Such figures "reflect a failure of social and economic interventions to address crime effectively," as well as racial bias in the justice system, said Marc Mauer, the group's executive director.

Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut and Wisconsin incarcerated blacks at more than 10 times the rate of whites, the group said, citing Justice Department statistics from 2005. Vermont had a ratio of 12.5, followed by New Jersey with 12.4 and Connecticut with 12.

States with the lowest black-to-white ratio were Hawaii, with 1.9, Georgia with 3.3 and Mississippi with 3.5.

In Iowa, blacks are imprisoned at a rate more than double the national average. For every 100,000 people, Iowa incarcerates 309 whites and 4,200 blacks, the study said.

Paul Stageberg, administrator of the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning, said the results are not surprising, but the causes are subject to interpretation.

He said the state's disproportionately high black arrest rates are likely linked to high poverty rates among blacks and lower educational achievement.

In 2001, a governor's task force released a report that said 24 percent of Iowa prison beds were occupied by black inmates even though blacks comprised just over 2 percent of the state's population.

The group that compiled Wednesday's report made several recommendations such as reviewing federal drug laws and giving judges more discretion to decide sentences rather than imposing mandatory minimum prison terms.

--------what do you think?

Crime and poverty have a direct correlation	6
White people are just underachievers	2

Ballot #116355: has 8 total votes.
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COMMENTS:
Voted : White people are just underachievers
I blame it on "The Man".

by _Beelzebubba on Fri Jul 20, 07 12:03pm [+]

what i think is that like all stats, you can read them in many different ways. in this survey no where do you read whether whites committ the same crimes and are let off -- but that's how some are going to interpret it. wrongly so. know what i mean?

ever hear the phrase "if you're going to do the crime, you have to do the time."

this report also seems to want to find reasons for why minorities commit the crime, like with this quote -

"He said the state's disproportionately high black arrest rates are likely linked to high poverty rates among blacks and lower educational achievement."

so the question is, statistically if minorities commit the crimes at a higher rate than non-minorities, wouldn't that translate into higher incarceration ratios of minorities? and if the justice system is supposed to prosecute no matter what the race of the person commiting the crime, they're just doing their job.

should we not incarcerate people of minority status because they're minorities? that's racist in itself.

i'm not making that statement, just posing the question.

by Kev24 on Fri Jul 20, 07 12:15pm [+]

the other question i have is the ballot topic says "minorities imprisoned far longer than whites" do you mean at a higher rate or for longer sentences. i didn't read anything about length of sentence so not sure if off in left field.

by Kev24 on Fri Jul 20, 07 12:23pm [+]

Voted : Crime and poverty have a direct correlation
It can't simply be that the justice system is racist against minorites because the imprisonment rate of other minority groups such as Asians and Middle Easterners are equal to or sightly less than whites.It has to go back to the core cause of crime,poverty and all the consequences of poverty (lower levels of education etc).

by Corrupt on Fri Jul 20, 07 12:32pm [+]

"the other question i have is the ballot topic says "minorities imprisoned far longer than whites" do you mean at a higher rate or for longer sentences. i didn't read anything about length of sentence so not sure if off in left field."

I meant at a higher rate

by aya on Fri Jul 20, 07 1:54pm [+]

"what i think is that like all stats, you can read them in many different ways. in this survey no where do you read whether whites committ the same crimes and are let off -- but that's how some are going to interpret it. wrongly so. know what i mean?"

Yeah, I know. People might autmotically jump to a conclusion that authorities are racist.

"so the question is, statistically if minorities commit the crimes at a higher rate than non-minorities, wouldn't that translate into higher incarceration ratios of minorities? and if the justice system is supposed to prosecute no matter what the race of the person commiting the crime, they're just doing their job.

should we not incarcerate people of minority status because they're minorities? that's racist in itself.

i'm not making that statement, just posing the question."

The authorities ARE just doing their jobs, but of course, one can't deny the possibility that Blacks might be subjected to racial profiling and the like, but what I was also trying to get at is that Blacks may also commit crimes because of the obvious correlation between poverty and crime. Yet, according to a US census study taken in '06, (it's buried on a ballot here somewhere), Asian have a higher level of prosperity than Blacks, but are still more likely than Whites, to wind up poor. And, I know this seems not very politically correct, but Asians tend to push thier kids more into education and doing well, more so than Blacks, who appear to be more broken down (family-wise). I honestly think that part of the problem is that Blacks and Hispanics need to push their kids into higher levels of education.

by aya on Fri Jul 20, 07 2:02pm [+]

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