Report: Three Causes of Racial Inequity in Criminal Justice System

By Audrey Sawyer WASHINGTON, DC – “One in Five: Racial Disparity in Imprisonment – Causes and Remedies.” examines three causes of racial inequity in the criminal legal system, noting promising reforms from over 50 jurisdictions across the country that can mitigate their impact – it is the latest in the series examining racial inequities in America’s criminal legal system by the Sentencing Project. The first TSP report in the “One and Five” series shows an overview of incarceration and supervision trends. The second report examines the footprint of policing (looking at Black Americans in particular) as a failed response to racial disparities in serious crimes. The three key causes of racial disparities in the Sentencing Project report are laws and policies appearing race neutral but have a disparate racial impact, noting extreme sentences for violent crimes and reliance on criminal histories as a basis for determining prison sentences are drivers of racial disparities in imprisonment. The report first emphasizes concern for the “nature of the War on Drugs and the associated sentencing laws that resulted from it,” such as mandatory minimum sentences, crack-cocaine sentencing disparities, drug-free school zone laws, alongside with criminalization of drug possession, all which target Black Americans...