Title: Black Men and the Criminal Justice System
Headings: African American Men and the Criminal Justice System
African American Men and the Criminal Justice System
Why a disproportionate amount of Black men are in prison
Black Minors at Risk
Disparities Between Black and White Drug Users
A Quarter of Young Black Men Report Police Mistreatment
Race and the Death Penalty

Content: Differences in the way the criminal justice system treats Black drug offenders and white drug offenders became especially clear when sentencing laws required crack-cocaine users to receive much stiffer penalties than powder-cocaine users. That’s because, at the height of its popularity, crack-cocaine was most popular among Blacks in the inner city, while powder-cocaine was most popular among whites. In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which helped to erase some of the sentencing disparities related to cocaine. A Quarter of Young Black Men Report Police Mistreatment
Gallup interviewed roughly 4,400 adults from June 13 to July 5, 2013, for its Minority Rights and Relations poll about police interactions and racial profiling. Gallup found that 24 percent of Black men between the ages of 18 and 34 felt they had been mistreated by police during the past month. Meanwhile, 22 percent of Blacks from ages 35 to 54 felt the same and 11 percent of Black males older than age 55 agreed. These numbers are significant given that many people have absolutely no dealings with police in a month-long period. The fact that the young Black men polled had contact with police and roughly a quarter felt the authorities had mistreated them during these encounters indicates that racial profiling remains a serious issue for African Americans. Race and the Death Penalty
A number of studies have shown that race influences the likelihood a defendant will receive the death penalty. In Harris County, Texas, for example, the District Attorney’s Office was more than three times as likely to pursue the death penalty against Black defendants than their white counterparts, according to an analysis released in 2013 by University of Maryland criminology professor Ray Paternoster.