Alondra C. Connecticut

Racism In Criminal Justice

With our judicial system being primarily white individuals, their biases tend to shift to one side because they don’t have that other perspective of what it’s like to be black in the criminal justice system.

Dear Next President,

Racism in our criminal justice system has taken a toll on the black community. Social science research shows striking racial disparities at nearly every level—from arrest rates, to bail amounts, to sentence lengths, to probation hearing outcomes. Black Americans deserve to be treated just as equal as White Americans regardless of the crime committed. Im concerned for the future of our African Americans.

The problem faced in our criminal justice system is that because of their race, thousands of African Americans have suffered subtler forms of discrimination in the criminal justice system, where social science research shows striking racial disparities at nearly every level—from arrest rates, to bail amounts, to sentence lengths, to probation hearing outcomes. This is a problem because black individuals are receiving higher death sentencing rates for the same crimes committed by whites. Right now in our world, there have been a shocking number of black individuals who have been killed in encounters with police, in the year since Ferguson and in the years before. The cause of this is due to the fact that there is strong bias against black individuals.

There have been different perspectives on this issue. Some believe that our criminal justice system is fair towards all people and that black individuals “test” the system. Others believe that there is a scientific reason for racism being built into America’s criminal justice system.

As the next president of the United States, you have the ability and potential to change America’s criminal justice system in a way that is truly fair towards everyone. Please take my concern into consideration and I hope to see change in the black community lives’ and justice for all.