Black Prison Sentences

Furthermore, while on the subject of statistics it is more than noteworthy to point out many of the disproportionate rate in sentencing. The United State Justice Department has set out numerous facts and figures to support the disproportionate rates in the aforementioned paragraphs through its Bureau of Justice Statistics. This bureau compiles data from state courts across the country and graphs it out for informational purposes. Within this compilation is a graph titled “Mean Length of Felony Sentences Imposed in State Courts, By Offense and Combined Categories of Race and Gender, 2004.” This table displays some of the following data: African American men are generally sentenced to 114 months in prison for the crime of robbery while white men are sentenced to term of only 103 months. Meanwhile, as African American women are sentenced to 104 months in prison, white women are sentenced to a disproportionate term of 66 months for the same offense, robbery. This is a markedly 37 percent difference and a travesty at best. (Durose, 2007).

Finally, one may gather that there is reason to keep a close eye on the issue of African Americans being sentenced to disproportionate terms within our nation’s prison systems. Calling this ongoing happening, a travesty should be considered an understatement when the apparent consequence is African American communities losing faith in our judicial system. All across the country African American men and women are being sentenced to excruciatingly high sentences while everyone else is getting less than what they deserve. Why, one may ask. The answer is this; because policymakers have taken upon themselves to deem all crimes typically committed by African Americans to be more severe than the rest. That leaves this country, disproportionate judicial system of hate rather than a race-neutral system of justice. In Washington, D.C. the United States Supreme Court building reads for all to see, “Equal Justice Under Law.” Getting back to basics is the key to solving this problem. American judicial sentencing policies must be revisited, and improved, in order to make this country stand on equal ground. It is time to fight the good fight and give all offenders the true, proportionate sentences they deserve.