Reentry Central would like to thank Amy Malick of Everyday Democracy for bringing to our attention a report issued by the Sentencing Project regarding America’s entrenched system of racial disparity among inmates in jails and prisons. Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers proposes that the high number of incarcerated individuals in the U.S> can be attributed to “disparate treatment in other areas such as equal access to education, jobs, sustainable income, and housing.”
The manual further identifies areas that legislative decisions that are poorly thought out can contribute to racial disparity. The implementation of the “crack cocaine laws” is one such example. Lawmakers finally realized the devastating effect these laws had on communities with a high percentage of people of color, and finally pushed through the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, albeit after countless lives were ruined, and state budgets were depleted.
Reducing Racial Disparities provides best practices in several areas of the criminal justice system including:
Law enforcement
Pretrial services
Juvenile detention court
Prosecution
Defense
Judicial
Probation
Prisons
Parole and reentry
State agencies
Sentencing Commissions
The manual is a valuable asset for those working toward correcting racial disparity in America’s criminal justice system and can be read by clicking on the link below.
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