Systemic racism permeates every aspect of American life, and in particular the criminal legal system. The criminal legal system is perhaps the primary institutional force behind it, and the harm inflicted on people of color by this system is widespread and devastating.
This is a simplified (VERY simplified) flow-chart showing of the criminal legal system in America:
I use this flow-chart in my training sessions to demonstrate how racism exists at every point in the criminal legal system. We need to recognize that because if systemic racism is to be truly addressed and eliminated it needs to happen at every point where it exists.
From the top:
- A criminal law is enacted – Why do we choose to criminalize some behaviors and not others? How do we decide how harshly to treat certain acts than other? On their face most laws seem race-neutral – the courts insist on that! – but that’s only on their face. As an example, voter disenfranchisement laws seem neutral – anyone, regardless of race, who has been convicted of a felony may have their right to vote denied (the extent depends on the state you live in). But when we have a system which disproportionately hangs the felony label on Black and Brown people, those voter disenfranchisement laws become less neutral
- Police enforce the law – Where do they enforce it? Who are they scrutinizing more carefully? Who are they letting off with a warning and who are they arresting – for the same or similar offenses?
- Arrest – Who can afford bail? Who has easy access to a defense lawyer to get them out of jail? How are judges making decisions about who is “too great a risk” to release?
- Adjudication – How does the judge, jury, prosecutor, even defense lawyer view the defendant? As a “criminal” or not? What does a “criminal” look like to them? Does a Black person look more like their idea of a “criminal” than a White person?
- Incarceration – I will just refer to this – https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html
- Probation/Parole – once again, how do Probation and Parole Officers view the people they’re working with? Are they more suspicious of Black or Brown people than White people?
That is a completely non-exhaustive list of questions and possible issues. There aren’t individual answers to any of the questions, but these are questions that, in my view, reformers need to be asking, particularly people working within the system who are trying to change it.
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