7.8 Conclusion
Consider the effect on a community when one in three Black fathers, brothers, uncles, and neighbors is removed by the police and locked up for decades. Such a phenomenon is so ingrained in the history of this country that it has become normalized, and most people have accepted the myth that those getting caught up in the criminal legal system are those who chose to break the law because they are “bad” people. However, when we look back over our country’s history, the Black Codes, convict leasing, the Great Migration, and white flight, it is clear that the messaging we have been fed about people of color committing more crimes or being criminally minded is false. To understand the racial disparities in the criminal legal system, we must remember that the entire system was built on white supremacy, and trying to change a system that privileges the powerful is an uphill battle in many respects. Yet, simply accepting or ignoring the status quo of racialized responses to crime is a far worse fate.
Discussion Questions and Chapter Resources
Discussion questions
- How does the history of corrections relate to racial oppression and control now? In what way do paths differ for people who are BIPOC versus their white counterparts post-arrest as they navigate their way through courts and corrections?
- How do plea bargaining practices differ across races?
- What are the various applications of intermediate sanctions, and how do they differ across racial lines? Explain different sentencing disparities and biases.
- How do prison experiences differ along racial lines? Reflect on the practices and decision-making of parole boards. What are the potential consequences of these methods?
- Consider experiences of reentry and recidivism through a critical race lens and explain what someone who is white, compared to someone who is a person of color, is likely to face.
Chapter resources
- To learn more about the impact of white flight, see this American Psychological Association article [Website].
- To learn more about media representations of race and crime, see Report Documents Racial Bias in Coverage of Crime by Media [Website].
- Consider exploring the website #GuiltyPleaProblem [Website].
- Consider listening to this podcast with first-hand accounts of people who are or were formerly incarcerated: Ear Hustle [Podcast].
- Consider exploring the National Sex Offender Registry [Website].
- For a summary of voting rights after a felony conviction, see Felon Voting Rights Brief [Website].
Licenses and Attributions for Conclusion
“Conclusion” by Taryn VanderPyl, revised by Jessica René Peterson, is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
a term referring to the movement of white people from racially diversifying areas to the suburbs
the racist belief that white people are superior to people of other races and ethnicities
branch of the criminal legal system that controls the behavior of convicted persons including probation, parole, and incarceration
punishments that tend to happen in the community and do not include incarceration, sometimes referred to as community corrections or community supervision
reoffending and rearrest
a category of people grouped because they share inherited physical characteristics that are identifiable, such as skin color, hair texture, facial features, and stature
