Race and Criminal Justice
The ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project works to reform drug laws and policies that unfairly target people of color. The racial disparities are staggering: despite the fact that whites engage in drug offenses at a higher rate than African-Americans, African-Americans are incarcerated for drug offenses at a rate that is 10 times greater than that of whites.
The effect of the “War on Drugs” on communities of color has been tragic: Sentencing disparities and selective enforcement of drug laws mean that there are more African-Americans under the control of prison and corrections departments today than were ever enslaved by this country.
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Some progress has been made: in 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which represents a decade-long, bipartisan effort to reduce the racial disparities caused by draconian crack cocaine sentencing laws and to restore confidence in the criminal justice system — particularly in communities of color. And in 2011, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to retroactively apply the new FSA guidelines to individuals sentenced before the law was enacted. This decision will help ensure that over 12,000 people — 85 percent of whom are African-Americans — will have the opportunity to have their sentences for crack cocaine offenses reviewed by a federal judge and possibly reduced.
But there is still much to be done. It’s time to end the unjust, un-American and unsuccessful war on drugs.
Resources
Smoke Pot, Lose Your Kid (If You're Black) (2011 blog): In August 2011, The New York Times reported New York City's child welfare agency has been actively pursuing parents for child neglect who are found with marijuana in their home. Mind you, we're talking about amounts that are often too low for even a misdemeanor conviction. And they're pursuing these neglect cases even when there are no signs of abuse, negligence or any problems whatsoever within the home.
Bloomberg Gives With One Hand; Takes With the Other (2011 blog): In August 2011, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he would invest $30 million from his own pocket to uplift the young black and Latino men who are most excluded from New York’s civic, educational and economic life. While this proposal is generous, it fails to address the fact that the Bloomberg administration has supported policies that have led to staggering racial disparities in New York’s corrections system. While funding job recruitment and education programs is indeed important, there’s a critical missing piece in this grand plan: ending NYPD’s widespread aggressive stop and frisk policies that target communities of color at skyrocketing rates and contribute markedly to the marginalization of the very same communities Bloomberg now aims to help.
Dear Mr. President (resource): An ACLU resource on the unjust crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity.
Sentencing Commission Votes to Make Federal Crack Sentencing Retroactive (2011 press release)
Prop. 19 Was Only the Beginning (2010 blog post)
From Incredible to Inevitable: How the Politics of Criminal Justice Reform May Be Shifting (2010 blog post)
With the Stroke of a Pen, a Fairer Criminal Justice System (2010 blog post)
President Obama Signs Bill Reducing Cocaine Sentencing Disparity (2010 press release)
ACLU Letter of Support for the Fair Sentencing Act of 2009 (2009 resource): A letter to senators encouraging them to support the Fair Sentencing Act of 2009.
In New York, A Rogue Wave Of Criminal Injustice (2011 blog post): The New York City Police Department continues its racially biased "stop-and-frisk" practices where officers stop, question and even search innocent people for no reason at all. In 2010 alone, NYPD officers made over half a million of these suspicionless — and unconstitutional — stops, 85 percent of which targeted people of color.
