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THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

The state of Black America is a study of gains and gaps. NBUF will continue to collect cross-cutting information and update this section.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Arrests

FBI data compiled from more than 8,500 police agencies show that Blacks were the subject of 29 % of arrests in 1999 (The Herald Sun, 2001), although they make up about 12% of the population.
In 1996, Black Americans were 13% of the U.S. population, but 30% of all convicted federal offenders (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997).
The possibility of incarceration for Black Americans is 6 times (16.2%) higher than the mainstream population (2.5%) (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997

Incarceration
In South Carolina, 68 % of men between the ages of 18 and 64 were African American. Blacks made up 27 % of the state’s total population in the same age group (The Herald Sun, 2001).
During the year 2000, roughly one in 10 Black men was in prison (Boston Globe, 1999).
In West Virginia, Blacks made up 44 % of the female inmates ages 18 to 64. Blacks were 3 % of the total female population in the same age range (The Herald Sun, 2001).
In the new millennium, the number of Black American adults behind bars will hit the million mark. This represents nearly an eightfold increase from three decades ago, when there were 133,226 Blacks in prison (Boston Globe, 1999).
Black children are 9 times more likely than White children to have a parent in prison (Children’s Defense Fund, 2001).
A survey of traffic stops in Volusia County, Florida, showed nearly 70 % of those stopped were Blacks or Hispanics (Boston Globe, 1999).
Because many states bar felons from voting, at least one in seven Black men will have lost the right to vote (Boston Globe, 1999).
30 to 40 % of the next generation of Black men will permanently lose the right to vote if current trends continue (The Sentencing Project, 1998).
In 9 states, 1 in 4 Black men can never vote again because they were convicted of a felony (The Sentencing Project, 1998).

JUVENILE JUSTICE
Black students are punished more severely for the same behaviors as White students. Nationally, Black students are fewer than 1 out of 5 public school students, but 1 out of every 3 students suspended is Black (Advancement Project and the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, June 2000).
Compared to White youths, Black youths are more likely to be held in a detention facility, formally charged in juvenile court, and transferred to adult criminal court, where they receive harsher and longer sentences (Youth Law Center, Justice Policy Institute, Building Blocks for Youth, April 2000).
Compared with youths in juvenile facilities, youths in adult prisons are 8 times more likely to commit suicide, 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by prison staff, and 50% more likely to be attacked with a weapon (Children’s Defense Fund, 2001).
The latest juvenile-crime report by the Department of Justice shows a 68 % drop in the juvenile murder rate from 1993 to 1999, reaching its lowest in recorded history (Building Blocks for Youth, Youth Law Center, 2001).
Juvenile arrests for violence fell 36 % from its 1994 peak to 1999, the lowest they have been in a decade (Building Blocks for Youth, Youth Law Center, 2001).
Despite the continuing decline of youth crime, nearly every state has changed its laws to make it easier to prosecute youth as adults (Building Blocks for Youth, Youth Law Center, 2001).
A study in California found that compared to white youths, minorities were 2.8 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 6.2 times more likely to be tried in adult court and 7 times more likely to be sentenced to prison once they get there. (Justice Policy Institute, 2000).
For youths charged with violent offenses, the average length of incarceration is 193 days for whites, 254 for African-Americans, and 305 for Latino youth.
Among those not previously admitted to a secure facility, African-Americans are 6 times more likely than whites to be incarcerated and 9 times more likely to be jailed if charged with a violent offense.
For drug offenses, African-Americans are 48 times more likely than whites to be sentenced to juvenile prison (Building Blocks for Youth, 2001).
In Cook County, Illinois, 99% of youths tried as adults are African-American or Latino (Building Blocks for Youth, Youth Law Center, 2001).

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
As of July 1, 2001, the total number of death row inmates was 3,717 (Legal Defense Fund, Death Row, USA, 2001).
Of those on death row, almost 99% are men (Death Row USA, 2001).
84 of the males on death row are juveniles (Death Row USA, 2001).
40 jurisdictions have capital punishment statutes: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming, U.S. Government, U.S. Military (Death Row USA, 2001).
13 jurisdictions do not have capital punishment statutes: Alaska, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin. (Death Row, 2001).
Several studies have shown that defendants in cases involving white victims are 3-4 times more likely to receive the death penalty than those involving Black victims (Institute for Global Communications, Tides Foundation, undated).
In response to a request from President Clinton, the U.S. Department of Justice reviewed death penalty cases and found that 80% of federal cases submitted by US Attorneys involved minority defendants; 71% were Black defendants (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000).
In its review, the Department of Justice found that US Attorneys were almost twice as likely to recommend the death penalty for a black defendant when he victim was not Black (Death Penalty Information Center, 2000).