Essay - Discrimination in Our Criminal Justice System Introduction Race Has Been...

Discrimination in Our Crim*****al Justice System

Introduction

Race has been a consideration in sentencing guidelines for quite some time. Many individuals believe that those who are not Caucasian receive sentences that are harsher and punishment that is stricter than others (Saltzburg, 2003). Because of this, there is concern ***** perhaps the sentencing guidelines and the entire criminal justice system are racially biased. This is evidenced not only by individuals ***** other races who feel that they have ***** treated unfairly but ***** statistics which indicate the number of non-Caucasian individuals on death row ***** within the prison system in general.

The purpose ***** this paper will be to show that there is d*****parity between the ***** guidelines ***** ***** given to Caucasians and to non-Caucasians and to look at the extent race plays a p*****rt in the prosecution ***** different crimes. This is ***** only the case for small crimes or large *****, but for all crimes across the spectrum. In an effort to be fair, oppos*****g views ***** be discussed ***** the problems *****d proposed solutions will be discussed as well. By discussing all of these issues it can be seen that individuals who are of minority ***** often meet with harsher punishments than others who come in***** the criminal ***** system.

***** are many reasons that ***** happens, and one of ***** could potentially be ***** fact that ***** of these minority individuals do not have the finances to hire good lawyers (Saltzburg, *****). Many ***** these individuals end up ***** public defenders and while ***** defenders ***** the best for their clients they are often overworked and underpaid. Because of this, ***** that require public defenders ***** do not get as good of a chance at being paroled or having a lighter sentence than those that can aff*****d high-priced attorneys. There are many more minorities in the prison system ***** on death row than *****re are Caucasian individuals, and there are more men than wo*****. For the purposes of this paper ***** gender differences will not be an issue. Whether ***** are male or female ***** ***** irrelevant; the only concern will be with what ***** they *****long to. According ***** the Supreme Court, there should be equal treatment for all individuals who are found to the guilty ***** an infraction of ***** law (Saltzburg, 2003). This should be true regardless of the race of ***** individuals ***** sadly there seems to ***** loopholes in the crim*****al justice system which cause ***** ***** these ***** to fall into difficulty with the law and *****n to ***** trouble getting out of this cycle of scrutiny ***** arrest (Thompson, 1999).

***** are Caucasian individuals in ***** country that would argue that ***** races have more crime and that ***** are not as good ***** individuals as those of Caucasian ancestry. However, this does not necessarily mean that this observation is accurate. One must consider the possibility that those ***** are of minority race in this country are not committing