Criminal justice system favors white people, Black people at disadvantage, data shows

Poster Number

2

Submitting Student(s)

Anna Sharpe

Session Title

Poster Session 1

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Mass Communication

Abstract

As a socioeconomic dynamic, Black men are statistically shown to be disadvantaged at every stage in the criminal justice process in the United States, from initial arrests, to incarceration, to chances at parole. This enterprise reporting and multimedia project displays the complexities of systemic racism in the justice system and was researched using public documents, open records, and official reports from the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Expert interviews with law enforcement and scholars revealed the history of the prison system in the United States as a slave patrol. It also provided context to the complex issue of an often racially skewed justice system. The multimedia components of this project included a podcast on the history of the prison system, featuring in-depth information on a Louisiana prison that has been compared to a modern-day plantation, and a graphic video demonstrating that Black men are statistically more likely to be arrested, charged, and sentenced than White men for the same crimes. A Freedom of Information request, filled by the York County Sheriff’s Office, for the demographics of the York County Detention Center revealed local trends were consistent with the national rates of overrepresentation of African American as prisoners.

Start Date

15-4-2022 12:00 PM

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Apr 15th, 12:00 PM

Criminal justice system favors white people, Black people at disadvantage, data shows

As a socioeconomic dynamic, Black men are statistically shown to be disadvantaged at every stage in the criminal justice process in the United States, from initial arrests, to incarceration, to chances at parole. This enterprise reporting and multimedia project displays the complexities of systemic racism in the justice system and was researched using public documents, open records, and official reports from the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Expert interviews with law enforcement and scholars revealed the history of the prison system in the United States as a slave patrol. It also provided context to the complex issue of an often racially skewed justice system. The multimedia components of this project included a podcast on the history of the prison system, featuring in-depth information on a Louisiana prison that has been compared to a modern-day plantation, and a graphic video demonstrating that Black men are statistically more likely to be arrested, charged, and sentenced than White men for the same crimes. A Freedom of Information request, filled by the York County Sheriff’s Office, for the demographics of the York County Detention Center revealed local trends were consistent with the national rates of overrepresentation of African American as prisoners.