Criminal justice system favors white people, Black people at disadvantage, data shows
Poster Number
2
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
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.
