I did not become interested in this question until a professor brought up the topic in a Criminal Justice Course. My professor asked us to write a small essay about what we personally thought about the disproportionality of black males in prison. Subsequently, I did research and investigative work, and discovered the horrible truth! 


This research question affects me and my values in a variety of ways. Firstly, I am an African-American male! Secondly, I am more determined than ever to fix a corrupt criminal justice system that unfairly targets minorities and/or impoverished people.


I know of various African-American males who languish in jail for petty weed charges. The constitution of the United States says that a person has the right to a FAIR and SPEEDY TRIAL! Because of a backed up case load, and not having access to quality, private attorneys, many poor African-Americans are unconstitutionally incarcerated under the "color of the law."


I believe I am qualified to write about this topic because I am directly affected by it -- as an African American male. I am thoroughly comfortable with writing about this topic because I am a Criminal Justice major. The American Criminal Justice system is designed to incarcerate for the sake of profit and monetary gain. Furthermore, African-Americans are perceived as a threat by many powerful people within or outside the US government. Therefore, incarceration will limit the power of black males to vote or hold any elected offices -- these constitutional privileges are essential to setting various social and political agendas which directly impact the black community.



A shocking claim that Ingraham makes, sums up the article perfectly: "The position of most black men, relative to white men, is no better now than how things stood after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965."  Ingraham claims that the lack of education determines the rate at which African-American males are incarcerated. According to Ingraham, in 2010, nearly a third of black male high school dropouts, aged 25-29, were imprisoned or institutionalized. Lastly, arrested African American males will have a more difficult time in trying to get employed after they have been incarcerated. Therefore, incarceration can lead to more crime if a formerly incarcerated person cannot find a job after getting out of prison.


Social activists can use the various statistics within the article to fight against injustice. Clearly, the Criminal Justice system in America has failed the black man. In fact, Ingraham claims that black males aren't progressing in our society; they are regressing! Lastly, we see how education affects incarceration. Several years ago, there was a newspaper article that said, "Prisons are built based on the percentage of males who advance from 3rd to 4th grade!" Our former governor, Mark Sanford, allegedly spent 500 million dollars to build new prisons within the state of South Carolina -- I am speechless! I will leave you to ponder this thought.


I don't detect any bias within the source. Ingraham gets his statistics from a study done by two University of Chicago economists -- Derek Neal and Armin Rick.

Another shocking revelation is made within this article; according to Antonio Moore, more black men are incarcerated in prison than the total prison populations of India, Argentina, Canada, Lebanon, Japan, Germany, Finland, Israel, and England -- COMBINED. Moore also adds that the number of black men in prison is nearly equivalent to the number of black men in college. "For black men, there are approximately 1.4 million in college and 745,000 in prison. There are 8.5 million white women in college and approximately 60,000 white women in prison," according to Moore. 


"Over-incarceration" of black males is the major value or interest listed in this article. Moore believes it is a travesty that there is nearly an equivalent amount of African-American males in college, as there are in prison.


Honestly, there could be a possible bias within the source; Moore is an African-American attorney, and he is trying to argue on behalf of the plight facing many African-American males. However, he uses solid statistics to back his facts up. Therefore, I don't consider his article as "biased" in any way.



According to the authors(Justin Wolfers, David Hardt, and Kevin Quealy), more than one out of every six black men, who today should be between 25-54 years old, have disappeared from daily life. The 25-54 age range, also referred to as "prime age years," is mentioned as a crucial area of concern; almost 1 in 12 black men in the "prime age group" are behind bars, compared with 1 in 60 non black men in this particular age group. Furthermore, black women in the prime age group are incarcerated accordingly: 1 in 200 black women are in prison within the prime age group. Lastly, 1 in 500 nonblack women are incarcerated within the prime age group.


The authors mention that the disappearance of black males will lead to the breakdown of African-American families. Black women will have difficulty finding husbands, and Black women will be challenged because raising children will prevent them from pursuing higher educational opportunities. 


I don't detect a hint of bias within the source. The authors used credible research to back up their data.


My research question is not arguable. The truth is: African Americans, particularly males, are incarcerated at higher rates than other ethnicities.


The Stanford News Article source, I encountered, provided some essential and unexpected feedback. According to the article, there are white people, who panic when they discover that black people are disproportionately incarcerated in America, which leads to politicians passing unjust laws that incarcerate minorities unfairly.


The different perspectives of the various sources gave me ammunition and facts to support my claim! However, the Stanford News article didn't necessarily change my perspective. But, it did give me something to think about!

