The criminal justice system, in the United States, contains elements of racism. This is especially apparent in the mandatory jail sentencing legislation for illegal drug charges. A sentencing disparity exists, between individuals, arrested for crack cocaine and powdered cocaine possession. This sentencing disparity is the result of mandatory sentencing guidelines, which require different lengths of jail terms for conviction of possession, of the different forms of cocaine. The law, as it is written, has racial implications. The words, of the law itself, are not racially discriminatory, but the application of the law, and the sociological effects of the law are racially discriminatory. The reasons behind the law and the discriminatory aspects of the law are varied. These background issues will need to be addressed in order to find a solution to the problem of discrimination in the legal system of the United States.
Historically, there has been racial discrimination, in the United States, since the days of slavery. Open discrimination and prejudice are disappearing but are not completely absent, from society, even today. This can be seen clearly by looking at the differences in employment and income levels between whites and black citizens in the country. It is also evident when a close look in paid to the legal system from arrest, to prosecution, to convection, and sentencing. Minorities loose at each junction of the system.
Blacks have been awarded second class status, in the past, and it still continues to this day (Carter 291). Second class status has been considered the rightful and appropriate place in society for blacks. The Supreme Court affirmed the lack of equality, for black citizens, in its decision in 1896 in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (Carter 191). Separate but equal was the decision. In much of society, this is still the unwritten rule. Blacks are forced to prove that there has been intentional...