Race and Crime within the American Society

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Race and Crime within the American Society
African Americans within the United States justice system have remained overrepresented throughout history. As Browning et al. (4) explain, black men make up about 13% of the male population within the country, but those locked up behind bars comprise 35% of the prison population. Equally, one in three African American males can expect to spend time incarcerated at one point in their lifetime (Browning et al. 5). In comparison, only one in six individuals of Latin American descent spends time in prison, with a lower one in seventeen white men spending time in prison at one point. The situation for African American women remains equally grim too. According to Browning et al. (5), one of every 18 women of African American descent is likely to spend time behind bars at some point in their lifetime. In comparison, only one in about 111 white women born within the same timeline will ever spend time in prison during their lifetime. The above statistics go a long way to prove the deep-rooted bias entrenched within the criminal justice system. Since the reconstruction, America's criminal justice system has continued curating and enforcing policies and practices that unjustifiably treat black men and women. For instance, during and immediately after the reconstruction era, Vagrancy Laws and Black Codes were popular tools applied to African American communities to maintain control (Hunt et al. 2).
Origins of Discriminatory Laws during the Reconstruction Era
Most of these laws trace their origins to the south immediately after the Civil War and abolishing slavery. During this time, white plantation owners experienced an immediate and acute labor shortage that threatened their farming enterprises. These shortages were a primary motivation for the white ruling class to create laws that would stem the process and manage the shortage. While the newly freed African American communities in the south did not put down their tools immediately, they became vastly aware of their rights as individuals. To this end, many became opposed to working under slave-like decisions, such as putting in long hours without breaks, harsh beatings, and working on weekends. As Müller (3) explains, many men sought to reduce their work hours on Saturday, preferring leisure over work. Equally, African American women began to prefer foregoing weekend work to spend time caring for their families. As Dodsworth (2) explains, vagrancy laws trace their origins in Europe towards the end of the feudalism era. Landowners introduced these laws and upper aristocratic classes to serve the dual purpose. First, they helped to restrict access to public places by undesirable classes. Moreover, these laws were also useful for ensuring these aristocrats and landowners had a near-constant supply to a pool of cheap labor providers.
At the onset of reconstruction, many Whites in the south also developed the perception that vagrancy by Black Africans was a sudden social problem that posed an immediate danger (Hunt et al. 4). The notion of black inferiority by the white American race was a major catalyst to such prevailing notions. For instance, many whites still believed that African Americans were destined for a life of servitude and would not work unless physically compelled. In contrast, the newly freed black Americans were no longer feeling compelled to show undying loyalty and deference to white people. As a result, the south emerged from the civil war even more divided across social lines. Those previously enslaved looked to create their semi-independent social world away from the eyes of their former social masters. Equally, the white population also held on strongly to beliefs about their superiority and the inferiority of the black American race. Hunt et al. (3) share too that southern anger over their defeat during the civil war was also evident, and African Americans living in the south formed a natural target to take out some of this anger. This deeply entrenched racism and division motivated many southern states to pass various discriminatory laws against the African American communities. The reconstruction era saw all the states in the south require new legislation providing for the status of freed people (Hunt et al. 3). In many of these states' new constitutions, the language included instructions to the state legislatures to guard and protect their jurisdictions against any evils that would arise from emancipation. As a result, many states that enforced vagrancy laws that had previously been active during the times of slavery were enforced even more strictly.
In the United States, vagrancy laws took up many forms during the slavery era. What's more, many southern states also updated their vagrancy laws immediately after the end of the civil war. For instance, Black Codes were laws that severely restricted the rights afforded to black people regarding buying/leasing land, owning property, establishing a business, and moving freely in public spaces. Vagrancy laws were also evident as multiple southern states immediately criminalized unemployment amongst black men. Such laws would also apply to all black men working jobs that the white man did not officially recognize. Additionally, black men and women failing to pay any particular tax established by the state were also considered an act of vagrancy, enforceable by a jail term. Put differently, Herring (2) aptly elaborates, terming vagrancy laws as legislation that criminalized being poor, and allocated a jail sentence for the same. The effect of these laws is that black men would be sent to prison for even the slightest suspicion that they were unemployed or walking the streets without purpose. Within the same breath, many southern states immediately added new definitions to punishments against theft as a way to subdue as many black people to this unfair criminal justice system. During slavery, enslaved African Americans were considered part of the plantations where they worked. They had free will to use most of the supplies available such as soaps, food, toiletries, and water. However, emancipation saw these laws revised, and similar actions by black men afterward were labeled as theft, leading to arrests and strict sentencing.
At around this period too {1865 to 1866} multiple states southern states also updated their vagrancy laws to include convict leasing programs that allowed individuals to hire convicts for physical labor. These laws also established provisions that allowed the conscription of prisoner labor for government public works (Westmont 2). Many states were, thus, incentivized to arrest even more black men on the most minimal of charges. There was money to be made in conscripting prison labor directly to plantations and local governments. Many with...