Why so minorities in us prisons Free Essays

There are a majority of minorities in the U. S. Prisons because of lack of education, low or falling wages, and low parental or family guidance, parents being incarcerated as they were child and poor conditions after they have been released from Jail or prison. We will write a custom essay sample on Why so minorities in us prisons or any similar topic only for you Order Now These are the top few reasons for the large numbers of minorities in the prison population. Many have disagreed on these findings, but three researchers at Princeton University have concluded that these are the primary causes with the high population of minorities in the U. S. Prisons and Jails. According to Bruce Western, Meredith Clambake and Jake Responded during the asses through asses at least two- thirds of the population of criminals were placed in state or federal prisons for a felony conviction with a sentence of a year or maybe even longer depending on the crimes the inmates have committed. Between these years the rate in population averaged about one hundred to one hundred thousand of the U. S. Population to 470 prisoners per the population of one hundred thousand in 2001. The gap continued to grow between the rich and poor and had affected the admission rate because of he increasing crime offenses being committed among the low income men†. Jacobs Helms 1996)(Greenberg Western 2001). When Western and his colleagues continued their work they found out that in 2009 the ratios for the minorities against Caucasians was sufficiently much higher than average. African- Americans were almost seven times higher than that of the Caucasian males . (4,749 African-Americans v. 708 Caucasians). The ratio of Hispanics compared to Caucasians was more than 2. 5 times higher (1,822 Hispanic males v. 08 Caucasian males). The female ratios are much lower than the males but are still found in the population of minorities housed in the Jails and prisons throughout the United States. The numbers for the African-American females rated 3. 5 times higher than the Caucasian females housed in the prison population. (333 African-Americans v. 91 Caucasian females) and the Hispanic females are 1. 5 times higher than the Caucasian females within the general prison population. (142 Hispanic females v. 91 Caucasian females). These numbers are calculated by per 100,000 general population throughout the states Jails and prisons in the United States. The next stages of their research inducted was of the different labor markets or employment status of the minorities throughout the general population housed in the Jails and prisons throughout the United States. The labor markets have a big influence on the high rate of imprisonment in two ways: the dramatically falling of their wages and Job opportunities and this increases the crime offenses and rates at the bottom of the economic ladder and this ends up generating the higher arrest rates, convictions and prison admissions throughout the United States. Western Petit 2001) When this happened in the asses through the asses most African Americans turned to rug dealing and other crimes to compensate for the loss in income and Job opportunities. Western and Petit observed with their research that males of both ethnicities that had stable sector Jobs where the work is consistent, routine and monitored often commit less crimes compared to those of the secondary labor market where employ ment is irregular all the time and isn’t reliable. When the wages and employment rates are low it sometimes leads to crime indirectly by undermining the bonds between family members and neighbors. During the years 1967 through 1998 youth homicides were weakly related to income inequality and reliably related only to unemployment rates among Caucasians but not for the African Americans. Messier, Rarefaction and McMillan (2001) When Western conducted ethnographic research he has identified entrepreneurial gangs as the key sources of economic opportunities for the young males throughout the urban communities characterized by the chronically high rates of unemployment. One of Westerns colleagues Bourgeois in 1996 conducted research that the Hispanic drug gangs view the sales and distribution of illegal drugs to help the depleted economic opportunities in their inner cities in which they live. With Western and his colleagues this can be stated that the evidence of the young men in the poor urban neighborhoods resorted to drug dealing and other crimes such as rape, robbery, homicide , murder and other such crimes to help compensate the funding they have lost due to the low labor markets of the asses. With the conclusion of this information Western and his colleagues found out that due to lack of Job opportunities the inmates often resorted to other means of getting income that are most of the time found in either poorly stricken neighborhoods that don’t have a lot of Jobs for the offenders or due to the inmates arrest history that prevents them from being hired or rehired in Jobs they had obtain before they were placed into the system. The next part of Western and his fellow colleague’s research was that they conducted several theories whether or not parental or family guidance or influence had anything to do with the high imprisonment rates of the minorities that are placed into the Jails or prisons throughout the United States. When Western and his colleagues were conducting their research they had done a survey on several of the minority inmates that either had single parents or both parents at home with them before being incarcerated. With Western findings he also stated that â€Å"when there are families with two parents they can monitor their children’s activities and help keep them from straying toward the peer networks that often lead to crimes for delinquency. Families that have only one parent often struggle with the falling wages and employment rates and their children often end up committing crimes with high levels of violence to help their parents make amends for their loss of income and they also didn’t have that parent guidance or supervision to help them from straying towards the crime offenses. † Western and his colleagues also conducted more research in this topic on whether the parents being incarcerated had anything to do with this high number of minorities being in the prisons or Jails throughout the United States. Their findings were supported by the findings of other researchers studying the same topic. In 1995 researcher Nancy G. La Veggie and her colleagues of the Urban Institute Justice Policy Center did a study on thirty-six children of incarcerated parents and found that the results of the parents being incarcerated often caused chronic sleeplessness, difficulties concentrating and high rates of depression. One other study that was conducted during this time being showed sixteen percent of children with parents behind bars often developed temporary school phobias that would lead to the children not willing to attend school for six or more weeks following their parents being place into Jail or prison. The children also had a tendency of developing emotional responses that would eventually build and develop into long-term reactive behaviors, coping patterns and possibly even criminal activity. When Nancy and her colleagues finished their research they were able to determine that with at least one aren’t being incarcerated presents a unique factor for the children of the age of 10 or lower made them have anti-social or delinquent behaviors that would lead them to eventually committing crimes and being placed into Jails and prisons. So with this research it shows the repeating factors that some kids end up eventually following their parent’s footsteps and will be eventually placed into the system. They also showed us that it is a never ending cycle starting with the parents and eventually going to the children. These are why Western and his colleagues believed that with owe parental control or guidance played a huge factor. According to the 1997 survey conducted of the inmates housed in the state and federal prisons and Jails throughout the United States. Western and his colleagues found out that on average the inmates averaged less than eleven years of schooling compared to more than the thirteen years of schooling among the men under the age of forty in normal everyday society. Western ; Petit 2005). Most of the correctional facilities find out that the imprisonment rate for African Americans is seven times higher than those of the Caucasians. With this being said African American and Caucasian high school dropouts are five times more than likely to go to prison or Jail at a year’s time compared to the men from both ethnicities that have completed school. Due to the c ombination of racial and educational inequality affects the young African American male dropout more than the Caucasian male dropout. Western Petit estimated that one in six African American dropouts was incarcerated in state and federal prisons each year starting in the asses. In 2001 one percent of college educated African Americans were incarcerated in prisons throughout the United States. By 2008 Western and his colleague’s surveys read that thirty-five percent of African-American children between the grades seventh through twelfth have been suspended or expelled at some point throughout their schooling careers compared to the twenty percent of Hispanics and the fifteen percent of Caucasian men. With the increasing crime rates in the poor urban neighborhoods provides the explanation that the rising rates of incarceration affected the young minority men and women that had little to no schooling at all which is why there are so many minorities in the orisons or Jails throughout the United States. The effects of incarceration on the life chances of inmates are profoundly detrimental. How to cite Why so minorities in us prisons, Papers