Effects Of Inequalities In The Criminal Justice System
As written in the article Pervasive Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System, “Numerous studies show that students of color are suspended or otherwise reprimanded at higher rates than white students for the same of similar infractions.” (Springer 1). This tells a lot about the state of the education system in this country. By exposing elementary and high school minority students to this biased behavior at such a young age, they begin to believe that the system will always be unfair towards them and with that what do they have to lose. Another author, Nick Chiles, backs up Springer’s statements by writing “Sixteen percent of the overall student population is African- American but they account for thirty-seven percent of students who face out-of-school suspension and they also consist of thirty-one percent of students who are referred to law enforcement.” An example that is seemingly matches those statistics is the case of Dontadrian Bruce. He was suspended from his high school in Mississippi for five months because he allegedly flashed a gang sign in a picture he took with one of his friends. The supposed gang sign turned out to be his football jersey number. This is one of the many incidents that occur around the country every day that involves a minority student not being given the benefit of the doubt when if the student was white, there would never have been an issue. Other similar incidents occurred at the Christina School District in Delaware. According to the Department of Education’s investigation, African American students committing the same offenses as their white counterpart were found to have been given harsher punishments. In many cases, district