California Three Strikes Law Disproportionately Affects Blacks & Latinos
Tuesday, November 2, 2004 at 02:24AM
TheSpook
New data released recently by the Justice Policy Institute reveals that
California's Three Strikes law disproportionately locks up African
Americans and Latinos compared to Whites. African Americans constitute
6.5 percent of California's state population, but nearly 30 percent of
the the prison population and 44.7 percent of those sentenced to life
under the Three Strikes law. According to this first-of-its-kind
analysis of the racial and ethnic makeup of Three Strikes defendants,
African Americans are given life sentences under Three Strikes at
nearly 13 times the rate of Whites; and, the Latinos are incarcerated
under Three Strikes a staggering 82 percent more than Whites. According
to "Racial Divide: An Examination of the Impact of California's Three
Strikes Law on African Americans and Latinos," African Americans and
Latinos are penalized at every stage of the criminal justice system at
rates disproportionate to their share of the general population. [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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