The NAACP: Reforming The Criminal Justice System

NAACP - The National Associate for the Advancement of Colored People; civil rights organization that helps bring

The NAACP closley matchs my views on American society because I believe in equality no matter what race, religion, color, etc.

NAACP has been a Catalyst for change for over one hundred years. Founded in 1909 the NAACP is the largest oldest civil rights organization founded by a group of white liberals sign the calling African Americans like; W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell Taking a huge part and making a great impact in today’s society. Through, education, transportation, housing, employment, voting and criminal justice. Winning numerous court cases and stopping at nothing to produce a change all over America.

You got to keep your eyes on the prize to get the goal you’ve been looking for. The NAACP was an African American organization trying to change and fight for what’s right. They wanted segregated laws to be stopped because it is so unconstitional to the fact it was hard for most blacks. For one segrated schools. All blacks

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial organization to advance justice for African Americans by W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington and Moorfield

The criminal justice system accepts responsibility for making our neighborhoods and cities safe for all. The repercussions of removing people from their families and communities and then depositing them back later, without any assistance or substantial rehabilitation, are grave.9 Men and women who have served extensive prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are not only left with little or no social support but also clearly marked by the criminal justice system as potentially threatening repeat offenders. Although mass incarceration policies have recently received a great deal of attention (due to incarceration becoming prohibitively costly), failure to address the legacy of racism passed down by our forefathers and its ties to economic oppression will only result in the continued reinvention of Jim

The NAACP founder is W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington, and others.

“The NAACP is viewed as the strongest Civil rights organization,” (Rhym 28) due to it’s time and effort in gaining rights for colored people and abolishing racial hatred. Created in 1909 the NAACP has been working nonstop for the betterment of colored people. The world has amended ever since this great effort for change. NAACP’s history, purpose and devotion for change has helped the world get to where we are now considering the racism before (Ex: 1930’s).

The criminal justice system in America is a system designed to work in three distinct steps. The first being to fairly identify those breaking the law, second, create a process through which to both punish and rehabilitate criminals, and lastly integrate them back into society. The current system typically goes unquestioned, as those in the system seem to be deserving of what ever happens while they are in it, even once they have served their prison sentence. It is only upon deeper inspection that we begin to realize the discrimination and unfair tactics used to introduce certain groups of society into the criminal justice system and proceed to trap them there. This is the issue addressed in Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, and it is through arrests, sentencing and further upon release from jail that this oppressive system is created and maintained.

Mass Incarceration of African American men has become a social injustice of our time. It can also be proclaimed to be known as a civil rights issue of our time. From the first time Africans were taken from their homeland and stripped of all human rights to become slaves, they- or we perhaps- have never truly possessed any real social justice. What does mass incarceration really mean to our black America? How does it affect our communities? When we really look at it, mass incarceration means a lot more than being placed in the back of a police car with handcuffs clinching your bones. It means a lot more than sitting in a jail or prison cell waiting for your time to be served.

The “War on Drugs” established that the impact of incarceration would be used as a weapon to combat the illegal drug problem in this country. Unfortunately, this war against drugs has fallen disproportionately on black Americans. “Blacks constitute 62.6% of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons in 1996, whereas whites constituted 36.7%. The drug offender admissions rate for black men ranges from 60 to an astonishing 1,146 per 100,000 black men. In contrast, the white rate begins at 6 and rises no higher than 139 per 100,000 white men. Drug offenses accounted for nearly two out of five of all black admissions to state prisons (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” The disproportionate rates at which black drug offenders are sent to prison originate in racially disproportionate rates of arrest.

For example, “between 1980 and 2000, the rate of black incarceration nearly tripled. The black-to-white incarceration ratio increased to about eight to one during this period. The reach of mass incarceration has risen to such high levels that some analysts view it as altering normative life-course experiences for blacks in low-income neighborhoods” (Finsterbusch, 2013, p.136). Furthermore, the incarceration rates are higher for drug sentencing, the racial disparities include African Americans and Hispanics and this also includes juvenile arrests which are higher for these groups compared to whites. When looking at these numbers we need to resolve the issues that remain with racial divisions and the criminal justice system. We can take steps by making changes in the justice system at all levels such as establish a National Criminal Justice Commission, eliminate mandatory minimum sentences and develop and implement training to reduce racial bias which are a few examples provided by the Sentencing Project,

The problem to be address in this paper is the lack of reintegration programs and mass incarceration of African Americans in the United. Mass incarceration amongst African Americans has had a catastrophic impact on families and communities and continues to create a cycle of discrimination, which makes its nearly impossible as a race to progress. Because of the soaring incarceration rate in the United States, many prisons are over populated and lack resources and support to help inmates succeed once released from prisons. Since there is an insufficiency in resources, many of these men enter back into society in need of education and little job experience making it difficult to find a job, creating many of them to reoffend. Of all men released from prison 81.1% are unskilled or possessed no skills, 18.9% are semi-skilled or skilled workers with the average reading level being slightly below 8th grade and 42.5% having less than a 12th grade education. In the first three years of release, 73% of African Americans are rearrested. This is a critical issue that needs to be addressed by appropriate programs that focus on poverty, homeslessness, unemployment, substance abuse, and poor medical and mental health. The first step in the right direction is creating a policy that addresses those needs with a reintegration program through job readiness, education and health management. Reintegration programs will improve families, communities, and job opportunities. If

Thirty-five35 years ago, Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a row house on 62nd and Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. The bomb was dropped in an attempt to remove MOVE members from the house. The MOVE movement was black liberation group original created by John Africa in 1972. MOVE had had a difficult relationship with the Chicago police since its inception, and a particular tragic encounter with the police 7 years before the bombing - ; a standoff between the members and the police resulted in the death of one police officer and life sentences for 9 MOVE members (whom are know as the MOVE 9).

Many organizations helped to throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these organizations were lead by black activist seeking reform. One of the most successful organizations is the NAACP. This stands for the National Association of Colored Advancement. Roy Wilkins was the head of the NAACP during this time (Civil 909). The NAACP purpose was to eliminate racial prejudice by removing racial