{"id":466,"date":"2015-12-02T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/?p=466"},"modified":"2015-10-26T02:55:15","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T02:55:15","slug":"prison-sentences-are-getting-shorter-but-racial-disparities-are-getting-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/2015\/12\/02\/prison-sentences-are-getting-shorter-but-racial-disparities-are-getting-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison sentences are getting shorter. But racial disparities are getting worse."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/_le8i0KlnJuTI_hisWrUE_CeJu0=\/382x0:2620x1492\/755x504\/filters:format(webp)\/cdn0.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/47510833\/53460365.0.0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"755\" height=\"504\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A new study conducted after a\u00a02005 Supreme Court decision gave\u00a0judges more flexibility in sentencing suggests that\u00a0this\u00a0newfound judicial discretion is being used to\u00a0help white defendants more than black ones.\u00a0Judges determines a prison sentence by consulting a set of federal guidelines which provides a\u00a0recommended range of term\u00a0length based on factors like the\u00a0offense and the defendant&#8217;s criminal history.\u00a0The study shows that given the same recommended sentence on almost any crime, white offenders receive a shorter punishment than black offenders &#8212; a disparity that\u00a0has grown since 2005.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This creates an unfortunate double bind for those who aspire\u00a0for\u00a0equality in the criminal justice system: When judges are given more power in setting sentences, people are punished differently for the same crimes. When judges lack that power, everyone is treated harshly in court, especially the black Americans who already\u00a0experience racial bias in the justice system through\u00a0disproportionately more arrests and criminal charges.<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2015\/10\/25\/9608620\/race-prison-sentencing\">here<\/a> to read more.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Questions<\/h3>\n<p>What are some contributing factors for this disproportionate amount\u00a0of arrests, charges, and lengthy convictions for black Americans?<\/p>\n<p>Is there a foreseeable solution for this problem of racial bias in our criminal justice system?<\/p>\n<p>Do you think that judges should have more or less freedom in sentencing? Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study conducted after a\u00a02005 Supreme Court decision gave\u00a0judges more flexibility in sentencing suggests that\u00a0this\u00a0newfound judicial discretion is being used to\u00a0help white defendants more than black ones.\u00a0Judges determines a prison sentence by consulting a set of federal guidelines which provides a\u00a0recommended range of term\u00a0length based on factors like the\u00a0offense and the defendant&#8217;s criminal history.\u00a0The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/2015\/12\/02\/prison-sentences-are-getting-shorter-but-racial-disparities-are-getting-worse\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Prison sentences are getting shorter. But racial disparities are getting worse.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[19,21,67,61,71,46,77,39,70,4,31,51,74],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-authored-post","tag-african-americans","tag-american-history","tag-bias","tag-blackness","tag-criminal-justice","tag-culture","tag-discrimination","tag-law-enforcement","tag-mass-incarceration","tag-race","tag-racial-inequality","tag-racism","tag-stereotypes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/248philofrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}