Short Takes: Criminal Justice

THE WORK THAT REMAINS
A Forty-Year Update of the Kerner Commission Report

Forty years ago, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission, famously concluded that America was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." Its recommendations to promote racial integration and remedy the economic failures that fostered a wave of inner city violence were ultimately rejected by President Lyndon Johnson, who appointed the commission. Today, minorities still face many of the troubling conditions outlined in the commission report, including under-representation in the labor market, high rates of poverty, disparities in education funding and disproportionate involvement in the criminal justice system.

In collaboration with the Eisenhower Foundation, EPI will present a forum to assess our nation's progress over the last forty years and, more important, to discuss what is still left to do to move us closer to an equal and high-performing society.

When and where
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Registration: 9:15 am
Program: 9:30 - 11:30 am
Economic Policy Institute
1333 H Street, NW, East Tower, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
[ RSVP below ]

Introduction
CHRISTIAN DORSEY
Outreach Coordinator, Economic Policy Institute

Opening remarks
DR. VALERIE RAWLSTON WILSON
Senior Resident Scholar, National Urban League Policy Institute
DR. ALAN CURTIS
President and CEO, Eisenhower Foundation
DR. JOHN IRONS
Research and Policy Director, Economic Policy Institute
DR. ALGERNON AUSTIN
Director of Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, Economic Policy Institute

Discussant
HILARY O. SHELTON
Director, NAACP-Washington Bureau
RSVP: Click here to reserve your seat now
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Excellent Report on Race and Drug Arrests

If you're arrested for drugs, you're more likely to get a second chance if you're white.

Another High-Profile White Drug User

Busted: Miss Teen Louisiana skips on restaurant bill... but leaves behind purse stashed with drugs

Incarceration, crime, and African American economic outcomes

Crime and criminal justice policies are increasingly entangled with the economic outcomes of African Americans and particularly of black men. Since the 1970s when the U.S. embarked on “tough-on-crime” sentencing policies, the U.S. incarceration rate has skyrocketed. Prior to the 1970s, the U.S. incarceration rate was roughly 100 per 100,000 residents.

Today, the U.S. incarceration rate is about 700 per 100,000 residents. Although the United States leads the world in incarceration, it does not have the lowest crime rate. While the U.S. homicide rate is very high, the overall U.S. crime rate is within the range of other developed nations. Other developed nations, however, still have incarceration rates around 100 per 100,000 residents (Mauer 2006). [read more (PDF)]

Why crime prevention is better than incarceration

Incarceration is a necessary part of criminal justice, but the most effective riminal justice policies are those that prevent individuals from ever engaging in criminal activity. Below are six reasons why actively preventing crime is better than reactively responding to crime with incarceration. [read more (PDF)]



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--Algernon Austin, Ph.D.

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