Legalized judicial racism…

The intent is not to unfairly judge race, it’s to try to ensure certain groups are not over-sentenced. I haven’t done research personally on this, but it does appear on the surface that certain groups get punished more severely by the judicial system. It seems that there is a strong movement in our country to deny the presence and/or effect of inequality or racism anywhere at any time, whether short-term or long-term.

 

I am not sure that the Bill 852 is specific enough to actually vote for it. It states that courts should try really hard to be fair and that isnt much of an action. Perhaps if they fired judges who allowed a material difference in sentencing based on race to occur that would help more?


THE BILL:
Under existing law, a conviction or sentence is unlawfully imposed on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin if the defendant proves, among other things, that the defendant was charged or convicted of a more serious offense than defendants of other races, ethnicities, or national origins, or received a longer or more severe sentence, and the evidence establishes that the prosecution more frequently sought or obtained convictions for more serious offenses against people who share the defendant's race, ethnicity, or national origin, as specified, or if a longer or more severe sentence was more frequently imposed on defendants of a particular race, ethnicity, or national origin, as specified.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to rectify racial bias, as specified. The bill would require courts, whenever they have discretion to determine a sentence, to consider the disparate impact on historically disenfranchised and system-impacted populations.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1.
Section 17.3 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

17.3.
(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to rectify the racial bias that has historically permeated our criminal justice system as documented by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.
(b) Whenever the court has discretion to determine the appropriate sentence according to relevant statutes and the sentencing rules of the Judicial Council, the court presiding over a criminal matter shall consider the disparate impact on historically disenfranchised and system-impacted populations.

 

Studies have shown that Black men are given roughly 20% longer sentences than similarly situated white men. Clearly, the OP is outraged over the idea that a state would try to do something about that.
Demographic Differences in Sentencing.

 

I feel like I’ve seen statistics comparing average sentencing for crack cocaine possession vs standard cocaine possession and they were wildly different.

 

This article discusses there is a big difference

“The US justice department has moved to end the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offences, ending a policy widely seen as racist.

The crack/powder disparity in sentencing has no basis in science, furthers no law enforcement purposes, and drives unwarranted racial disparities in our criminal justice system," said the justice department memo to federal prosecutors.“


US prosecutors drop cocaine sentencing disparity - BBC News

 

Changes the laws/punishment.. this idea that skin color should influence the punishment/sentence is what so many fought against for decades! And I do not think the OP is against stopping unfair sentences. I read his post as being against the solution this bill puts forth… as am
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Sentencing should be race neutral, and I don't think it has been. Asking judges to take that into consideration seems reasonable to me but not sure how useful it is in the abstract either.

 

So what is your solution for the 20% disparity in aentcing based on race shown prior in the thread that exists today?

 

Changes the laws that discriminate between powder and crack coco e. ThT would be a great start.
List the judges that have a propensity for over sentencing… make it public and wide spread. Fix the problem.. don’t create a new one.
Do you REALLY want to open the door up for skin color being a determining factor in sentencing? I don’t.

 

The sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine has been addressed. The racial disparity persisted. Why would a person with a set appointment care about your list?

 

On the other hand data indicates that race has been apparently been considered in sentencing for decades. By the way although the titles are similar the articles concern two difference studies.
Data shows Black men receive harsher punishments than whites for same crimes
Black men sentenced to more time for committing the exact same crime as a white person, study finds

 

Affirmative Action in sentencing seems to be a flawed simplistic answer. Again.. attack the root of the problem. Don’t cover over it with more laws that will likely be ignored in the best case scenario and abused in the worst.

 

I ask again, how do you "attack the root of the problem?" Because your first two ideas were something that has been done and something that would likely have a very minimal effect at best. How do we get less judges that engage in differential sentencing based on race?

 

using your link, item #4 states women of all races, including African American women receive shorter sentences than white men for same Crime. Should the judges take gender into their decisions ?

Female offenders of all races received shorter sentences than White male offenders during the Post-Report period, as they had for the prior four periods.

 

Accountability per judge. Are we finding that some judges are worse with this than others? Or are we finding that different regions have different levels of enforcement (which would be a different type of bias to address)? Put another way, is it possible that judges in one area are fair per race, but less strict overall; while judges in another area are also fair per race, but more strict overall. If each area had significantly different racial disparities, then that could present as bias based on race. If this does not happen, the problems should be able to be isolated per judge.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

Oh look.. a thoughtful way of handling the issue instead of just saying skin color is a determining factor.
Again.. I do not doubt it happens, I do not like that it happens but just saying skin color being a determining factor seems to open pandoras box.
I don’t have all the answers.. but doing the wrong thing may be worse than doing nothing until we have a good answer.

 

An example from my previously linked article:

The disproportionate sentencing of black men Lawrence Stephens and Darnel Nolen compared to their white co-defendants in a York County robbery case recently brought national attention to the issue.

Stephens was 18-years-old when he robbed two people inside their York County home at gunpoint at the direction of 29-year-old Paul Michael Melendres, his white co-worker from a fast food restaurant on the Peninsula.

Nolen, who was 17-years-old at the time, helped Stephens and Melendres carry out the crime. Judge Prentis Smiley, Jr. sentenced Stephens to 1,823 years in prison while sentencing Nolen to 33 years in prison. However, the judge sentenced Melendres to 10 years on the same charges.​

 

Isn't the whole point of our system that judges aren't accountable? At a federal level, they have lifetime appointments, for example.

Your regional hypothesis could still point to racial explanations, as you don't address the question of how the area with more minorities ended up more strict overall (which might be due to racial issues). Regardless, many of the studies that found racial disparities in sentencing have been based within regions (i.e., they look at one state's disparities), as that makes it easier to control for alternative explanations, so the regional hypothesis that you proposed doesn't hold when examined empirically.