As touched on earlier in our drug war segment, the sentencing and detainment of African Americans is often disproportionate to that of whites, especially in drug convictions.

America, as a whole, has an issue with incarceration. Although the U.S. accounts for 5% of the world population we account for 25% of its prisoners. Some 2.3 million people in America, or one out of every 31 adults, is in some form of correctional control.

None have it worse than the black community, however. Black Americans have an incarceration rate at close to six times that of White Americans. African Americans along with Hispanics accounted for 58% of all prisoners in 2008 despite, as a group, only accounting for 25% of the U.S. population.

The problems with these high rates of incarceration are many. For one, many of these arrest are non-violent drug offences and arresting them does little good either for them or society. Secondly, when prisoners come back home they face lower job placement rates, expensive court/probation fees, and have missed major moments in the lives of their children or families.

When one in six Black males in this country end up in prison in their lifetime, it is way past due to look at our laws and structure as a society. The “drug war” and “war on crime” has done little to actually solve any underlying issues in society and now we must look to other, better means to solve those problems rather than just covering it up behind bars.