A Different Shade of Blue VOL. I | Page 15

Criminal Justice and the African American Man By: Shanekwa K. Jones North Carolina Central University Is the criminal justice system rigged and in the end unpromising against our African American males? In the article is covers a question I, myself and I am sure many others have had run through their minds for Thousands of years attracting readers of all races. According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, black youth referred to juvenile court are likelier to be incarcerated or wind up in adult court or prison more than white youth. In this article Ms.Nadra Nittle wrote on the well known Trayvon Martin case where George Zimmerman was “proven” innocent of killing a young un-armed black male. Whereas black men are more likely to receive harder sentences for their crimes, including the death penalty. In larger cities black men are more likely treated like criminals, stopped and frisked for no reason. Findings: Many discrepancies dealing with punishments received by blacks and whites were found in cases dealing with juveniles. The National Council on Crime showed that blacks make up 30% of juvenile arrests and about 48% of juveniles are sent to adult prisons instead of juvenile facilities. Ms.Nittle made sure to cover the fact that out of 4,400 adults that were polled between June-July 2013 about police interactions and racial profiling. In the polls found on the National