Youth Injustice, Part I

Fact: Approximately 250,000 youth are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults annually.

Fact: Of youth who spend time in an adult jail, more than half serve for at least one month, while 1 out of 5 will serve more than six months.

Fact: Of youth who spend time in adult jails, as much as half will be sent back to the juvenile justice system or not convicted at all.

Source: Key Facts, Campaign for Youth Justice

Most Common Serious Charge Is a Drug Offense

Fact: The most serious charge against 51% of all inmates is a drug offense. Only 4% are incarcerated for robbery and only 1% for homicide.

Fact: The most serious charge against state-prison inmates is a drug offense (20%).

Source: Wonkbook: 11 facts about America’s prison population

Life Without Parole in Louisiana

Fact: There are at least 175 inmates serving life without parole (LWOP) for nonviolent crimes in Louisiana. This includes:

• Vincent Cushinello, who is serving LWOP for slashing tires in 2001;
• Anthony Kelly, sentenced to LWOP for possession of 32 grams of marijuana with intent to distribute in 1999, at age 25;
• Fate Vincent Winslow, sentenced to LWOP for acting as a go-between in the sale of two small bags of marijuana, worth $10 in total, to an undercover police officer when he was homeless.

Fact: The 175 inmates will cost the taxpayers of Louisiana nearly $100 million over the span of their incarceration.

Source: Three Recommendations for Sentencing Reform in Louisiana; Reason Foundation

Same Use, Different Consequences

Fact: Black and white Americans use all drugs at approximately the same rates.

Fact: Blacks are more than ten times as likely to be sent to prison for a drug offense.

Source: thehouseilivein.org

Life in Prison on First Nonviolent Offense

Fact: For nearly 20% of those serving life without parole for a nonviolent drug or property crime are doing so for their first offense.

Fact: In more than 80% of these cases, the judges had no choice but to sentence to life, based on mandatory-minimum offender statutes.

Fact: Only 20% of countries in the world allow a sentence of life without parole, typically for “murder or repeated violent crimes.”

Source: New York Times, Sentenced to a Slow Death

95% of federal convictions are without trials

Fact: 95% of federal convictions are without trials. For drug-related federal offenses, the figure is 97%.

Source: An Offer You Can’t Refuse by Human Rights Watch, covered by Salon

“The policy of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses has empowered the government to effectively nullify the constitutional right to a trial.” – George Will 

Youth, Racism

Fact: Black youth are nine times more likely than white youth to receive an adult prison sentence.

Fact: Hispanics are 40% more likely than white youth to receive an adult prison sentence.

Source: Campaign for Youth Justice

Immigrants, 36% Higher Sentences

Fact: Immigrants receive sentences 36% higher than non-immigrants, controlling for other factors.

Fact: In immigration court, the defendant is not entitled to a lawyer.

Fact: Almost ½ million people were incarcerated and deported in 2011, an increase of 10% in just two years.

Source: ACLU, Immigrant Detention

“Indeterminate” Solitary Confinement in America

Fact: At least 3,808 California prisoners are serving time in solitary confinement on an “indeterminate sentence.” They do not know when, or if, they will ever be released.

Fact: More than half of California’s solitary confinement prisoners serve at least 5 years. One has been in solitary for more than 42 years.

Fact: Californian prisoners are not allowed a lawyer at internal “validation” hearings to determine whether or not they should be moved to solitary confinement. Department data shows that since 2005, 25 validations have been rejected out of more than 6,300 cases.

Source: Mother Jones, Solitary Confinement, Shane Bauer

Crack Cocaine, Racism

Fact: Until recently, pharmacologically identical cocaine and crack cocaine were sentenced at a disparity of 100:1. Today it is 18:1.

Source: Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM)

Fact: From 1988 to 1995, not a single white person was brought to trial under crack provisions in 17 states – including the cities of Chicago, Miami, L.A., Dallas, Boston, and Denver.

Source: Alec Karakatsanis, “Why US v Blewett is the Obama Justice Department’s greatest shame,” The Guardian