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Discrimination in the Justice System

Posted on November 01, 2004

Books Not Bars explores the relationship between race, prison and education. With new prisons being built while schools lack appropriate funding, Books Not Bars suggests a different course for the use of government spending. More emphasis must be placed on youth education- we need more than an under-funded No Child Left Behind Act. How would our society change if more spending went to providing stronger education and support for youth rather than prison and punishment?

The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) supports the films claim that there are a disproportionate number of African-American and Latino youth behind bars. CJCJ calls criminal justice "the civil rights movement of this generation." 58% of California's African-American youth are or have been admitted to state prisons, when 15% of the US population is African-American. Do these numbers reflect a just society? To read more information about ways California and the US as a whole can improve the injustices that contaminate our judicial system read Karen de Sá and Brandon Baily’s article 10 Ideas for Reform and Karen de Sá's article An Opportunity 'To Be Human' - Missouri's Softer Approach Cheaper More Effective.