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Unequal Application of the Law

Although it is clearly an accepted principle of law that it should be fairly applied regardless of a person’s race or economic status, it is clear there are many places where we fall short of this goal. One problem area has been “racial profiling” in which law enforcement might disproportionately apply searches or stops for minor traffic violations to people with dark skin. A third area which has received less national press, results in those people who have reduced access to legal representation, without fully understanding the consequences, accepting “plea bargains” in which they forgo a trial and plead guilty to some charges in exchange for other charges being dropped or reduced.

Related Issue Briefs:

Criminalization of Poverty, Mental Illness, and Substance Addiction

We call it the “the criminalization of poverty” when a law makes it illegal to do something that the poor find it difficult to avoid because they lack basic support systems. It is also a failing of our system when law enforcement is called in because there are insufficient resources to help people who are mentally ill.

Related Issue Briefs:

  • (soon to be updated) Pretrial detention/bail reform (from Archives)
  • license suspensions for inability to pay child support(under construction)
  • alternatives to criminalization(under construction)
  • addiction treatment(under construction)

Youth and Emerging Adult Issues

Several decades ago, a “tough on crime” movement included laws to treat minors as adults and to incur strong penalties. In recent years, there has been growing awareness that these policies do not take into account the developmental stages of children’s brains, and have led to large youth prison populations which are disproportionately children of color or impoverished backgrounds. More recently, this trend has begun to reverse as there is a growing understanding about how other policies have better long term outcomes for the minors and for the community.

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