Civil Rights

  • (New) The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Waster on Racially Biased Arrests, [PDF]
    American Civil Liberties Union, June, 2013
    “On average, a Black person is 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates”
  • Wisconsin's Mass Incarceration of African American Males: Workforce Challenges for 2013, [PDF]
    Employment and Training Institute, University of Wisconsin, April, 2013
    “From 1990 to 2011 Wisconsin incarcerated 26,222 African American men from Milwaukee County in state correctional facilities. As of January 2012, 20,591 men had been released back into the community and 5,631 were still imprisoned.”
  • Communities, Evictions & Criminal Convictions Public Housing and Disparate Impact: A Model Policy, [PDF]
    Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted People's Movement, April, 2013
    “The focus of this report is to isolate and clarify one element of housing discrimination: excluding people with criminal records, and their whole families, from public housing.”
  • Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims, [PDF]
    The Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC), The Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR), The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)., March, 2013
    “Interviewees noted deep apprehension of the NYPD’s intentions and practices towards them, including day-to-day interactions with beat-police officers such as filing stolen phone complaints, asking an officer for directions, or reporting hate crimes.”
  • The Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force Report 2012, [PDF]
    The Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force, December, 2012
    “Implicit, unconscious bias and disparate treatment on the part of workers at all stages of the criminal justice system may explain a portion of the disproportionate representation of Native Hawaiians in the criminal justice system.”
  • The Disparate Treatment of Native Hawaiians In the Criminal Justice System, [PDF]
    Office of Hawaiian Affairs, November, 2012
    “An analysis of data, controlling for age, gender, and type of charge, found that for any given determination of guilt, Native Hawaiians are much more likely to get a prison sentence than almost all other groups, except for Native Americans.”
  • The Answer is No: Too Little Compassionate Release in US Federal Prisons, [PDF]
    Human Rights Watch and Families Against Mandatory Minimums, November, 2012
    “To satisfy human rights requirements, prisoners should have access to judicial review or review by a similarly independent, objective tribunal that applies basic due process requirements to decisions regarding the lawfulness of their ongoing detention.”
  • Do Race and Ethnicity Matter in Prosecution? A Review of Empirical Studies, [PDF]
    Vera Institute of Justice, June, 2012
    “Most of the 34 studies reviewed here suggest that defendants’ or victims’ race directly or indirectly influence case outcomes, even when a host of other legal and extra-legal factors are taken into account.”
  • The Disproportionate Impact of the Criminal Justice System on People of Color in the Capital Region, [PDF]
    Center for Law and Justice, February, 2012
    “Statewide, from 2000 to 2011 the number of minorities incarcerated dropped by 29%; in Albany County, the number of minorities incarcerated increased by 60% over the same time period.”
  • Forensic DNA Database Expansion Growing Racial Inequities, Eroding Civil Liberties and Diminishing Returns, [PDF]
    Generations Ahead, November, 2011
    “Given the existing racial bias in other aspects of the criminal justice system, we need to ensure that DNA databases do not unfairly and disproportionately affect communities of color.”
  • Justice for All? Challenging Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System, [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, June, 2011
    “[The] data generated by the U.S. Department of Justice project that if current trends continue, one of every three black males born today will go to prison in his lifetime, as will one of every six Latino males.”
  • The Racial Geography of the Federal Death Penalty [PDF]
    Washington Law Review Association, December, 2010
    “Federal death sentences are sought disproportionately where the expansion of the venire from the county to the district level has a dramatic demographic impact on the racial make-up of the jury.”
  • Separate but Unequal The Federal Criminal Justice System in Indian County, [PDF]
    University of Colorado Law Review, December, 2010
    “The “separate but unequal” federal criminal justice system systematically discriminates against Native American crime victims and offenders alike. There is a constitutional imperative to end the federal government’s role in Indian country [...].”
  • Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission Final Report, [PDF]
    Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission, December, 2010
    “Statewide, among defendants with a Class 4 possession charge, African-Americans were sentenced to prison at a rate almost five times greater than whites: 19 percent of African-American defendants compared with 4 percent of white defendants.”
  • Comparing Homicides to Capital Cases East Baton Rouge Parish, 1990-2008, [PDF]
    Timothy Lyman, November, 2010
    ([T]here is a less than one- in-ten-thousand chance that the prosecuted cases were a racially random sample drawn from the homicide group.)
  • Stop, Question & Frisk Policing Practices In New York City A Primer, [PDF]
    Center on Race, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, March, 2010
    “In 2009 alone, Blacks and Hispanics combined were stopped 9 times more than Whites.”
  • 2009 Annual Report: Missouri Vehicle Stops,
    Missouri Attorney General, 2009
  • Compounded Disadvantage Race, Incarceration, and Wage Growth, [PDF]
    National Poverty Center, October, 2008
    “Multilevel growth curve models show that black inmates earn considerably less than white inmates, even after considering human capital variables and prior work histories. Furthermore, racial divergence in wages among inmates increases following release...”
  • Racial Disproportionality in the American Prison Population: Using the Blumstein Method to Address the Critical Race and Justice Issue of the 21st Century, [PDF]
    Justice Policy Journal, September, 2008
    “Two key themes are that a national figure of explained racial disparity in imprisonment is not generalizable to the states and that drug offenses consistently have one of the lowest amounts of disproportionality explained by arrest.”
  • Analysis of the NYCPD's "Stop-and-Frisk" Policy in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias, [PDF]
    Andrew Gelman, Jeffrey Fagan, and Alex Kiss, September, 2007
    “[F]or violent crimes and weapons offenses blacks and Hispanics are stopped about twice as often as whites.”
  • Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity,
    Sentencing Project, July, 2007
  • Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 40 of the Covenant, [PDF]
    United Nations - Human Rights Committee, July, 2006
    (The UN expresses numerous concerns about the state of civil and political rights in the United States)
  • Law Enforcement and Arab American Community Relations After September 11, 2001: Engagement in a Time of Uncertainty, [PDF]
    Vera Institute of Justice, June, 2006
    “Although community members also reported increases in hate victimization, they expressed greater concern about being victimized by federal policies and practices than by individual acts of harassment or violence.”
  • A Report on Pre- and Post-Katrina Indigent Defense in New Orleans [PDF]
    Southern Center for Human Rights, April, 2006
    “More than six months after Katrina, a majority of [indigent defendants] remain behind bars, where they have languished on average for over a year without any communication with a defense attorney.”
  • Human Rights in the Heartland: An assessment of social, economic, civil, and political rights in the Midwest, [PDF]
    Heartland Alliance, December, 2005
    “Historically, the U.S. has been a beacon of hope for those seeking safety and opportunity, but our nation falls short of its potential in assuring a full complement of human rights - civil, political, social, economic, and cultural.”
  • Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment
    Prison Policy Initiative, June, 2005
    (Who imprisons more Blacks?; Current incarceration rates for the U.S. compared with 1993 apartheid South Africa)
  • Don't Mind If I Take a Look, Do Ya? An Examination of Consent Searches and Contraband Hit Rates at Texas Traffic Stops, [PDF]
    Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, February, 2005
    (2005 Racial Profiling Report)
  • Race & Imprisonment in Texas: The Disparate Incarceration of Latinos and African Americans in the Lone Star State, [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, February, 2005
  • Racial disparity in sentencing: A review of the literature, [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, January, 2005
  • American Indians and Crime: A BJS Statistical Profile, 1992-2002, [PDF]
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2004
  • Fifteen Years of Guidelines Sentencing
    U.S. Sentencing Commission, November, 2004
  • Civil Rights Enforcement by Bush Administration Lags
    Trac Reports, November, 2004
  • Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration, [PDF]
    Becky Pettit and Bruce Western, May, 2004
  • Racial disparities in incarceration by state, 2000
    Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2004
    (Graphs showing the percentage of each state's total and prison population that is of a particular racial/ethnic group)
  • Incarceration rates by race, 2001:
    Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2004
    (Blacks, Whites, Latinos per 100,000 for each state and the U.S.)
  • Schools and Prisons: Fifty Years After Brown v. Board of Education, [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, April, 2004
  • State Rates of Incarceration by Race [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, January, 2004
  • Race and Incarceration in Maryland [PDF]
    Justice Policy Institute, October, 2003
  • Racial Disparities in North Carolina incarceration
    Prison Policy Initiative, September, 2003
  • Hispanic Prisoners in the United States [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, August, 2003
  • Incarcerated America: Backgrounder,
    Human Rights Watch, April, 2003
  • The Mark of a Criminal Record [PDF]
    Prof. Devah Pager, Northwestern University, March, 2003
  • On The Level: Disproportionate Minority Contact in Minnesota's Juvenile Justice System, [PDF]
    Minnesota Department of Public Safety, October, 2002
    “African American youth, who comprise just 8% of the youth population White but are 34% of juvenile delinquency arrests. On a smaller scale, American Indian youth are 2% of the youth population but account for 4% of juvenile delinquency arrests.”
  • A Department in Denial: The San Francisco Police Department's Failure to Address Racial Profiling, [PDF]
    ACLU of Northern California, October, 2002
  • Justice Denied: How felony disenfranchisement laws undermine democracy, [PDF]
    Americans for Democratic Action Education Fund, March, 2002
  • Race and Incarceration in the United States
    Human Rights Watch, February, 2002
    “first state-by-state incarceration rates for whites, blacks and Latinos based on actual correctional facility counts”
    (Note the links to the report and tables on the right)
  • Reducing Disproportionate Minority Confinement: The Multnomah County Oregon Success Story and its Implications,
    Justice Policy Institute, January, 2002
  • The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs and Community in Chicago, Illinois, and the Nation, [PDF]
    Chicago Urban League, 2002
  • Wisconsin Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice Project [Website]
    Professor Pamela Oliver University of Wisconsin Department of Sociology, 2002
  • Mass Incarceration as Reverse Reparations [PDF]
    Chicago Urban League, September, 2001
  • Color of the Keystone: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Use of Incarceration in Pennsylvania,
    Justice Policy Institute and National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, August, 2001
  • The brotherhood: Racism and intimidation among prison staff at Indiana Correctional Facility-Putnamville, [PDF]
    Kelsey Kauffman, July, 2001
  • Racism and the administration of justice [PDF]
    Amnesty International, July, 2001
    (Covers the whole world, based in international law)
  • Masking the Divide: How Officially Reported Prison Statistics Distort the Racial and Ethnic Realities of Prison Growth, [PDF]
    National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, May, 2001
  • Drugs and Disparity: The Racial Impact of Illinois' Practice of Transferring Young Drug Offenders, [PDF]
    Building Blocks for Youth, April, 2001
  • The Color and Geography of Prison Growth in Illinois [PDF]
    Chicago Urban League, 2001
  • Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System, [PDF]
    Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Leadership Conference Education Fund, 2001
    (2.5MB)
  • Color Bind: Prisons and the New American Racism, [PDF]
    Chicago Urban League, 2001
  • Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers, [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, October, 2000
  • Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs,
    Human Rights Watch, May, 2000
  • And Justice for Some [PDF]
    Building Blocks for Youth, April, 2000
  • The Color of Justice An Analysis of Juvenile Adult Court Transfers in California, [PDF]
    Building Blocks for Youth, February, 2000
  • The Impact of Race and Ethnicity on Charging and Sentencing Processes for Drug Offenders in Three Counties of Washington State, [PDF]
    Washington State Minority and Justice Commission, December, 1999
  • Crisis of the Young African American Male and the Criminal Justice System [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, April, 1999
  • American Indians and Crime [PDF]
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 1999
    “American Indians are victims of violent crime at double the rate of the general population”
    (includes some incarceration statistics)
  • Juvenile Justice and Disproportionality: Patterns of Minority Over-Representation in Washington's Juvenile Justice System, [PDF]
    State of Washington Sentencing Guidelines Commission, December, 1997
  • Modern Capital of Human Rights? Abuses in the State of Georgia,
    Human Rights Watch, July, 1996
  • Race and drug law enforcement in the state of Georgia
    Human Rights Watch, July, 1996
  • A Preference for Vengeance: The Death Penalty and the Treatment of Prisoners in Georgia, [PDF]
    Southern Center for Human Rights, June, 1996
  • Young African Americans and the Criminal Justice System in California: Five Years Later, [PDF]
    Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, February, 1996
  • Young Black Male Victims [PDF]
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 1994
  • Does the punishment fit the crime? Drug users and drunk drivers, questions of race and class, [PDF]
    Sentencing Project, May, 1993
    (Executive summary to longer report not available online)
  • A Question of Race II: New York and Its Neighbors A Look at the Incarceration of Whites and Minorities in the United States, [PDF]
    New York State Coalition for Criminal Justice, 1990
  • A Question of Race Minority/White Incarceration in New York State,
    Center for Justice Education, January, 1987
  • Disproportionate Imprisonment of Blacks in the United States: Policy, Practice, Impact, and Change, [PDF]
    Prepared by Scott Christianson for the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, March, 1982
    “This report seeks to promote a better understanding of the problem of racially differential imprisonment and attempts to offer some specific goals and strategies for reducing racial disparities in American criminal justice.”

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