The Law and Race

The statistics that surprised me the most were the ones pertaining to the types of people in Maryland jails and what charges they most likely are there with. 77% of incarcerated individuals in Maryland are African American, and African Americans only make up 28% of Maryland's overall population. 90% of incarcerated African Americans in Maryland jails were incarcerated for a drug charge. I was also astonished to hear that even though only 10% of Maryland's student population attends schools in Baltimore, 90% of school arrests are in Baltimore City. How can a minority of both these populations, make up the astounding majority of arrests and incarcerations? Do I really not know Baltimore that much at all? They don't use drugs anymore than other races do. Maybe they just get caught more than other people do, which could be possible because of how much more heavily they are policed. But if that's the case, then why isn't everyone else as heavily policed? Each race does drugs just as much as any other. The data we heard from last lecture seems to indicate that there is something wrong with the system that has led to these numbers. The policing system we have now has flaws. In neighborhoods like where Freddie Gray lived the police can easily stop and search someone they deem suspicious just because they walked the other way. These are very large issues that many people are still ignorant about I'm sure; hopefully we can fix that with the story we will be telling.