[Vision2020] Question for debate-"Why not open

[Melynda Huskey]

Dear Dick,

I checked out your website, which lists "every suspect involved in a WSP 
investigated felony collision that attempted to evade justice by fleeing the 
scene of a serious injury collision (Felony Hit and Run), or by failing to 
appear in court for Vehicular Homicide and/or Vehicular Assault charges."

A few observations:

A Latino name does not give any information about the citizenship status of 
a person.  You seem to assume that all Latinos are undocumented immigrants, 
which is demonstrably false.

The rate at which people of various ethnic groups evade arrest for vehicular 
homicide is *not* a predictor for much of anything, including the crime rate 
or the incarceration rate.

Moreover, incarceration rates are themselves not a straightforward measure 
of criminality.  Here's why, as ably explained by Manning Marable:

"In April 2000, utilizing national and state data compiled by the FBI, the 
Justice Department and six leading foundations issued a comprehensive study 
that documented vast racial disparities at every level of the juvenile 
justice process. African Americans under age 18 comprise 15 percent of their 
national age group, yet they currently represent 26 percent of all those who 
are arrested. After entering the criminal justice system, white and black 
juveniles with the same records are treated in radically different ways. 
According to the Justice Department's study, among white youth offenders, 66 
percent are referred to juvenile courts, while only 31 percent of the 
African-American youth are taken there. Blacks comprise 44 percent of those 
detained in juvenile jails, 46 percent of all those tried in adult criminal 
courts, as well as 58 percent of all juveniles who are warehoused in adult 
prison. In practical terms, this means that for young African Americans who 
are arrested and charged with a crime, that they are more than six times 
more likely to be assigned to prison that white youth offenders.

"For those young people who have never been to prison before, African 
Americans are nine times more likely than whites to be sentenced to juvenile 
prisons. For youths charged with drug offenses, blacks are 48 times more 
likely than whites to be sentenced to juvenile prison. White youths charged 
with violent offenses are incarcerated on average for 193 days after trial; 
by contrast, African-American youths are held 254 days, and Latino youths 
are incarcerated 305 days.

"Once black and brown women and men are ensnared into the criminal justice 
system, they routinely experience the same racial profiling in the courts. 
According to studies of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, black Americans 
constitute only 15 percent of the nation's drug users, but comprise about 
one-third of all those arrested on drug charges and 57 percent of those 
convicted on drug charges. Once they are convicted on drug charges, African 
Americans receive on average one year more in prison than whites who have 
identical criminal profiles and who commit the same crimes."

http://www.cc-ds.org/Articles/abolishing.htm  (warning!  this is a socialist 
website, although the Justice Dept. study was not conducted by socialists)

A more in-depth study can be found here

http://www.civilrights.org/publications/cj/index.html

Best,

Melynda Huskey