Quote from: "Romero"That's one case dealing with a constitutional issue, Renee. It's not like it happens all the time.



Our justice system is one of the most respected justice systems in the world. It hasn't swung to any extreme.



We're definitely not afraid of our system becoming anything like the US. We don't have the same kind of mentality here.

Quote from: "Romero"Hmm, you seem to have read that wrong. I said it was one case and it's not like it happens all the time. I never said it wasn't an extreme case.



I said our justice system hasn't swung to any extreme. One case does not make the entire system.

Quote from: "Renee"Sorry dude but it kinda looks like there might be more than one case.

Quote from: "Romero"

Quote from: "Renee"Sorry dude but it kinda looks like there might be more than one case.

I never said there wouldn't be more than one case. No justice system is perfect, but ours practically is compared to yours.



Yep, you're a lot "tougher" sending millions of low-level, non-violent offenders to prison for years and years. The US is the world's largest jailer with 25% of the world's prison population. Even though crime has been decreasing, the US prison population is up 700% since 1970. Privatizing the prison system was a great idea!



And of course, minorities are vastly overrepresented because they're more likely to be imprisoned than whites. White privilege!

QuoteOne in every three black males born today can expect to go to prison at some point in their life, compared with one in every six Latino males, and one in every 17 white males, if current incarceration trends continue.



These are among the many pieces of evidence cited by the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for prison reform, in a report on the staggering racial disparities that permeate the American criminal justice system.



"Racial minorities are more likely than white Americans to be arrested," the report explains. "Once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences."



The problem begins with police activity. According to Justice Department data cited in the report, police arrested black youth for drug crimes at more than twice the rate of white youth between 1980 and 2010, nationwide. Yet a 2012 study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that white high-school students were slightly more likely to have abused illegal drugs within the past month than black students of the same age.



Blacks are also far more likely than whites to be stopped by the police while driving. The Sentencing Project report largely attributes the racial disparities in both traffic and drug arrests to "implicit racial bias" on the part of the police.



The disparities don't end with arrests. Because blacks and Latinos are generally poorer than whites, they are more likely to rely on court-appointed public defenders, who tend to work for agencies that are underfunded and understaffed. In 2012, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, more than 70 percent of public defender offices reported that they were struggling to come up with the funding needed to provide adequate defense services to poor people. By last March, the problem was so bad that Attorney General Eric Holder declared the public defense system to be in a "state of crisis."



Racial disparities within the justice system have been exacerbated by the war on drugs, the report argues. The drug war led the country's population of incarcerated drug offenders to soar from 42,000 in 1980 to nearly half a million in 2007. From 1999 to 2005, African Americans constituted about 13 percent of drug users, but they made up about 46 percent of those convicted for drug offenses, the report points out.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/racial-disparities-criminal-justice_n_4045144.html">//http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/racial-disparities-criminal-justice_n_4045144.html

Quote from: "Romero"

QuoteOne in every three black males born today can expect to go to prison at some point in their life, compared with one in every six Latino males, and one in every 17 white males, if current incarceration trends continue.



These are among the many pieces of evidence cited by the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for prison reform, in a report on the staggering racial disparities that permeate the American criminal justice system.



"Racial minorities are more likely than white Americans to be arrested," the report explains. "Once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences."



The problem begins with police activity. According to Justice Department data cited in the report, police arrested black youth for drug crimes at more than twice the rate of white youth between 1980 and 2010, nationwide. Yet a 2012 study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that white high-school students were slightly more likely to have abused illegal drugs within the past month than black students of the same age.



Blacks are also far more likely than whites to be stopped by the police while driving. The Sentencing Project report largely attributes the racial disparities in both traffic and drug arrests to "implicit racial bias" on the part of the police.



The disparities don't end with arrests. Because blacks and Latinos are generally poorer than whites, they are more likely to rely on court-appointed public defenders, who tend to work for agencies that are underfunded and understaffed. In 2012, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, more than 70 percent of public defender offices reported that they were struggling to come up with the funding needed to provide adequate defense services to poor people. By last March, the problem was so bad that Attorney General Eric Holder declared the public defense system to be in a "state of crisis."



Racial disparities within the justice system have been exacerbated by the war on drugs, the report argues. The drug war led the country's population of incarcerated drug offenders to soar from 42,000 in 1980 to nearly half a million in 2007. From 1999 to 2005, African Americans constituted about 13 percent of drug users, but they made up about 46 percent of those convicted for drug offenses, the report points out.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/racial-disparities-criminal-justice_n_4045144.html">//http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/racial-disparities-criminal-justice_n_4045144.html

Some things you can't argue about there. 42,000 incarcerated drug offenders in 1980 to nearly half a million in 2007. Has drug use really gone up that much? Nope!



Why are 46% of those convicted for drug offences African American? They're no more likely to use drugs than whites.



Why are public defenders so underfunded and understaffed? Because they can't handle the incredible number of minorities being thrown into the system.

Quote from: "Renee"You Canadians; so funny.



You are so afraid that your justice system will become too harsh (like your neighbors to the south) that you have allowed it to swing so far in the other direction that I fear you will never be able to reel it back in again.  ac_umm



Good Luck.

Quote from: "Obvious Li"this is a typical example of an apartheid justice system of preferential treatment based on race....which canada now has and i believe it is the last one anywhere in the world......no matter how well intentioned these idiots on the supreme court were...any child could have told them the results of their decision years before the evidence was in.....they are light years out of touch with reality

Quote from: "Fashionista"

Quote from: "Obvious Li"this is a typical example of an apartheid justice system of preferential treatment based on race....which canada now has and i believe it is the last one anywhere in the world......no matter how well intentioned these idiots on the supreme court were...any child could have told them the results of their decision years before the evidence was in.....they are light years out of touch with reality

Do you know if preferential treatment when it comes to sentencing for Native-Canadians is working?



I mean is it helping to reduce the rate of recidivism among our Native population?



If it is working then why not incorporate it into the overall justice system?