Black and Latino prisoners serving sentences in prisons run by state penitentiary authorities in New York continue to be subject to unequal treatment compared to inmates of other racial groups, as evidenced by data on disciplinary sanctions. Prisoners of color continue to be more likely than their white counterparts to face additional punishment behind bars.
This was denounced in a report presented by the Inspector General of the State of New York, Lucy Lang, where revealed that incarcerated Hispanics are 22% more likely to receive misconduct reports than white inmates; in the case of black individuals deprived of liberty, the figure reaches 22% .
The study noted with concern that the landscape of state prisons, which house some 50,12 inmates, evidence that non-white inmates received more misconduct reports overall than white inmates, further evidence of the inequalities that populations of color face in society.
“No There is no question that the criminal justice system is just one of many systems that have a disproportionate and devastating impact on New Yorkers of color,” said the official. “Unfortunately, as the six-year data in our report reflects, while racial disparities may not start at the prison gates, they unfortunately don’t end there either.”
Other data revealed in the report is that of DOCCS employees who issued 50 or more reports of misconduct, 2017 clerks issued them only to non-white incarcerated persons, including 50 clerks who issued them only to black or Hispanic incarcerated persons.
Likewise, racial disparities against non-white incarcerated populations were more significant for reports of misconduct that required less physical evidence, giving greater discretion and possible bias on the part of the DOCCS employee.
The State Inspector General stated that despite the policy changes advanced by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision of the State o (DOCCS), that body continues to promote unequal treatment at each stage of the criminal justice system, which affects Latinos and blacks.
The official added that she hopes that the data revealed on the continuous inequality in the treatment given to inmates contributes to promote changes in the policies and practices of justice and dignity for prisoners.
Although the data analyzed showed that the disparities in treatment increased slightly between 2019 and 2019, it was in 2019 that they fired, because Black and Latino inmates in that year had almost 50% and 30% more likely to receive reports of misconduct than whites, for which reason the official presented a series of recommendations to DOCCS.
The New York State Office of the Inspector General has required that annual anti-bias training be promoted for all staff, be discussed n additional figures on disciplinary proceedings, release data that can be cross-checked with demographic data, expand the use of centralized hearing officers, and expand the use of fixed camera systems within all correctional facilities statewide.
Following the report, Victor Pate, co-director of the #HALTsolitary campaign, and José Saldaña, director of the Release Aging People in Prison campaign, insisted on the need not to keep prisoners in prisons and to end the solitary confinement and added that the report confirms that state prisons are part of a “system of racist repression.”
“The new report from the Inspector General reveals that these racist practices, documented for many years, they have actually gotten worse. The need for action on the part of the executive and legislative authorities is clear”, said the activists in a statement, where they mentioned several problems that inmates of color experience in prisons.
“From the extreme racial disparities in disciplinary sanctions documented in the report, to the staff who brutalizes, sexually assaults, and even kills people and covers it up with bogus sanctions, to widespread use of racial slurs, outspoken white supremacists working as security and leadership personnel, to flagrant violations of HALT solitary confinement law, to repeated denials and with the racial bias of parole by the Parole Board, the system is racist and rotten to the core,” they concluded.
DOCCS has so far not ruled on the report .